Something odd about AI

[mocca]

Hi, I have played Civ3+PTW for sometime now but recently I find AI behavior really odd. I can usually beat Emperor level with hugh map and 8+ civ. Recently I start playing with TestOfTime scenario with 12+ civs. It occurs to me three times in two games that a civ that far away and cannot even match my military power will send a group of attackers into my terriroty and then just declare war on me for no apparent reason. My cities are well guard and my military in both games are the biggest and the best in the game (I played as China in both games). Here is the scenario:

Game 1: Played as China, go straight to the Colossus and the Great Library (get both, one in Peking and the other in Shianghai). Have hugh money with research set at 0% and trade the tech getting from the GL. Mid of the middle age, the poles sends group of 6 attackers to my territory and declare war on me. They are the second or third largest civ but mine is so large and powerful that I almost stop playing since I was definitely winning but this war ignite a true WW). The Poles march across long distance just to declare war on me??? This is really odd. They have no chance to beating me or even capture my remote city since I have them very well defended. Results, every civs are in the war either with me or with the Poles. By the beginning 1100 AD, I'm the only civ that get to the industrial age with plenty of gold and about 4-5 tech leads.

Game 2: Played as China. Got the Colosus and GLibrary and GLighthouse and almost every wonders after that due to hugh sum of golds I have. Anyway, Turks declare war on me (they share borders with me and Tibet and Mongols) for no apparent reason. This is end with almost destruction of the Turks and many civ is at war for another 500-600 years. After that Catherine the Great sent her army march across the Mongol land to Shianghai and declare war on me (again for no apparent reason). This war end with complete destruction of Russia Empire in about 30-40 turns. Russia is the second biggest empire at the time but by no mean match my empire in every way.

In both cases, I have good standing with all three civs that declare war on me. They are all polite toward me except the Russian which is annoyed at me for not trading tech with her (they have no money and nothing I'm interested in). These AI behavior is so odd and because I try to avoid war as much as I can (but I've never give in to any demand and the AI made none anyway). This is like suicidal AI. I have so large an army that I can declare war with everyone and still possibly win and they still want to declare war on me??? so odd.

Mocca

 

[nullspace]

Welcome to CFC! Well, the AI isn't programmed to try and win the game, and it's not programmed to even try and stay alive. It is designed to make an interesting game for the player. If it never declared war on the human, or never declared war on a stronger nation, that wouldn't be very interesting. There are several factors that make an AI more likely or less likely to declare war (like relative army size), but sometimes a roll of the RNG tells the AI to declare anyway when they should be "unlikely".

It sounds like you're winning games on Emperor pretty easily, if you played a harder difficulty where the AI was actually a threat to you, then their attacks wouldn't seem so suicidal .

 

[sabo]

That's not as bad as the time I was playing German and Russia was down to one city, I had devastated him down to one city about 500 years prior. Well one-city Russia decared war on me and I had a SoD of MI and MA sitting right outside of Moscow.

I thought I was being nice by leaving her a city, hey she could culture flip one or two and might have a shot at a cultural victory but NOOOOOOOOOOO....

Needless to say since Cathy wasn't going to behave I took Moscow away from her too.

 

[dgfred]

In a game I had not long ago both the Arabs and the Mongols attacked me
(Celts) shortly after I had built 4 or 5 Gallic Swords, needless to say they
were soon for their troubles .

In my current game on Monarch, as Vikings, just as mocca's game- I had
the highest score and the largest military but I watched the Iroquois start
toward me with a stack of archers, swords and spearmen. I watched &
waited and they attacked after taking 3 or 4 turns to get there .
I them hard and take 3 of their cities and demand two more for
peace . It is now the medieval times and the Japanese just demanded
44$ from me - they are next for the . Unless they are
trying to knock down the top civ, it is truely a suicide AI.

 

[mocca]

They are definitely suicidal AI I tried again in the third game (same at Emperor level), this time as India. I would like to play a peaceful game but also maintain a largest army. With India, I managed to get the Colossus, the oracle, and the GLibrary (the colosus prove to be much more difficult to get than when I played as China. So I go the same route, becoming the largest (China is almost as large as me this time) and have biggest army. Again, for no reason, Germany which is really far away send several troops pass through many civ and appear into my terriroty and declare war on me. This make it really hard to play a peaceful game. Of course, the german is destroyed with the helps of France and Greeks and my own troops. Come to think of it, I won almost every games in the past with either Domination or Conquest. The only time I won peacefully is with the UN vote which is a little bit un-spectacular. But the game is very impressive when we have a true WW when everyone fighting everyone except that it take almost 5-10 min for a turn

Mocca

 

[Mr. Do]

It's a real failing of the game. That a civ down to one city will happily declare war on a massive civ and get wiped out is so annoying. I'm still waiting for San Marino to declare war on the USA in the real world. If it was just the human civs they declared war on I could probably live with it and take the "war happiness" bonus, but when a one-city AI declares war on its massive neighbour it just pisses me off. 90% of wars between AI's are stupidly unbalanced and unlikely.