Ai, Ai, Ai!

You can get help here if Freeciv doesn't start on your computer, or if you keep getting fatal errors while playing etc.
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nef
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Ai, Ai, Ai!

Post by nef »

I was planning to just batch these up and report then under RIP but the list was getting long and I wanted to start the reports, so I am starting this new topic for AI, auto_*, and AGH. Many of these will be chronic - perhaps most.

AI 0. Fearless.

I originally reported this elsewhere but left out some of the details:

If for an attacking unit the products attack * hitpoints < 3 AND firepower * hitpoints < 3 then AI's do not bother building defenders. Renders the current fc2.6.0 distro for civ1 ruleset totally useless for SP use.

I have not fully characterised this bug. It is not entirely obvious (to me) what is going wrong. Superficially it looked like wrong simple test (x > 1 instead of x >= 1) but the evidence indicates products are involved (and maybe not just the ones reported above.) In any event the problem should not be too hard to find, and be fixed with a general rework of the section. This is no longer critical because of the general avoidance technique.

As for the "hardcoded 'feature'" that I referred to: I am not sure whether this is a bug or was a genuine feature. In case it's not obvious the problem is that non native attacks (e.g. ship against shore target) have the firepower of both attacker and defender reduced to 1. In civ1, as modified with HP & FP set to 2 the battle outcomes include the posssibility of the winner being left with HP = 1 typically requiring two turns for repair. There are, of course, implications for all other rulesets but they will not be so obvious.
cazfi
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Re: Ai, Ai, Ai!

Post by cazfi »

In addition to land bombardment rule, also pearl harbour rule can set firepower to 1, breaking attempts to play with HP & firepower at civ1 ruleset.
nef
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Re: Ai, Ai, Ai!

Post by nef »

A. I don't actually remember seeing any documentation on the land bombardment rule and I am not aware of any way to defeat it (other than not use FP > 1), hence my comment 'hardcoded'.

B. Conversely, I believe the pearl harbour rule is (now???) softcoded as a unit flag "BadCityDefender" and is therefore not a problem in the civ1 ruleset. In any event there are other problems (to be reported) that make this a rather minor point.

C. As for FP > 1 breaking the civ1 ruleset it was always a case of the lesser of two evils. I have not noticed it to be a huge problem - just a minor annoyance. If/when (AI 0.) is fixed then my general avoidance technique should be duly consigned to history. This would leave the land bombardment rule a separate matter. IMO it too should be softcoded (if not already).
nef
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Re: Ai, Ai, Ai!

Post by nef »

AI 1. civ1 & civ2 AI settlers.

This one is an egregious oversight. These two rulesets do not have workers, migrants, or worker like engineers. Somewhere along the line, the AI forgot that settlers too can do gardening. But in civ1 and civ2 they are the ONLY gardeners, and so, as a result, the AI in these two rulesets do none. No roads, no irrigation, and the clincher, NO MINES. (The few odd examples of road/railroad are due to cities being razed.)

In the case of civ1, this problem nobbles the AI from the late middle game on, with city sizes rarely getting above 6. For civ2 (with harbors), the sizes can grow to 10 or so, delaying the problem to the late end game. In fact, the generosity of trade routes can make them competitive almost to the end.

Now, as it happens, the AI must have been reading my keystrokes, because I have just seen some roads AND a settler. But not for long.

My interpretation: The AI saw an opportunity open for a new city, so built a settler. But before it could get onto a ferry, the opportuniy closed (e.g. I had built a city there). So with nothing better to do it ambled around doing some gardening to fill in the time. AS SOON as it saw another opportunity for another city it was off - result - new city, no more gardening.
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