Site searching spells - AI select likely province?

Profanicus · #1 April 10th, 2008, 08:45 AM

Hi all, I have a question for the more knowledgeable amongst us:
When using spells to search remote provinces for magic sites, the AI pre-selects a province after you have chosen the ritual to cast.
Is there any rhyme or reason behind this selection? Does the program target the more likely provinces for that path, or is it just a random unsearched province?
cheers!

VedalkenBear · #2 April 10th, 2008, 08:53 AM

Pro: The computer seems to select the lowest-numbered province you control, subject to the following criteria.

1) The province has not been manually searched.
2) The province has not been automatically searched for the path in question (i.e., it won't Augury a province that has already been Auguried).
3) The province currently has fewer than two sites located within it.

AFAIK, these are the only criteria it uses. It will not, e.g., preferentially search forest provinces with Haruspex. Also, it will cheerfully search your capital province if you are a nation with only one site located there.

Generally speaking, if there are no provinces that fit those criteria, it seems to default to searching your capital. That's a good indication that you may want to check for why it's 'not working'.

thejeff · #3 April 10th, 2008, 09:09 AM

Actually if there are no provinces with those criteria it defaults to selecting the province the casting mage is in.

But that's only when you're ordering the mage to cast. If you've got him set to cast monthly and he casts this month's spell and can't find another province to target, he'll revert to defend.

Profanicus · #4 April 10th, 2008, 09:44 AM

Wow thanks guys, speedy AND comprehensive!
My curiosity is now officially satisfied. For the moment at least..

Oh ok I'm still curious:
If I build a fort, are any/all sites discovered automatically in that province? I am sure I have had sites pop up in newly built forts without searching...

Sorry if this has been answered before, I did try a search.

thejeff · #5 April 10th, 2008, 10:10 AM

No, building forts has no effect on finding sites.

You may have had an event that added a site?

VedalkenBear · #6 April 10th, 2008, 11:15 AM

Pro: It's more likely the other way around. There are certain sites that give you a Fortress in the province when you find them. The Firbolg Fortress, the Jervellan Wall, and the Kelp Fortresses (underwater for the Kelp) are all examples.

Foodstamp · #7 April 10th, 2008, 02:26 PM

One thing to add about site searching. If you start monthly site searching, and then take new provinces with lower province numbers than the sites you had at the start of the site searching, it will make the site searching do all kinds of crazy things, including refusing to check certain provinces and insisting upon searching your capital.

VedalkenBear · #8 April 10th, 2008, 02:46 PM

I haven't seen this myself, Foodstamp, except when the above criteria are met. Something that _does_ happen is that the target for the current month's rituals (assuming a monthly ritual is done) is selected (apparently) immediately after the ritual is completed, which means that your 'current' conquests of that turn will not be searched the following turn. Generally, they will be searched the turn after that.

thejeff · #9 April 10th, 2008, 02:46 PM

No, it will not go crazy. Or at least I've never seen it.

The algorithm is pretty well understood now and I've never seen it go wrong.

The only bit not mentioned here already is that when a mage is site searching monthly, he picks his new target before battles take place, so he doesn't consider newly won provinces. He could also target a province you lost that turn.
That might be the source of your "refusing to check certain provinces", but he won't actually cast on your capital (unless it has less than 2 sites and hasn't been searched already), he'll just go the "defend" if he can't find a valid province.

Foodstamp · #10 April 10th, 2008, 03:06 PM

Really, this never happens to you? I don't mean the turn of the conquest btw, I mean it and the turns following.

I notice it in quite a few games. Maybe it is a combination of the criteria you listed making the search look weird. Sometimes I get frustrated and let it search the capital in hopes that I won't have to manually set the searchers after that.

Sometimes it just refuses to search a province. The mage will go back to defend with plenty of gems left. In one game right now I am having to manually search a mountain province with 3500 population and no magic sites found because the AI does not want to search it.