Roads+

[Mathew Graham]

Apologies in advance for the size of the image. I left the game running overnight on fast forward, and that is the result with the roads. The AI will also do this in towns when playing normally effectively destroying the town. Is there a way to prevent the AI from doing this apart from preventing them from using vehicles?

It also appears that the AI never uses boats?

Cheers and thanks to the developers for OpenTTD

[DaleStan]

There's an attachment tool on these forums for a reason. USE IT!

There's also, before you complain, an edit button in your post. Make use of it too.

[Mathew Graham]

There's an attachment tool on these forums for a reason. USE IT!

There's also, before you complain, an edit button in your post. Make use of it too.

Thanks for your stunningly brilliant politeness.

[spaceman-spiff]

There's an attachment tool on these forums for a reason. USE IT!

There's also, before you complain, an edit button in your post. Make use of it too.

Can you please stop playing moderator, this is no way to talk to a new member, you're unpolite

[Doorslammer]

I could imagine him any differently...

As for the roads, ugh, thank god there is always multiplayer to use instead...

[Mathew Graham]

As for the roads, ugh, thank god there is always multiplayer to use instead...

Agreed, and 99% of the time I do play multiplayer, however, sometimes its fun just to have a game that lasts 5 days, single player at your own pace.

[DaleStan]

Can you please stop playing moderator, this is no way to talk to a new member, you're unpolite

No, I can't; yes, it is; and yes, I am; respectively. And I'm not sorry. Nor am I sorry that I can't honestly say that I am sorry. Etcetera.

I've explained the dichotomy between friendly and useful before. Which one do you want?

Is there a way to prevent the AI from doing this apart from preventing them from using vehicles?

Now that I can actually see your post: Yes. At least two. (1) Disable the AI. (2) Use the NoAI branch and a useful AI. I take a third solution ("tolerate it") so I can't give you many hints on the first solution, and none on the second.

[maartena]

There's an attachment tool on these forums for a reason. USE IT!

There's also, before you complain, an edit button in your post. Make use of it too.

Thanks for your stunningly brilliant politeness.

Welcome to the OpenTTD forums.

Meet our forum b****, Dalestan.

He is not known to be very polite, and he doesn't give a damn either.

[CMircea]

Welcome to the OpenTTD forums.

Meet our forum b****, Dalestan.

He is not known to be very polite, and he doesn't give a damn either.

[offtopic]

Hey, he may not be polite, but he's really helpful, and I admire him for that, and he's always right with what he says.

[/offtopic]

Well, as DaleStan said, there's not much you can do, since the current AI is the same from TTD itself, so you can expect that to happen. And nobody is really interested in making a new AI either, because most of us play on multiplayer.

[Bjarni]

Is there a way to prevent the AI from doing this apart from preventing them from using vehicles?

Now that I can actually see your post: Yes. At least two. (1) Disable the AI. (2) Use the NoAI branch and a useful AI. I take a third solution ("tolerate it") so I can't give you many hints on the first solution, and none on the second.

You can also enable the new alpha AI under competitors in the patch settings window. This one can still screw up once in a while but it's way better than the old one. Because it's not finished (and discontinued) it will only build road vehicles but at least it will build sane roads.

Also the AI will not build any ships because nobody ever coded AI ship handling code.

[Mathew Graham]

Is there a way to prevent the AI from doing this apart from preventing them from using vehicles?

Now that I can actually see your post: Yes. At least two. (1) Disable the AI. (2) Use the NoAI branch and a useful AI. I take a third solution ("tolerate it") so I can't give you many hints on the first solution, and none on the second.

Ah ok, I wasn't sure if it was just a setting I had done wrong or something.

Welcome to the OpenTTD forums.

Meet our forum b****, Dalestan.

He is not known to be very polite, and he doesn't give a damn either.

Thanks Maarten!

Well, as DaleStan said, there's not much you can do, since the current AI is the same from TTD itself, so you can expect that to happen. And nobody is really interested in making a new AI either, because most of us play on multiplayer.

I figured it was the same, and I agree about the multiplayer, much more fun doing strategies with real players. Watching the AI doing train's is hilarious though.

Also the AI will not build any ships because nobody ever coded AI ship handling code.

Ahh, cool, thanks

[Moriarty]

Can you please stop playing moderator, this is no way to talk to a new member, you're unpolite

No, I can't; yes, it is; and yes, I am; respectively. And I'm not sorry. Nor am I sorry that I can't honestly say that I am sorry. Etcetera.

I've explained the dichotomy between friendly and useful before. Which one do you want?

Aka a false dichotomy. It's quite possible to be friendly AND helpful, essepecially on this forum (there are others where you can find neither).

[froggo...]

Couldn't this solve it?

AI No road vehicles?

