Ultimate ongoing borkedness of the tactical AI (even post-patch)

Kamamura · Mar 7, 2011

Played a game on island map, the AI declared war, it even mustered reasonable invasion force, but was not able to attack my island city. The units just parked in the sea adjacent to my city, and waited there indefinitely, so I had more than enough time to bring frigates to the scene and blast them to pieces.

EPIC FAIL! :scan:

Truthy · Mar 8, 2011

I mentioned this on another thread, but as Kamehameha I sank about 10 of Haran al-Rashid's embarked units with a few triremes. The worst part about it was that while the units were being slaughtered, Haran responded by sending embarked camel archers at my ships.

Calouste · Mar 8, 2011

The tactical AI wasn't addressed in this patch, that will happen in a later patch. So EPIC FAIL! :scan:

for complaining about something that wasn't fixed when Firaxis said it wouldn't be fixed.

nokmirt · Mar 9, 2011

Come on now they have had time to address AI problems!

UrbanX · Mar 9, 2011

you know the game's A.I. cannot function at sea. or on land.

Bibor · Mar 9, 2011

nokmirt said:
Come on now they have had time to address AI problems!

Whatever the reason for their "failure to deliver" at release and up till now, AI and perhaps some more diplomacy will be the feature of the "next big patch". That much can be deduced from Greg's posts. Since developers obviously listen to players and modder's comments, maybe it would be beneficial to make a single comprehensive post describing AI tactical and strategical behavior.

Krall · Mar 9, 2011

Bibor said:
Whatever the reason for their "failure to deliver" at release and up till now, AI and perhaps some more diplomacy will be the feature of the "next big patch". That much can be deduced from Greg's posts. Since developers obviously listen to players and modder's comments, maybe it would be beneficial to make a single comprehensive post describing AI tactical and strategical behavior.

Sorry, but 'feature'? These things should come with $60 AAA titles. It's not Sid's first trip around the block

nokmirt · Mar 9, 2011

Bibor said:
Whatever the reason for their "failure to deliver" at release and up till now, AI and perhaps some more diplomacy will be the feature of the "next big patch". That much can be deduced from Greg's posts. Since developers obviously listen to players and modder's comments, maybe it would be beneficial to make a single comprehensive post describing AI tactical and strategical behavior.

Ok Bibor, my latest experience with the AI was as follows. Rome declared on me. He attacked a city with 2 spear, 2 warriors, and 2 archers. I was able to upgrade 3 warriors to swords in a nick of time and defeat the Roman army. None of the invaders made it home. Songhai declared at the same time and I killed a warrior he sent towards one of my cities to the east of my capital. I killed this unit and after a couple of turns he offered me peace and 665 gold, which I accepted. Rome offered me straight peace, which I refused becase I am going to attack his cities. They have pretty good land.

My anaylsis of the AI (Rome) is that it should have declared after it had attained legions. It has 4 iron but has not worked the tiles, relying on spearmen instead of it's UU. If Rome had legions, they would have defeated me in this instance because even though I was able to upgrade my warriors to swords, two of my swords had to take a few turns to come to the aid of the city under attack.

Songhai was just very stupid and we'll leave it at that.

Now Bibor, it would be easier just saying the AI needs work. These people at firaxis are not as in the dark as you think. Don't you think they have played their creation? I could be wrong but chances are they have played and know what the AI does in given situations, especially combat. If they don't they need to play the game in their spare time and learn what needs to be fixed. BTW they must have playtesters besides civ gamers.

Bibor · Mar 9, 2011

nokmirt said:
Now Bibor, it would be easier just saying the AI needs work. These people at firaxis are not as in the dark as you think. Don't you think they have played their creation? I could be wrong but chances are they have played and know what the AI does in given situations, especially combat. If they don't they need to play the game in their spare time and learn what needs to be fixed. BTW they must have playtesters besides civ gamers.

No, I'm saying that 500 people will notice more than 20. I'm not bashing the developers.

CossackProblem · Mar 9, 2011

I don't think the AI, or everything else that is wrong with this game, will be fixed until an expansion pack or two come out.

Calouste · Mar 9, 2011

CossackProblem said:
I don't think the AI, or everything else that is wrong with this game, will be fixed until an expansion pack or two come out.

After all the marketing, they can't suddenly rename it Civ 4.5 now, can they?

Rooftrellen · Mar 9, 2011

The AI does seem to have gotten slightly better. I had quite a fight with Siam my first game after the patch, mostly due to good unit placement on their part, but they cannot deal with water at all (last game I won domination with 4 triremes upgrading to frigates, and a single warrior, on archipelago...and it was my first try on king.)

It seems their land defense has improved slightly, but their attacking and ability to deal with water is non-existent.

elthrasher · Mar 9, 2011

The AI is still bad, but I wouldn't trade the last patch for better AI. They had their priorities right. Better optimization was #1. It's more fun to actually PLAY against bad AI than sit around waiting for good AI.

Then making a builder style viable is a big improvement as well. I don't care if the AI has good or bad tactics when I don't want to be at war anyway.

I'd still like better AI, but I'm willing to wait while these other improvements come out.

cman2010 · Mar 9, 2011

Calouste said:
The tactical AI wasn't addressed in this patch, that will happen in a later patch. So EPIC FAIL! for complaining about something that wasn't fixed when Firaxis said it wouldn't be fixed.

No epic fail for them for releasing this game with crap tactical, and diplomatic ai in the first place. There is no escuse for the state this game was released in.

nebux · Mar 9, 2011

UrbanX said:
you know the game's A.I. cannot function at sea. or on land.

this made me laugh

Civ4Brains · Mar 9, 2011

my current game - at war with Bismarck and what units does he think are most effective to fight me with?... settlers and workers! tactical ai or what

Mustakrakish · Mar 9, 2011

I don't think it's because AI was stupid, I think they forgot to program them to attack island cities. They just don't know how, they simply can't attack from the sea. I saw this enough to be almost sure of it. They bring the units, but they don't know that they can attack from water. So I think this should be fixed in a quickfix patch rather than "next major patch"...

MAntoninus · Mar 9, 2011

They should bias the AI towards artillery. That's one unit they usually use well simply because it's so darn effective, except when it marches forward and is used as a front line unit. But for defense, it's quite a deterrent.

nokmirt · Mar 9, 2011

Bibor said:
No, I'm saying that 500 people will notice more than 20. I'm not bashing the developers.

I understand, and I am not either.

BTW, I am sure they read through our posts and you are right about posting something of substance rather than one line remarks. That is a bad habit of mine I will try to break.

greggbert · Mar 9, 2011

Yes the AI is still stinky, but man won't it be a shock if they improve it!

Ultimate ongoing borkedness of the tactical AI (even post-patch)

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