Seeing future resources?

[tigerden27]

Does the program see future resources and recommend city locations based on this?

The reason I ask is because in my last game early on I went to found two cities and the program recommended a site that was 1 square off where I put the cities. In a few turns I discover Iron Working and interestingly enough I have Iron just outside the "fat cross" area of both of those cities. If I had put the city where recommended, I would have two Iron mines being worked.

Could be coincedence and I didn't double check other resources. Anyone else notice this?

 

[mrjepson]

I have noticed this as well, I'm inclined to use the blue circles more now, unless military stratigic location is more important.

 

[southafrica]

Well it may make sense... Your settle sees some funny shiny bits in the stone, he may not know what they are at the time, but hey thier pretty so why not build near them...

 

[Aurelius321]

I've noticed this as well. It seems like if the area's the computer suggests is based on more than just how much food or hammers it produces. For example, in the current game I'm playing the computer suggested I plop a city down next to a couple mountains, some desert and a few tiles of water and plains. Not too good right? Well I wouldn't be surpirsed if I find oil or uranium or aluminum near that place later in the game.

 

[Splify60]

Well, I have been disregarding the reccommended spots. And I had been starting to think the suggesting AI was a little batty. But with what you guys are saying, it just must be seeing further ahead than me. I would like to get more proof of this, if anyone has a good way to test this theory.

 

[SidSmurf]

Can't you just open the world editor to see where those resources will be?

 

[CitizenCain]

Actually, I've noticed this in what it recomends your worker does next too. In the game I just finshed, the computer recomned I start mining this unforested hill right by my city (for no real reason... I had some forested hills, a horse, and ivory... lots of shields), but lo and behold, 8 turns after I ignored that advice and threw up some cottages, iron popped up on that hill. Now I might listen to that more.

 

[MSTK]

Well, remember how the AI works. All of your computer opponents already know the complete map. They don't need to explore, besides to meet new civs. But when they start the game, the map is already revealed to them fully.

And that is how the AI uses their workers. Because, technically, their workers are always on automation, right? And because their workers are being automated, they will work the tiles that are good for them. And they already see oil, iron, uranium, etc, and it's like they already have it and are able to put it into their resources. They just can't use it for units or any other practical purpose.

So maybe, then the designers made unit recommendations, they used the same script as the automation script. Because really, if you are following the computer recommendations, all you're doing is automating your unit (doing what the computer tells it to do), just guiding it every step of automation.

If the computer sees a good source of a resource you don't see yet, it will "automate" you to go there as if you were a computer who could already see anything, right?

I hope that made sense to anyone.

 

[MenacingVitamin]

Interesting. Perhaps I'll start turning on the AI recommendations again.

 

[Jass]

Well, remember how the AI works. All of your computer opponents already know the complete map. They don't need to explore, besides to meet new civs. But when they start the game, the map is already revealed to them fully.

And that is how the AI uses their workers. Because, technically, their workers are always on automation, right? And because their workers are being automated, they will work the tiles that are good for them. And they already see oil, iron, uranium, etc, and it's like they already have it and are able to put it into their resources. They just can't use it for units or any other practical purpose.

So maybe, then the designers made unit recommendations, they used the same script as the automation script. Because really, if you are following the computer recommendations, all you're doing is automating your unit (doing what the computer tells it to do), just guiding it every step of automation.

If the computer sees a good source of a resource you don't see yet, it will "automate" you to go there as if you were a computer who could already see anything, right?

I hope that made sense to anyone.

I disagree about the workers. I've seen a ton of wrong improvements from AI opponents. For example, I didn't have any coal and had to wait for egypt to change a tile from windmill to mine so it could trade it to me. So from this I can deduct that automated workers have no idea about future resources.

 

[stagnate]

One of the big features about civ4 was that the AI had no advance knowledge of the map.

 

[warpstorm]

And that is how the AI uses their workers. Because, technically, their workers are always on automation, right? And because their workers are being automated, they will work the tiles that are good for them. And they already see oil, iron, uranium, etc, and it's like they already have it and are able to put it into their resources. They just can't use it for units or any other practical purpose.

...except that they don't seem know this. I've seen the AI workers windmill a hill or farm a grassland that later needed to be mined as the resource was developed.

 

[Seanirl]

I disagree about the workers. I've seen a ton of wrong improvements from AI opponents. For example, I didn't have any coal and had to wait for egypt to change a tile from windmill to mine so it could trade it to me. So from this I can deduct that automated workers have no idea about future resources.
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One of the big features about civ4 was that the AI had no advance knowledge of the map.

Yes, people seem to assume too much... or use Civ III logic. No reason they'd knowingly mine future iron and then not mine the coal they knew would be there in the future.