Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Bug/Patch Discussion => Topic started by: Nim on July 24, 2016, 10:10:03 PM

Title: Illegal AI terraforming
Post by: Nim on July 24, 2016, 10:10:03 PM

(http://i.imgur.com/6qtf3cq.jpg)
Let's see
 - terraforms the top of mount planet
 - builds a farm which is pointless due to rocky
 - builds a soil enricher for which he doesn't have the tech ( pointless too )
 - and puts a colony pod on hold there because reasons

 :o :mad:

Is there anything that can be done about any of these ?

Title: Re: Illegal AI terraforming
Post by: BFG on July 25, 2016, 04:25:31 PM

More info?

Playing SMAC or SMAX?  What patch(es), if any?  Have you seen this regularly, or just the one occurrence?  Is it possible something you did in Scenario Editor caused the issue?

Title: Re: Illegal AI terraforming
Post by: Buster's Uncle on July 25, 2016, 04:34:00 PM

This is an AI faction, yes?  I've seen this sort of thing many times over the years, but not so much with my own formers on auto - they do a bad job and I go ahead and micromanage formers, not least because I find bending the map to my will entertaining.

Now, I have been known to take advantage of the auto build road function -that allows formers to remove fungus before they're supposed to be able to when it's in the way, albeit very slowly- because I get to choose the endpoints and just wait.

Title: Re: Illegal AI terraforming
Post by: Nim on July 25, 2016, 05:39:16 PM

Quote from: BFG on July 25, 2016, 04:25:31 PM

Playing SMAC or SMAX?  What patch(es), if any?  Have you seen this regularly, or just the one occurrence?  Is it possible something you did in Scenario Editor caused the issue?

SMAX, Yitzi 3.4.  I only use the Scenario Editor when I abandon games, just to look at what the AI was doing.

 I do see the AI terraforming up when they don't have the tech every now and then. Can't really remember ever seeing the AI building soil enrichers (pre tech) tho, that was a new one for me.

Quote from: BUncle on July 25, 2016, 04:34:00 PM

This is an AI faction, yes?  I've seen this sort of thing many times over the years, but not so much with my own formers on auto - they do a bad job and I go ahead and micromanage formers, not least because I find bending the map to my will entertaining.

Now, I have been known to take advantage of the auto build road function -that allows formers to remove fungus before they're supposed to be able to when it's in the way, albeit very slowly- because I get to choose the endpoints and just wait.

Yeah Morgan is AI. What human would park a CP next to a base and not handle a spore launcher  :P

Title: Re: Illegal AI terraforming
Post by: Buster's Uncle on July 25, 2016, 06:59:15 PM

Some of the former auto functions must not have any "is x allowed in this square" check - you can also built a road through a volcano crater using the Build Road To function; if you move the former there directly and hit "r", it won't do it.

One supposes the developers could have noticed the bug(s) and let it go as one of those compensations for the AI sucking, not thinking about the exploit for humans.

Title: Re: Illegal AI terraforming
Post by: BFG on July 25, 2016, 09:04:01 PM

Quote from: BUncle on July 25, 2016, 06:59:15 PM

One supposes the developers could have noticed the bug(s) and let it go as one of those compensations for the AI sucking, not thinking about the exploit for humans.

That seems like reasonable speculation to me, though frankly I would still qualify it as a bug - to me, if the AI doesn't have the prerequisite tech (or a SP like Weather Paradigm that means they don't need the tech), or if it's an illegal space, they shouldn't be able to build there, period.  Same with auto or manual formers.

Between this and the game's poor handling of Gravship formers, it seems like this is an area that could really benefit from some fixes.

Title: Re: Illegal AI terraforming
Post by: Buster's Uncle on July 25, 2016, 10:01:27 PM

Man you'd think gravformers would just be the best between when you're able to make them and magtubes - but way too many problems, probably the worst being how one square at a time you end up having to move them to keep them from flying into a friendly base or two, wasting whole turns.

Title: Re: Illegal AI terraforming
Post by: hilton on July 26, 2016, 04:07:18 AM

I've seen this as well. AI players do several things they shouldn't be allowed to. I've seen them do various things to tops of volcanoes (including farms on the ring of squares around the peak), terraform up against my borders during peace, and other pesky things.

Not an AI issue, but it's also interesting how forest can expand into monolith squares but you can't build it there yourself.