Post by mitobox on Aug 4, 2015 3:11:38 GMT
I was looking for some videos about games played only by AI, and I found this interesting video. (it's more interesting if you watch before you read the rest of this)
The player made a completely flat map covered in snow tiles. That means that there's no reason for the AI to build workers and settlers, but it did it anyway. He found out that it was doing this because, essentially, it is divided in two. In short, one half makes units, the other half controls them. There is no feedback loop; the AI doesn't notice when it should make settlers, the unit-making half is programmed to make them by a certain turn. "If it's turn 50 and you don't have a settler out, there's something wrong with you."
This led to the AI civs being completely stagnant (seriously, 200+ turns and one didn't even invent writing) because they were basing their actions on what they're SUPPOSED to be doing (in a normal game), and not as the situation demands. If they were capable of noticing what was actually needed, the game would be difficult to run. Based on what the player was saying, the AI is hardwired for behaving efficiently (presumably to help in competing with a human opponent) based on a normal game world.
What could this have to do with Thrive? There's certainly something here that could say something about Auto-Evo, but I'm having trouble putting it into words, so I'll say a few things about Strategy Mode.
The Society Stage is the first stage that really uses Strategy Mode. In the early game, there'll be Society Centers (or Centres, depending on where you live) popping up, each controlled by the AI (basically, city states). For the player's sake, they'll be competing with each other just as much as with the player. What will they be doing? Based on what humans have done, they're going to want to be top dog. That means cooperating with other Society Centers for their own benefit, plundering and conquering weaker SC's, taking out their rivals or potential threats, etc. As far as the game knows, that's what they SHOULD be doing.
So imagine someone does something like the video above, with Thrive. Everything's a low-diversity biome. If the AI is smarter than Civ V's, it'll notice that there's probably not enough resources to invest in becoming top dog. No reward in investing badly needed resources into developing an army that can't raid to sustain the SC. Plus, no surplus to trade. Then the planet's run by isolated little SC's trying to eke out a living. Not what one would expect from the Society Stage, but the AI keeps itself alive.
However, if the AI is like in Civ V and bases actions on what it SHOULD be doing, then we'll still see top dog activity. However, it'd be limited to either fruitless raids, or limited conquest that leads to a new nation struggling to maintain itself. Closer to what you'd expect, but it's not very good for the AI.
What say you on the video?