[Sug] Fertile Land Spell for the AI

from Elemental Forums

I have been playing a bunch of games lately to test my mods and one of the big things that stands out is how sometimes the AI gets stuck because it runs out of places to build cities, in a way humans don't. Sometimes they just get stuck behind a barren land and it basically kills them via strangulation. This is because a smart player can use Birth of Summer or even just plan ahead and expand their ZoC to fertilize land. For obvious reasons these approaches are way to complicated for the AI to use correctly. Casting Birth of summer or building the correct buildings in the correct places is very complicated and requires planning ahead. So in order to really help the AI out I think there really needs to be a more AI friendly approach to fertilizing land. My idea is the below spell.

Growth Pulse: All cities controlled by the caster spread fertile land 3 tiles further then their ZoC, or if it's easier all cities gain +3 ZoC for 1 turn.

90% of the time this will result in one or several places to settle. Obviously in order to be useful at all the AI would have to know to cast this when it can't find a place to settle, but that's a relatively simple thing compared to trying to cast Birth of Summer. This would also be very lore friendly because restoring the land is supposed to a part of the lore and gameplay. mainly however it would just really help the AI.

12,786 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Sometimes when there is completely barren land, but I want my border to continue expanding for stables and such, so i settle a outpost in barren lands. Then magically the land there inside the outpost will become fertile sometimes the instant you build that outpost. xD Then I go and build a town there. x.x

 

I think this happens to the AI too cuz i see alot of towns springing right next to the outpost too.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top


I kinda wish that Birth of Summer and Bloom of Twilight spells should be improved a little. Perhaps, give each tile within it's cast range a %change to increase one of it's x/y/z amounts a bit.....thus increasing the change that overall tile values will result in land that can be settled. I find that, too often, these spells are cast with dismal effect....a waste of mana.

Then have the AI programed to actually consider the casting of the spell.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I've only just picked up legendary heroes but i have noticed that the Salt the Earth spell will mess up the AI quite badly.

 

Also as the second poster pointed out they seem to be able to take some advantage of spreading zone of control to create more fertile land. I've seen cities actually be right on top of towers.

So maybe things work well enough.