Why does the AI build so many farms?

[Uiler]

Ugh. I knew this was a problem before but today it was especially disgusting. For some reason the side of the map I was on had a massive number of flood-plains (no this is not the Great Plains map). Only one source of coal on that entire half of the map though...It was me (Mansa), Qin and Victoria. I invaded Qin and Victoria. Ugh, practically all of Qin's flood-plains and grasslands were farmed (and he had a lot). Victoria did the same thing to her large numbers of flood-plains and grasslands. To make things even worse, both Qin and Victoria are financial! I think this is a good example of why you shouldn't automate your workers except the "build trade network" option.

So I'm curious. What part of the AI's programming makes them build so many farms, even when they are financial and faced with a glut of flood-plains and is this fixed in Warlords?

Somewhat of a strange game - Qin had managed to found Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity (what were you doing Isabella???? I think she might have been building wonders????) and didn't manage to build a single wonder though he had stone and copper as well as being industrious. Well, at least I managed to get three holy cities by invading Qin. Isabella had founded Buddhism and spread it to her two neighbours, Alexander and Washington. But apparently despite their shared common religion since the beginning of the game and despite the fact that usually Isabella is very nice to people of the same religion she somehow managed to annoy both of them enough for them to gang up on her even though Alex and Washington also hated each other. Didn't look like any of the Buddhists liked each other...Oh and Victoria was bullying poor Genghis Khan who didn't attack anyone in the game despite being a different religion from everyone else and being the neighbour of Isabella (who didn't attack Genghis either...)

No, I didn't have random AI personalities on...

 

[Suspiria]

what i don't get is why the Ai always builds farms outside of their city zones...

 

[Minmaster]

suspiria, i think they only do that when they've worked on all the workable lands and have nothing else to do. it is pretty annoying tho.

 

[The Great Apple]

Farms outside city limits isn't a bad idea - makes sure your irrgtation network works.

Maybe they were building loads of GP farms?

 

[ocedius]

I believe its got to do with flavor and the leadhead too. Assuming you are using warlords, the correct file to see would be Civ4LeadheadInfos.xml.

If you do a seach for "<ImprovementWeightModifiers>", you'll find some leaders pay more attention building workshops, other lumbermills, and some do farms-a-galore.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jorunkun]

My guess is that the AI builds so many farms so that it can run more specialists.

It probably uses this system because it is easy to code, AI-wise. Instead of devising all kinds of complicated formulas to have the AI optimise tiles by city AND its balance its empire-wide yield of food, production and commerce, you just have each city produce heaps of food so it never starves, then have the excess citizens work mines to meet production demand and use the rest on specialists.

J.

 

[ocedius]

I probably need to check the SDK before I can be sure of why the A.I. does what it does. Wait a minute, its a computer code younger than my shoes! Who knows what it does and why?

I know TGA is working on the genetic A.I. and he'd probably be able to answer this better than anyone else.

 

[binhthuy71]

Why does the AI build so many farms? Because it's hungry!

 

[NKVD]

It probably uses this system because it is easy to code, AI-wise.
J.

isnt all the AI in the world that have this problem?

 

[The Great Apple]

I know TGA is working on the genetic A.I. and he'd probably be able to answer this better than anyone else.

Urrgh. Not me.

Not looked at it specifically. As I said above, the AI probably thinks the town can grow (excess health/happiness), and so should. Not really sure. I've never really noticed it as much of a problem.

 

[Tatran]

is this fixed in Warlords?

No, it's not.
I saw a lot of farms, maybe only farms, in Vicky's territory.
She's now Financial and Imperialistic.
I agree, it's a bad way to play the Financial trait.

 

[Mutineer]

I build more farms then AI. Farm are mach more powerfull then cottages befor industrial age.

BTW, there is a good strategic reson to build improvements outside your working zone. It usefull in multiplayer.
If you build farm on top of the road your opponent now need 2 turns to pillage your road.

 

[Holycannoli]

Hmm farms more powerful before industrial age? I guess in a way; food is valuable for slavery. But I like to get my cottages up and running asap and only build enough farms for a pop of 20 or however many tiles I'll be working.

 

[romelus]

what is truly aggrevating is when you take a city, and its immediate area is swamped by the culture of a 3rd civ. the next thing you know, workers from the 3rd civ is converting all those towns around the city into farms! and there's nothing you can do unless you declare war. i don't think AI is smart enough to deliberately remove your future towns, but in its dumb way screwing the player unintentionally :x

 

[Goldfish4209]

Hmm. Until last game I was the one sticking with farms and cottages on flat land and windmills on hills. Until I wised up and realized that my production lags behind everyone's.

 

[Rathelm]

If you play on a difficulty post prince your production will always lag behind.

 

[Goldfish4209]

The only thing I've played is settler and warlord.

 

[romelus]

If you play on a difficulty post prince your production will always lag behind.

i think that depends on playing style. on monarch and emperor my production is usually several times above the nearest AI, even before factories.

 

[Moonsinger]

what i don't get is why the Ai always builds farms outside of their city zones...

I have always been farming outside of my city zones all the time. Why ask the AI, you can just ask me. There is a great tactical advantages for farming and building cottages/mines outside of the city zones.

 

[bmkern]

Well, the AI seems to favor growing huge cities by the late game (if you get there). I recently was playing an archipelago map and Napoleon had a medium-sized island all to himself, and had turtled up by the time I was ready to invade. Most of his island was farms, but his huge cities needed them to stay fed, so I parked a couple of carriers around his island, blockaded his coastal cities, and proceded to bomb his resource tiles and farms into dust. By the time my invasion force arrived, his cities had gone from population 15-20 down to 5-7. Tough to keep reinforcing with that small a work force.