That Darn Dark Sorcerer

from Elemental Forums

I am fairly new to this game, which is my first 4x game, so please bear with me.

I'm on my fourth game now, playing the 1.3 version currently, and ran into the Dark Sorcerer for the first time.  Or, more accurately, he ran into me.  On a somewhat difficult medium map I was struggling to find crystal when I went around a corner of the map and found a spot with two crags nearby.  I managed to settle a city there just as Magnar put an outpost near the farthest crag.

A short time later I get the "World Gets More Dangerous" event and then notice that the Dark Sorcerer has appeared.  Now I'm not alarmed by this as I've seen other monsters appear in previous games and I normally have had time to prepare for them as they wander about.  But I've read here that the Sorcerer is a particularly nasty guy and in this case the Sorcerer and his dragon buddy appear right along the only roadway to get to my new crystal city (mountains block all other timely access) and worst of all, they start heading directly for my city!  Just two short turns later my lovely city is wiped out.

Now if that was the end of it I could handle it, but the kicker is that Magnar showed up at his adjacent outpost a couple of moves later and proceeded to build his own city right where mine was destroyed - and the Sorcerer didn't bother him one bit!  When I later stuck my nose carefully around the corner a bit to see if the Sorcerer and dragon were still there, they actually moved towards my army and attacked it, continuing to ignore Magnar's own units and resources.

I suppose this is just another example of the "monsters don't attack the AI" problem, but it sure is frustrating.  Does this still happen in 1.4?

8,193 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Except that it's been demonstrated repeatedly the monsters *do* attack AI cities and troops. Can't speak to the sorcerer's motivations (where was he when the new city appeared? very nearby, or had he moved onto attack something else?), but dragons have the usual anyone-of-several-possible-behaviors pattern that can lead to a mix of nesting, attacking, standing still and looking as dumb as a rock, etc, randomly chosen per turn. I'm not happy with it, but there it is.


I've watched epic battles between dragons and AI opponents who were stupid enough to build cities right next to lairs. The issue isn't monsters who don't attack AIs. The issue is being around at the right time to gloat fully when the monster turns angry.

 

It's also true that monsters are more inclined to attack a player, human or otherwise, if their difficulty level is set higher. So if the AI has a low difficulty setting, they'll act less smart, but by compensation monsters will attack them less.

Bad luck on that sorcerer. I hate the guy and his cheesy dialog. We really need a ten-ton anvil spell to use just for him.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top


Thanks.  The Sorcerer's Army was camped for at least 30 turns within the enemy's outpost and within 3-4 tiles of his new city.  It was like a giant bodyguard for him that kept me from recapturing any of that vital territory.  Any time I would approach to see if he was still there the Sorcerer would come out towards me.  I'd back away and he would retreat a few steps back to Magnar land.

From reading a few other threads now it does look like it is a difficulty level issue.  I am still playing on Moderate/Normal settings for everything so even though I wasn't the strongest faction powerwise at the time I certainly was stronger than Magner and could be perceived by the AI as the greater threat.  I'll be more sensitive to that issue going forward.

He's finally left now for parts unknown, so I'll be poking around rather carefully here on out.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting SwirlingEddie, reply 2
From reading a few other threads now it does look like it is a difficulty level issue.  I am still playing on Moderate/Normal settings for everything so even though I wasn't the strongest faction powerwise at the time I certainly was stronger than Magner and could be perceived by the AI as the greater threat.
End of SwirlingEddie's quote

Does it really matter? You said when you army are stronger, so monsters consider you as a bigger threat and try to eliminate you. What if you are weaker? then will the monsters ignore you passing by? or actually consider you are a easier prey, attacks you anyway? 

Yes, monsters *do* attack AI, but that is *not* the point. The problem is: Given the same condition, AI will target players army definitely.

It is just how the game rule applied to human player.