Road.png (19.62 KiB) Viewed 5138 times

Or are you talking about town growth?

Betterroads.png (30.69 KiB) Viewed 5134 times

Sorry if I'm missing something/am being obtuse.

[Mathew Graham]

Couldn't this solve it?

Road.png

Or are you talking about town growth?

Betterroads.png

Sorry if I'm missing something/am being obtuse.

The roads that spread across the whole map are generated, and owned by the AI. The grid/better roads feature works well for towns to stop blocking themselves from expanding though.

[spaceman-spiff]

Can you please stop playing moderator, this is no way to talk to a new member, you're unpolite

No, I can't; yes, it is; and yes, I am; respectively. And I'm not sorry. Nor am I sorry that I can't honestly say that I am sorry. Etcetera.

I've explained the dichotomy between friendly and useful before. Which one do you want?

I see you won't change, this was my last friendly warning to you

[one billion daleks]

Matthew ... yes, the AI is a bit lame but that's inevitable ... bear in mind though that just programming a computer to play chess competently is mind-bogglingly difficult, yet chess is quite elementary compared to Transport Tycoon!

Nevertheless, there are some techniques you can use to compensate for the shortcomings of the AI ...
This just illustrates the concepts, it uses cheatcodes as 'Creative Cheating', to positive effect ...

I play a very large scenario with three AI players.

Player 1 (human) is the Game Administrator ... this player is issued $20 million dollars (cheat). The sole function of Player 1 is to go around cleaning up the messes created by the three AI players. All roads created by the AI are demolished by Player 1 and replaced by Player 1 roads, that the AI players then use. This is done using cheats. You can see at a glance which roads need 'attention' from Player 1 by using the mini-maps.

So how does the human player participate ...?
In my case, I rotate from one AI player to the next ...
One day I play as Player 2, the next day I play as Player 3, then Player 4.
And on the fourth day I become Game Administrator and have a big cleanup of the map!

I find this works very well, and over a period of weeks a very rich and complex game can emerge. It is also pleasantly surprising what the AI will come up with on the days you're not sitting in its chair, so each AI player still develops their own style ... even though it is you who is overseeing the whole thing!

There is actually quite a bit more to this game-play technique, but hopefully you get the drift

PS: Apparently, there is a way to transfer money between companies ... though I haven't figured out how to do that! But it would be very handy for managing this style of game ... instead of issuing Player 1 with $20 million dollars upfront, the AI players could instead be 'taxed', and be required to donate funds to Player 1 for roads maintenance! Perhaps the tax would be based on how big a mess they made of the map haha!

[athanasios]

{
[quote="spaceman-spiff"][quote="DaleStan"][quote="spaceman-spiff"]Can you please stop playing moderator, this is no way to talk to a new member, you're unpolite[/quote]No, I can't; yes, it is; and yes, I am; respectively. And I'm not sorry. Nor am I sorry that I can't honestly say that I am sorry. Etcetera.

I've explained the dichotomy between friendly and useful before. Which one do you want?
[/quote]
I see you won't change, this was my last friendly warning to you [/quote]DaleStan to be banned?
I wouldn't bare a day without his caustic comments.
}
Mathew Graham: Welcome to the forums Dude!
I rarely play with the AI enabled. AI just spoils everything. And if you 'fix' his rails he will remove them. That's how clever AI is.

[one billion daleks]

AI just spoils everything. And if you 'fix' his rails he will remove them. That's how clever AI is.

Yes, the AI is a bit like an unruly child ... however it can be managed.

You're right about the AI's enthusiasm for removing rail, but it can in fact be prevented. If you activate the cheat to "build in pause mode" then you can modify or create AI rail successfully ... provided there is at least one train with a pickup and delivery established on the route (before you unpause the game), the AI will leave it alone.

But as you correctly point out, if you try to do this without the pause cheat, the AI will delete your rail as quick as you lay it down! The AI also likes to delete passenger and goods stations if they haven't got a service depot next to them ... though oddly enough, this isn't always the case, sometimes it leaves them intact - I haven't figured out why.

I modify road and rail on behalf of the AI for aesthetic reasons, but aim to stick to its original intent, so as to maintain a random element in game evolution. I will also create shipping routes on behalf of the AI, provided there's a clear opportunity for the AI player to develop its transportation network with a few ships, which of course it can't exploit itself because of the lack of shipping functions in AI code.

[sickie]

DaleStan to be banned?
I wouldn't bare a day without his caustic comments.

Yeah, Mr. Moderator, don't do anything stupid. Reading DaleStan's comments is always hilarious

[Korenn]

I see you won't change, this was my last friendly warning to you

I think he's changed quite significantly over the last couple of years, he used to be downright hostile to anything connected to OTTD. Compared to that Dalestan, I like the current version much better.