BIG AI problem in Proportion games with "classical" movement :( :(

[oleg]

This is what I found :

OK, I'm testing AI: "human" player with all ministers ON - complete AI control. AI build colony ships, colonizes planets, build population transports, moce population, everythink works like Swiss clocks I'm happy.

Next, I strat a new game ,"classical" movement. Now this race start as "computer player", I'm playing some other race. Many turns later, say 50, I want to check how AI progress:
All colony ships and all(almost) population transports with loaded population sit idle around homeworld !!!!! Italian strike or something Completely puzzled I turn ON all ministers - next turn alls hips sail Swith back to AI, come back few turns later - they wrnt to strike again

Reason - "can not load cargo" Apparently AI tries to load population on already loaded ships, fail and ships stay idle. Crazy. Completely crazy.
But there is no such problem when I am watching .

Another test : same setup but "simultanious" movement - everything works ! No problem with computer players !

Obviously, there is a AI bug in "classical" movement.

Possible fix: Play simultaneous All PBM games are obviously do not have this problem
If you want to play classic - time after time take over computer players and clean up the mess by playing 1-2 turns with ministers "on" before swithing back. Tedious and impractical, I know.

Another solution : why AI tries to laod population twice in first place ?? My answer - "cargo storage" for supply bays. As a result colony ship/pop. transport has cargo capacity like 1008. AI loads 1M people, it becomes 1000/1008. Now it tries to fill that tiny space and fails. Why it affects only classical turn games - I do not know.

Now, PvK, please remove this offending cargo storage from supply bays ! I did't like it in the first place. Sounds like another exploit that AI can not use.

If PvK decides to keep it this way, my advice for anybody who plays solo games with classical movement - edit components.txt file by yourself if you want to see a normally functining AI.

P.S> Sometimes AI can clean this "can not load cargo" problem by itself and resume working. But it is usually only temporary.