Power score

[rafisher]

In general, is there a minimum difference in power score that will guarantee that the AI does not attack you? That is, if your power score - highest AI's power score > N, then AI won't attack you? What is this N?

Thanks.

 

[Sisiutil]

In general, is there a minimum difference in power score that will guarantee that the AI does not attack you? That is, if your power score - highest AI's power score > N, then AI won't attack you? What is this N?

Thanks.

I'm not an XML expert, but I believe it's more complicated than that. It's dependent not only on power rating, but also on your diplomatic relations score, and I think it also varies from one leader to another. There's also probably a RNG dice throw figuring into it. In other words, it might be nearly impossible for you to simply compare power ratings and know you're going to be attacked or not. Which is a good thing--that would be kind of boring.

The AI also seems opportunistic and likes declaring war when you're already fighting someone else, so I definitely think that's a factor as well--it happens too often to me for it to be a coincidence!

 

[drkodos]

It quite often depends upon which Nation you are trying to intimidate with your "power."

 

[ori]

I'm not an XML expert, but I believe it's more complicated than that. It's dependent not only on power rating, but also on your diplomatic relations score, and I think it also varies from one leader to another. There's also probably a RNG dice throw figuring into it. In other words, it might be nearly impossible for you to simply compare power ratings and know you're going to be attacked or not. Which is a good thing--that would be kind of boring.

There is first a Power rating see below which determines wether the AI will even contemplate a DoWar decision. Then it will look at the Diplomatic situation -> an AI will never declare when Friendly, some, like Gandhi will never declare when Pleased, all will not hesitate when Furious and for all other relations there is a chance that they will not declare. Lastly there is a dice roll which determines whether they actually DoWar or not - so it is all of the above, but if you are above the war thresholds they simply will not declare war...

The CIV4LeaderheadInfos.xml contains among other values a couple which are directly related to this:

iMaxWarNearbyPowerRatio
-> Determines how strong how strong the prospective opponent can be compared to AI own power before war is declared on nearby opponent NOTE: AI's own power is multiplied by 4/3 for Aggressive AI option

iMaxWarDistantPowerRatio
-> Determines how strong how strong the prospective opponent can be compared to AI own power before war is declared on distant opponent -  NOTE: AI's own power is multiplied by 4/3 for Aggressive AI option

iMaxWarNearbyPowerRatio is between 130 and 80 depending on opponent (i.e. Isabella and Monty will attack a nearby opponent even if his power is 1.3x their own, while Elizabeth will not even think about this if the opponent is stronger then 0.8x her own power).

iMaxWarDistantPowerRatio is between 100 and 30 depending on opponent (i.e. Isabella and Napoleon will attack an equally strong opponent on another continent, while Toku will only bother with declaring war on such a distant target if its power rating is 0.3x his own).

Note: AI's power is that of all Team members (PA and Vassals) and prospective opponent's power is that of all team members including Dfensive pacts.

The AI also seems opportunistic and likes declaring war when you're already fighting someone else, so I definitely think that's a factor as well--it happens too often to me for it to be a coincidence!

Iustus explained this best - it appllies to Vanilla and Warlords as well, not only the BetterAI mod :

The AI has three basic types of wars when it is the agressor:
(1) total war
(2) limited war
(3) dogpile war

(1) total war means the AI is more or less trying to take as many cities as possible, and going all out

(2) limited war means pillaging is more likely, less overall production will be going to the war effort, and also means the AI will charge less for peace. While still focused at taking cities, it is not so much the primary goal.

(3) dogpile war means the AI went to war when someone else was already at war, adding in to attack a weak opponent. In such a war, an AI will seek peace if the others at war also seek peace, not wanting to stay in a war without one's allies.

The final type of war is a defensive war (when someone else declared war on the AI).

The type of war affects both the production choices of an AI and also the price for peace.

-Iustus

For a DogpileWar the Powers of all your opponents are taken together and if they are more than 1.5x yours the AI starts thinking about this - the probabilities are then extremely high for some Leaders...

 

[cabert]

ori gave most of the infos you need

two more things :
1) http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=3359
here is the excel sheet where you can see the ratios ori mentionned.
2) the settings of the game have an influence too : with agressive AIs, they all see themselves bigger (33% according to Ori, see below) than they really are.

SO :
if your neighbour is montezuma, you have selected agressive AIs (or joined a game with this setting), and you don't have a permanent alliance with him, you need to be twice his power to be safe.

 

[ori]

2) the settings of the game have an influence too : with agressive AIs, they all see themselves bigger (50% I believe, but i'm not sure) than they really are.

SO :
if your neighbour is montezuma, you have selected agressive AIs (or joined a game with this setting), and you don't have a permanent alliance with him, you need to be twice his power to be safe.

Agressive AI does two things:
all AIs have a -2 relations modifier against any human player.
all AIs multiply their own power by 4/3 (i.e. they overestimate their own strength by 33% - not 50 ) when contemplating a DoWar decision