SUGGESTION: AI castle building algorithm

[Daynarr]

Originally posted by Arralen:
Build castle
IF money=1.2*(castle cost) OR desirabilty>7
CHOOSE prov with highest "desirability points"

It's not bad idea, but I was thinking about something a little different here.

1) Limit amount of gold spent on non-castle provinces (relative value, maybe 30% or even less). That way if AI has enough gold income and too few castles he will generate surplus in gold and wont spent it all on weak easy-to-lose units (Militia, LI). That will allow him to build as much national units as he can and still be able to generate some surplus to build new castles. If AI spends all money on national troops and can’t afford new castle, then he doesn't build new one anyway at least with his current income.

I believe Jasper proposed something like this in LI thread and I like this idea better simply because it will maximize production of national troops without going too deep into unit production scripting.

2) When AI has enough gold to build castle he should decide where to do it. Your proposal is quite good, so I would add only 1 thing there. When deciding for where to build castle AI should take into account ALL neighbors, not only the ones he controls. That way he will be building forts on bordering provinces if they are good, without need for special algorithms.

As for slowdowns, I don't think they should be significant since AI revalue his provinces only when he has enough gold to build castle, not every turn.

[ April 16, 2004, 15:23: Message edited by: Daynarr ]