The AI "THINKS" on Sid!!

[AutomatedTeller]

touche, Tomoyo!!

It is not really too much to say that Civ III is a lot of different games that use the same mechanics. Level, mapsize, type of map, barbarians, opponents, victory condition....

 

[axehaxe]

Originally Posted By Handy900

Actually they don't think. Many of those spears will leave the city to chase a lone archer. You need develop a plan to bait the units out of the city so you can take it. If you can bait them to a remote area you can move in behind to take cities. You'll need to do some planning & pillaging on the front end, and mass naval landings work best. It takes along time to beat Sid and becomes so tedious it is more like work than play (for me anyway) after the first couple times.

Example of a bait here to draw Sumeria to a remote unimportant part of the map. Once you draw them out the usually just camp on the grass and watch while you raze their cities (now occupied by far fewer units). Some feel this tactic is exploitive, but how are you conna kill 50 rifles in a city with trebs & knights? If you thinks it's an exploit, don't use it.

This actually reminds me of a story I read in the stories and tales forum about the Byzantines in a modded regent game. I don't remember who wrote it but I thought it was definetly a masterpiece story! I remember that an explorer was used to bait the French. Its the one where Theodora flirts with Caesar and stuff.

It's a good idea to use bait units but the idea scares me a little at Sid. They just have SOOOO many units come out of nowhere. I think that, AI production makes them invincible unless you pillage their improvements at lightning speed while an ally is attacking the AI at the opposite end.

The Dutch are good, but I learned they can take a break on Sid. Let the Greeks give it a shot rather...

 

[Tomoyo]

This actually reminds me of a story I read in the stories and tales forum about the Byzantines in a modded regent game. I don't remember who wrote it but I thought it was definetly a masterpiece story! I remember that an explorer was used to bait the French. Its the one where Theodora flirts with Caesar and stuff.

Regent? The one where Theodora flirts with Caesar and uses a "Byzantine Bikini Babe" explorer to lure AI troops was a Sid game!

 

[axehaxe]

It was????? I thought it was a regent game that was modded to make it about as hard as Sid but not regular Sid...

 

[Tomoyo]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2662010

It just says "Sid".

 

[axehaxe]

Oh!! ... I was thinking of another game at the same time and got it mixed up -sorry and thanx!

 

[axehaxe]

Omg! It was by Handy900 too! When she mentioned the strategy in this very thread!

 

[Ringo Kid]

I have often wondered if people blaming the "dumb AI' should'nt really be blaming the dumb programmers. It seems the AI just reflects the skills of the programmers.

 

[vmxa]

I don't think that is accurate. It actually relflects the concepts and the target group combined with the cash. IOW the programmers created what they thought was desired by the players and within the restrictions of the budget more than their skill.

 

[Ringo Kid]

On the other hand a game that no one could beat probably would not sell as well as a "dumb" one.

 

[zerksees]

There is only so much time and money to develop a game. Focus on flash like graphics and things (that apparently helps sells copies of the game) leaves not enough to build a smarter AI.

That's why this game plays the best against human opponents, and why I won't be spending my $ on Civ IV.

 

[Ringo Kid]

Ther's an idea for a business for some smart programmers. Design a fascinating game with a smart AI, and charge by the month for it. Seems it would be more profitable. No ?

 

[Alexander great]

Did any one say 40 extra units.Hey i call that cheating.WE humans start with only 2.How in the world do u survive in such a cruel world

 

[vmxa]

They only start with 24 extra units. 12 off 6 def 2 settler 4 workers, above what you start with. Of course if the civ next to you is the Germans, well you may be starting a new game real fast.

Bismarks knows the techs to start with archers and spears Vs your warriors, if you have any. The other problem is they only pay 40% of the price for things.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Including food. Yes, they can plop down a 2nd city 3 turns after they put down their first (from the setters), or while you are busy building your first warrior, and that city can create a new settler in 12 turns, even without food bonuses!!

Sid is a fascinating level - perhaps as much different from Deity as Deity is from Regent.

 

[Alexander great]

How do they give that much upkeep with 24 units at start.Do they get bonus gold too

 

[vmxa]

The AI gets an increase in free unit support as it goes past Regent. At Sid they get 24 extra free unit support. This is beyond any other support from their government or any other bonus.

They have 8 extra bonus for each city, beyond all other bonus. So I often run into isolated civs later in the game that have about 100 units per town. This is one of the things that helps you beat them.

They will get a new tech with a structure and it will be built very fast as they pay 40%. So they are always able to built units as the structures are done so fast. This leads to them running into the unit support cap.

They are then forced to do a minimal research and have no workers. Once you cut a road for them or it gets polluted, it tends to stay that way. They just choke on unit support.

Of course it is a real pain to take down a sid civ as they will hit you with hundreds of units. It is not uncommon to find a core city with 40 or more units in it of the lastest type.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

and you really have to land with enough forces to withstand their attacks - preferably armies. I have tried landings of 20 or 30 rifles.. in a civ with mainly archers and some longbows. Even landing on a hill, I didn't last more than a turn.

 

[vmxa]

If you have an army in your stack they will not attack you, unless they have bombers or the army is weak. Either damaged or is of a level that they think they can attack. Something like a sword army and they have cavs. A cav army and they have tanks.

It is not until I found the town that it all breaks out as they will attack armies in a city in cases they would not in the open field.

 

[fishjie]

It has been proven difficult to make an unbeatable chess program. A game like Civilization is much more complex than chess.

not true. i'm pretty sure that no grandmaster today can beat the worlds top chess computers. kasparov lost or drew the last few matches he played, he definitely did not win. there's just no way. when you have a database of all the possible branches and variations and know the best move for every possible situation, you just can't lose. this is because chess is "limited" in complexity in that it only has 64 total squares and only so many legal moves. the computer does not think, it just does a search for the best move based on some algorithm that i should know if i had taken a course in AI (alas I didnt).

civ however, is far more complex as you say, as there are far more possible actions, and far more tiles.