What can AI see?

[Zeviz]

Is it true that AI knows only things that a human does, or does it get extra information about human weakness? More specifically, if I don't sign open borders and my cultural borders extand far beyond my cities, will AI know that my capital is completely unprotected and my entire army consists of 2 warriors?

 

[PekkaM]

He knows something for sure because he attacks you if you're weak and vice versa. I don't know if you too can see general info on his strength anywhere besides those rating-popups that sometimes appear.

 

[eg577]

The AI knows the 'power rating' of everyone, which is some sort of amalgam of statistics including your total army strength. It is something a human player does have access to though, through the info screen. You can get a pretty good idea of how the AI works with regard to war and diplomacy if you look at the LeaderHeadInfos.xml file. For example, it would seem that the AI randomly declares war if your power rating is a certain threshold percentage of their own power rating. Here is a small taste of Alexander's AI parameters:

<iMaxWarRand>50</iMaxWarRand>
<iMaxWarNearbyPowerRatio>90</iMaxWarNearbyPowerRatio>
<iMaxWarDistantPowerRatio>70</iMaxWarDistantPowerRatio>
<iMaxWarMinAdjacentLandPercent>0</iMaxWarMinAdjacentLandPercent>
<iLimitedWarRand>40</iLimitedWarRand>
<iLimitedWarPowerRatio>130</iLimitedWarPowerRatio>
<iDogpileWarRand>50</iDogpileWarRand>
<iMakePeaceRand>40</iMakePeaceRand>
<iDeclareWarTradeRand>40</iDeclareWarTradeRand>
<iDemandRebukedSneakProb>40</iDemandRebukedSneakProb>
<iDemandRebukedWarProb>25</iDemandRebukedWarProb>

It is interesting to see that it has behavoir for different types of war (near, far, limited, sneak attack).

I believe the AI also knows your army composition (melee, mounted, etc) and how well defended each city of yours is even if it cannot see this information.

AFAIK, there aren't any preprogrammed 'deductions' like if you have a lot of culture then you must be weak, for example.

 

[Zeviz]

Thanks for the information.

So if my "power" is smaller than a certain percentage of his "power", he throws a die every turn to decide whether to attack me?

This XML sample has a lot of interesting details. I guess "limited war" means one of those wars where AI does nothing except pillaging improvements. It also looks like Alex doesn't mind declaring war halfway across the world.

It's good to know that AI looks only at total power. I guess I'll just have to play around with best ways of increasing that rating for optimal bluffing.

 

[ZippyRiver]

The all seeing A-eye is in this version too. It knows where all your cities are, and how well it's defended, even if it does not have a unit within the city line of sight. Just like it know the position of all your units, and location of all the goody huts. This has always been part of the Civ series. It is one of the things I REALLY dislike about the core game. However, it's blatant cheat has certain drawbacks for the AI.

If I want to draw the AI towards a specific area, I will leave a city undefended, or with a single weak unit. Directly on the other side of the city from the advancing AI I will place an army (on a road) and wait. when the AI moves next to the city, the army moves in and destroys as many AI units as possible (usually all of them). An added benefit is any damaged units are right there in a city for fast healing. To make this work best, of course you have to have all your other cities defended well.

Another handicap it causes, is I don't have to hunt for goody huts as dilligently. If i come across an AI unit exploring, I just track it to the hut and beat it to it (most of the time).

The frustrating thing is that if the game were programmed a bit differently, without the A-eye cheat, these tactics would not work. I guess it's easier to program it the way it is. If programmed honestly, I think the AI would be a lot harder to beat. imho

It's also how the AI seems to be able to hunt down your weak field units, while avoiding your big armies.

The xml info shows how the AI will deal with a given situation, but it does not show how it "sees".

 

[jdotmi]

Just like it know the position of all your units, and location of all the goody huts.

If it knows this it isn't using that knowledge particularly well. I've nabbed a goody hut that was just outside the cultural barriers of Hatty's capital after her scout zipped past my capital on the other side of the continent.

 

[Vardis]

If it knows this it isn't using that knowledge particularly well. I've nabbed a goody hut that was just outside the cultural barriers of Hatty's capital after her scout zipped past my capital on the other side of the continent.

Yep, I've had the same thing happen. Do we have solid evidence the AI cheats with regards to information?