AI Never Gets Off Island

[Zaratoughda]

I mentioned this in other forums but it has happenned to me again so am posting it here.

If the AI (in a random game) starts on a one hex island or an island with just the AI's capital, it never gets off that island.... and you get half way through the scenario before you can see the situation.

IMO.... this is a serious bug. Playing against an AI when this happens just leads to a 'no contest' and makes the given scenario worthless.

The related problem, unless the AI has ideal conditions, it doesn't explore for a while, but instead builds roads to nearby cities, builds cargoships, etc, etc, all in preference to sending ACs down the road and taking cities that are sitting there for the taking. This seriously compromises the AI's effectiveness.

But, the one city island is a more severe problem, cause it causes problems even if you are playing with the People's Republic.

Zaratoughda

[Joshuatree]

You're right, that happened to me a few times too, long ago. So I always check the map out with .... how's it called? "shroud off"? That way you can see the entire map, and make damn sure the AI has some change of getting somewhere.
So yeah, the AI's not brilliant, but I've seen much and much worse AI's. Maybe Vic can adress this problem in AT-2?

[Vic]

Hi,

Yeah at the moment its best to to what Joshua suggests. However i just tried 3 times with an AI on a 1 hex island and 3 times it managed to get off just fine.

However it is a known issue that the AI will fail if it starts on an island inside a lake with no ports on the main land.

Hope to eventually come around to doing a better AI for the random games too.

Kind regards,
Vic

[Grymme]

The AI will get off eventually but its quite slow

Typically it will look something like this (all ai AI++)

Human player - 15 cities
Land AI - 8 cities
Land AI - 11 cities
Land AI - 7 cities
Island AI - 3 cities
Island AI - 4 cities

[Zaratoughda]

I just generated and watched a game with 7 sides and the PR, with fog and shroud off, and there were 2 AIs on one city islands and both of them managed to send out invasion fleets within 10 turns.

However, I have played many games against AI+ PR and one AI++ opponent, and checking the number of cities that each side has as I went along, had many occassions where the AI++ is still at 1 maybe 20 turns into the game and finally, one of my subs finds it and there it is on a one city island, never having gotten off.

Given that the AI++ has 3.5x production, it should be able to get off and take PR cities, but it doesn't seem able to do this. Whether it's invasion fleets are too small (I have never seen any) or it just does not get off the island for whatever reason, I really don't know.

But, that is what is happenning. When it happenned once I did not think about it much but after I had seen it many times, and always the same, thought I'd post it.

I have never run into a situation where an AI starts on a one hex island and ends up with more than 1 city.

Turning off shroud eliminates half the challange in the game. Better to take one's chances, or play against multiple AIs, or just go with a high land percent.

Zaratoughda

[Zaratoughda]

Hmmmm.... just played a random game..... first one since my posts here.... 70x30 with 85% land... 20 cities and shroud, map wrap, first level tech but no 'optimize for AI'... two AI+ opponents and the PR at AI+ also.... and was watching the AI growth in cities each turn and one AI never got past one city.... was a while before I could send out any subs because there were no ports anywhere's close and.... finally got a couple of ports and subs out and exploring and... sure enough... the AI+ was on a one city island. This was past turn 20.

Now, in this case I was using my AHRS_WW2PR ptmaster file with the 'Aggressive AI' option... and this turns off 'random AI personality' for the AI, reduces the research value to .01... and sets the SetAIConservative value to 50. So, possible this has something to do with this problem but, I have seen it using the advanced ptmaster file as well.

Zaratoughda

[Vic]

Zaratoughda,

I want you to know that improving the AI is defenitly on the to-do list.

Kind regards,
Vic

[Zaratoughda]

Just played another game against AI+ PR and two AI+ opponents... and it turned out BOTH AI+ opponents started out on islands with just one city... and, far out, BOTH of them managed to send out invasion fleets by turn 16 (I had already conquered all of the PR by then so it didn't do them any good but at least they were trying).

Did you put in a fix that automatically updated the game without us even knowing? <g>

Yes, the random game is extremely important in AT. The two things that stick out with AT are that it is a fun game PBEM and the random game generator. TOAW, does not even have a random game generator. Steel Panthers (winSPWW2) has a random game generator but with the speed and range of the units it always ends up being a no contest, plus there isn't anything like the shroud.

One unrelated thing.... I still feel infantry is worthless in the random game (the only time I EVER build any is to explore over mountains). Was thinking maybe a modifier for combined arms forces.... but whatever. The AI design is quite sophisticated just needs more development.

Zaratoughda