Talk:AI Plans

From Freeciv

[edit] AI is too easy

I start a game with 30 (or any number of) players, set AI to hard (or experimental), and leave the other settings as default. With that setup, I always easly win the game. (For ex, I always build all the important wonders, and I'm the high above the others AI players.) That without using save/load games.

I also used to hack savegames to make all the AIs allied forever. That is a bit more challenging (depending on the number of AIs and map size), but is less fun to play without diplomacy.

--Barrett9h 07:58, 20 Feb 2005 (PST)

[edit] Napoleon Codes

Regarding the concentration of forces (from the article):

We should calculate a 'ground zero', a place to concentrate our attacks. This should be a coordinate on a continent that is somewhat close to the AI, which has not too well defended cities, and bonus if there are rails and roads we can abuse. We should calculate a turn sometime in the future when we should have forces enough available to conquer this place.

Units that are recruited to offensive actions should check each turn if they must start moving towards ground zero this turn to reach it or not (with some margin of error). If they must, start moving.

A useful synchronization device for implementing this is the "napoleon code", a timestamp (or, in the case of FreeCiv, a turn number) which specifies the time at which all involved forces should converge on the target. Once a NC is chosen, it can be used to govern many aspects of planning and moving, including the building of new attack units, the movement of transports, and "loitering" on favorable terrain prior to the attack -- eg, a unit can calculate about how long it will take to get to the target, start moving when this ETA corresponds with the NC, and loiter on defensive terrain (mountains, forests, hills) near the target if they show up early, to start moving again when the newly calculated ETA again corresponds with the NC.

This allows for economy of force in both, the attack and the defense, because when movement is not prompted by a looming NC, attack units should stay in their cities and attack defensively. A city which is building attack units will then keep a batch of attack units safely behind its walls until they all leap out at once, rather than dribbling them out piecemeal, unable to counterattack if one of them falls to an attacker.

Napoleon Bonaparte was inventive in the ways he dispersed his forces for movement, and then concentrated them on one place in one time for the attack, converging from many directions. Precise and timely communication was not possible, so instead he used various forms of timepieces, synchronized at a central location with his officers, and then everyone sent out in different directions to mobilize their forces. One such device was a candle, of a standard size and shape, which was lit at the same time as the other candles distributed to the officers. It was then left to each officer to figure out how to get their forces on-target at the moment the candle burned past a mark on its side.

Thus, his forces were effectively split into cellular automata, much like the units in FreeCiv, with each deciding for itself the best action to perform, yet all synchronized to the same plan by the knowledge of the time and the place. They might get to the place in different ways and with different sizes of forces, but still converge simultaneously.

-- TTK