[Freeciv-Dev] Re: more ai levels

[Steven Burnap <sburnap@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:52 PM 2/23/00 +0100, you wrote:
> > Make a more 'conservative' AI, that prefers to build improvements rather
> > than always settlers, and sometimes builds roads and irrigation rather than
> > new cities.
> >
> > On of the flaws (IMO) in the whole freeciv game mechanic is how
> > phenomenonally powerful it is to have many, many cities.  Enough that 
> if you
> > expand circa 20% faster than everyone else, you will surely win... but
> > anyhow, the AI is fairly good at expanding fast (not as good as a human
> > player, and it is very bad at expanding over sea).
> >
> > Incidentally, once I'd figured out how to beat the easy AI (expand ASAP), I
> > didn't actually find the hard AI that much harder -- I just used the same
> > strat...  It's my hope that barbarians will help to alleviate this (if
> > they're common enough that you'll certainly meet them, you can't afford to
> > leave your cities undefended, which I currently do if there are no enemies
> > around).
> >
> > Jules
>
> You could also make improvements more powerfull. In Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri
> this is done by multiplying the benefits recieved from fx money buildings
> instad of adding. So a bank and markedplace would give:
> 1.5*1.5=2.25
> ie a 125% increase instead of just 50%+50%=100% . It gets even better as
> you get stock exchange too, 237% versus 150%. This effect makes it more
> attractive to really build up your cities. Not much, but a step in the right
> direction.
Civ1 and Civ2 used handicapping instead of (as far as I can tell) any 
differences in the
actual AI code.  At the easiest level, buildings cost the AI substantially 
more, and research
took it substantially longer.  At the hardest, buildings cost it less and 
research took
less time.  In addition, the human player either had a happiness handicap 
or benefit,
depending on the level.

This might be an interesting approach, and would also allow you to handicap 
good players
in order to make a more interesting game with poorer players.  However, in 
the original
Civ1 and Civ2, the AI was as dumb as dirt.  They relied on handicapping for 
everything,
which made the game less interesting when you got good, IMHO.  But it might 
be interesting
to make "very easy" to be easy with production penalties and "very hard" to 
be hard with
production bonuses.

Steve Burnap