Engineers not produced by AIs - the reason why!

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Madrigal
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Engineers not produced by AIs - the reason why!

Postby Madrigal » Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:20 pm

I'm not 90% confident that I identified the cause that in some cases prevent the AI don't build engineers ...

Because they need food. And the AI don't keep up with food production, period! With a usage of 10 per city (not moddable, or I have not found it where) plus 1 per units (and it likes to mass produce units of low quality), the food stock I believe goes down 0 very fast!

Now you wonder perhaps why AI don't starve ... because it seems that AI never starve even with a lack of food... what it does is simply that it can't build any units requiring foods... And Engineers need it.

So, aside from playing with Food OFF or giving mass amount of farms, I strongly suggest to remove the food cost of engineers.

Here is my current implementation:

4 engineers sub-types, named agronomists, specialists, engineers, that can be built in farms, arboriums, wells, mines. They need 6 turns, 150 Metals.

1 engineer sub-type, named Scientist, in lab, needs 3 turns, 75 metals and 10 electronics.

The good thing is that metal is not used as an input cost in any factories (not even for ceramsteel), and only in units, so here engineers can be produced easily.

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Eightball Maniac
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Re: Engineers not produced by AIs - the reason why!

Postby Eightball Maniac » Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:46 pm

Madrigal wrote:I'm not 90% confident that I identified the cause that in some cases prevent the AI don't build engineers ...

Because they need food. And the AI don't keep up with food production, period! With a usage of 10 per city (not moddable, or I have not found it where) plus 1 per units (and it likes to mass produce units of low quality), the food stock I believe goes down 0 very fast!

Now you wonder perhaps why AI don't starve ... because it seems that AI never starve even with a lack of food... what it does is simply that it can't build any units requiring foods... And Engineers need it.

So, aside from playing with Food OFF or giving mass amount of farms, I strongly suggest to remove the food cost of engineers.


I hadn't considered this possibility. When the AI runs out of food on its planets it just starts buying from the Agora, though that will run out sooner or later. I'll remove the food requirement for engineers and raise metal cost, perhaps adding an additional (but fairly common) resource requirement.

Here is my current implementation:

4 engineers sub-types, named agronomists, specialists, engineers, that can be built in farms, arboriums, wells, mines. They need 6 turns, 150 Metals.

1 engineer sub-type, named Scientist, in lab, needs 3 turns, 75 metals and 10 electronics.

The good thing is that metal is not used as an input cost in any factories (not even for ceramsteel), and only in units, so here engineers can be produced easily.


All these sub-types might get confusing, since they all build the same structures anyway. I also suggest not allowing wells to build their own kind of engineer, as the AI might build lots of them on sea wells and not be able to move. Unless their movement type is changed to hover...

Madrigal
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Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2011 2:25 pm

Postby Madrigal » Mon Mar 07, 2011 4:53 pm

Are you sure the AI can buy from Agoras?

I did a test, as per my idea of putting in Chernoborg some stockpile for ai usage only (as only the AI play with universal warhouse, serious players do not ;-) )

In a matter of a few turns, all food was gone. The rest was left untouched, even metal (and even if the ai produced a ton of craps).

Good idea for the well engineer, perhaps he should receive an hovercraft... or even be of naval type, thus forcing the ai to use it to build more wells (one can dream)

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Eightball Maniac
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Postby Eightball Maniac » Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:39 am

I'm quite certain the AI can buy from Agoras, though I'm not sure what circumstances are required before it will do so. On the other hand, I could be thinking of the League using up Agora resources when it runs out on Leagueheim (not really a problem in this mod).

I don't know if the AI would handle engineers with the naval move type too well, but it's worth testing.


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