Civ4 AI Survivor: Season Three

[Sullla]

That's what the terrain looks like in the Worldbuilder after replacing land with ocean tiles. If you save and reload, it will look identical to other ocean tiles. I've done map edits of those sorts many times and no one has noticed since I'm doing the editing offline. The maps used for AI Survivor have come from the normal Pangaea map script. I've tested some of the other scripts and I haven't liked the results that come out as much.

Regarding Mansa Musa, I wrote as far back as 2006 that I thought he has the "winner" AI personality. Fluffball it exactly right, Mansa just randomly seems to have the right settings in most areas and out-performs most of the other AIs. We'll see how he does in the Championship game in a couple of weeks - I think a lot will depend on who else makes it there. As a reminder on that note, Playoff Game Three is on Friday at the normal time; community predictions for the game are coming tomorrow. A little less than three days remaining to get predictions in.

[Wyatan]

I've been working on such a map, but I'm not satisfied with the way it plays out: in each of my tests, I ended up with a runaway AI, which is not what we want. We want a close game, with a nail-biting finish !

As a side note, 7-AI games tend on the whole to be more interesting: more wars, more action in general.
Might be a good idea to have the Championship game with 7 AIs instead of 6.

The last spot could be decided by a Playoffs Wildcard game, but a better idea would probably be to have people vote, along with their predictions, for one of the playoffs survivor to join the Championship.
Now, a 7-player symetrical map is harder to design, but it wouldn't have to be: the last player could be placed in the dead center... the "special guest" spot.

[Cornflakes]

The last spot could be decided by a Playoffs Wildcard game, but a better idea would probably be to have people vote, along with their predictions, for one of the playoffs survivor to join the Championship.
Now, a 7-player symetrical map is harder to design, but it wouldn't have to be: the last player could be placed in the dead center... the "special guest" spot.

In a crazy plot twist, the troll king returns?!

[T-hawk]

It's not that Mansa was designed to be the best AI. The personalities were all set before anyone knew what the best strategies were: spam cottages, always trade techs and open borders, build economy over units, be Financial. The civ traits were designed before anyone knew which ones the AI could use best.

Someone out of the 57 has to be best after all. Someone is going to have the best combination of personality that matches optimal strategy and traits that match what the AI code logic can do. That one just happened to be Mansa.

[yuris125]

Sulla, can you confirm you're still on summer time, and therefore 4 hours behind the UK at the moment rather than the usual 5?

[Mardoc]

Sulla, can you confirm you're still on summer time, and therefore 4 hours behind the UK at the moment rather than the usual 5?

The US switches on Sunday, November 5th this year.  We're on summer time until then.

[Fluffball]

It's not that Mansa was designed to be the best AI.  The personalities were all set before anyone knew what the best strategies were: spam cottages, always trade techs and open borders, build economy over units, be Financial.  The civ traits were designed before anyone knew which ones the AI could use best.

Someone out of the 57 has to be best after all.  Someone is going to have the best combination of personality that matches optimal strategy and traits that match what the AI code logic can do.  That one just happened to be Mansa.

Well it's not exactly fact he's the best AI, but he definitely can rock it. 

All of the AIs that are do exceptionally well have features that fix what the AI does badly. Huayna wastes less time on wonders that the inevitably build when they don't need them. Mansa doesn't spend half the game in anarchy. Justinian gets out settlers faster when the AI with the most land usually wins. And any financial civ has a major economy going on deity.

[yuris125]

The US switches on Sunday, November 5th this year.  We're on summer time until then.

Thanks!

[Sullla]

If anyone is curious about the time zone issue, this website will convert your local time into the time anywhere else on the globe. I'm in the Eastern time zone of North America, so plug in New York or Washington DC or another similar city and it should give you the conversion.

The preview for Playoff Game Three is finished and up on the website. There's a little over 36 hours remaining before we start our final playoff game - get your predictions in now!

[antisocialmunky]

It's not that Mansa was designed to be the best AI.  The personalities were all set before anyone knew what the best strategies were: spam cottages, always trade techs and open borders, build economy over units, be Financial.  The civ traits were designed before anyone knew which ones the AI could use best.

Someone out of the 57 has to be best after all.  Someone is going to have the best combination of personality that matches optimal strategy and traits that match what the AI code logic can do.  That one just happened to be Mansa.

Well it's not exactly fact he's the best AI, but he definitely can rock it. 

All of the AIs that are do exceptionally well have features that fix what the AI does badly. Huayna wastes less time on wonders that the inevitably build when they don't need them. Mansa doesn't spend half the game in anarchy. Justinian gets out settlers faster when the AI with the most land usually wins. And any financial civ has a major economy going on deity.

The civ pairings do play a large part.  Mansa having mints relatively early on along with a good defensive UB definitely put him off to a good start.  Likewise, Justinian's games are often decided by mass upgrade of HA to kataphracts (well excepting that last game but that was Wang Kon game and those never make any sense).

That's why I would like to see a season with random leader/civ pairings.