Examples: (1) some AI cities build a railroad on every single square, but fail to irrigate. (2) other AI cities irrigate, but build very few roads, thus foresaking trade.

I'm not sure what's causing the inconsistency. I do know that the AI doesn't need a settler to make these improvements. They just happen over time when the game thinks enough time has passed for them to be built.

finbar,
I am hoping for a smarter AI in Civ3. In particular one that is more aggressive and persistent at expanding and one that gathers together at least 6 or so units before sending them into battle.

BTW, the AI doesn't even need a water source to irrigate. They can irrigate deserts a million miles from the nearest puddle.

quote: Originally posted by finbar on 02-27-2001 06:08 PM BTW, the AI doesn't even need a water source to irrigate. They can irrigate deserts a million miles from the nearest puddle.

I seem to recall that you can do this as a player, too, by automating a settler somehow. I think its talked about in the Cheats thread...

On to AI in general, I can't imagine the difficulties involved with coding a credible AI for a game as complex as Civilization (whatever version). What I am hoping for with Civ III is some degree of modularization, in which the player can automate certain portions of the game (beyond settlers) like trade/diplomacy, defense, and city management. These same modules could then be simultaneously be put to work for the AI Civs, with the nature of each AI Civ determining which modules get precedence.

If done competently (or rather, brilliantly), the resulting AI Civs would be unique, and not suffer the herd mentality of the Civ II AI's. So what if the player Civ is Supreme, there are still many benefits for dealing with them for the AI Civ, depending on its priorities (say trade, or defense).

We shall have to see.

-Bob

There's a thread over in creation about this. Apparently if you use an obscur bug to switch to playing the barbarians, then build improvements, an irrigated, roaded square pops up somewhere in the city radius. Presumably this an AI cheat.

But it definitely does it's own improvements, too. Otherwise it wouldn't end up with half it's squares roaded, and the other half irrigated.

Bob,

What you describe is sort-of implemented in CivII. In the city screen click on the 'auto' button; it will ask you if you want to turn over control of the city to the domestic advisor, military advisor, or both. This seems to correspond to the AI settings of peaceful, aggressive and neutral, which are set in one of the .txt files. IIRC, all units can be automated, too, though I don't think there are any options involved.