I've seen the AI use those ships to survey anomalies. Otherwise, I wouldn't have considered trying to do this. Still, it doesn't matter, because I can't manage to recreate what I did back then. I'm missing something, but I don't know what.
Ok, I'm sorry, I didn't guess to that. But it's nice to know that it can happen, although I've also unsuccessfully tried it (by altering GC2Ships.xml) but maybe I should give it another try!
I added the base production, because the AI was often placing Power Plants and other production enhancers on bonus tiles. Otherwise, those tiles would be completely wasted. Plus, I wasn't just talking about manufacturing bonus tiles, but all of them. The AI, especially AIP 11, regularly places mismatched improvements on those tiles. Just look at this:
This screenshot is perfectly ok with the logical routines that are part of the program . For a human player it doesn't make much "sense" but a computer doesn't associate like a human brain but instead works in logical routines.
I can give you a symbolic example:
1. If NextObjectInBuildQueue=Factory AND ProductionBonusTile=True then PlaceObject else go NextRoutine/Line -->
2. If BonusTile=UnTrue then PlaceObject else go NextRoutine/Line -->
3. PlaceObject
4. Return
This subroutine will do the following:
It places a factory on a factory-bonus tile. If no such bonus-tile is present it will place the factory on an empty tile (to not clock up other bonustiles). And lastly, it will force the object to be placed no matter how the condition is, in the case where no non-bonustiles are free (for example, only one last tile free and there is an unrelated bonus on it)
With these 3 easy logical combinations it is possible to describe what did happen in your screenshot.
The planetary governor of the AI worked down it's queue:
1. Starport
2. Central Mine
3. Recruiting Center
everything that follows now is already irrelevant no matter how you sort it, though it did include
- Temple of Memoires
- Farm
- Bank
Let's treat the above logical combinations as a subroutine which is feeded with our queue, (although everytime the game gets a new object in his queue it will first check whether this brings any bonuses to the table which could be associated with bonustiles [the game does this, it's easily recheckable using the planetary governor], and further, let line 1 not only work with factories but with all sorts of bonuses [this is doable by using the logical element "OR" right within the line or create just another line below 1.])
Then the result would be this:
1. Places Starport on empty tile (not bonus related)
2. Places Central Mine on production bonus tile
3. Forces Recruiting Center on random tile, in this case it's the food tile.
4. Forces all other improvements on random bonustiles.
You can use the planetary governor to verify that the logical placement of improvements is exactly like this.
We can further deduce from this what the game is unable to do, for example it will NOT EXAMINE what kind of bonustiles are available on planet (on colonization) and then design his social queue in order to get the most out of it; or, in other words, THE AI DOESNT SPECIALIZE PLANETS. You yourself acknowledged that multiple times here in this forum, and even in this thread - so why do you now expect him to do otherwise? Every novice player knows this instinctively from what he sees within his game .
The AI doesn't think like this "Oh, a lot of research bonus tiles, let's make a superresearch planet out of here. Hmmm, we have pretty less space available, so let's just put the TechCap, a RCC & ORC on it, fill the rest up with labs and let's even go so far to NOT build a starport or the other 1pp stuff, to really get the most out of it." That's human player thinking, the AI isn't doing that (although it could be done using logical routines, no problem here in the first place, although it would seriously incapacitate him in the following stuff:)
The AI doesn't even put up such a long build queue, he only enqueues a few improvements which reflect his GLOBAL NEEDS. This is actually a necessary programing to ensure that the AI doesn't get entrapped with specializing. For example, if an AI needs more money he can still enqueue banks EVEN IF he is in the situation of having alot of other-related bonustiles at his planets.
Yesterday I've written that I'm going to take the Drath in my game because they seem to be paralysed by a non-functioning economy + no farms. Well, gues what happened. He researched both - and by placing Stock Markets & farms at his planets he recovered. He's now leading in MMR & economically . That was only possible because his global needs were reflected in his research plans + planetary queue plans. Re-checking his planets here and then I can see he didn't optimally specialize his planets, but still globally it does make sense altogether. The game is still challenging, and that's the important factor, the essential function of the AI .
Gaunathor, your question of how many times I've seen the AI placing a Power Plant on a production bonus tile let me lay awake tonight. I cannot remember such a single incident although I've played nearly 100 games (!) in the last 2 months (you can see it in my MV profile or the AltMeta) using the UNMOODED game.
The funny thing is that right now testplaying this mod here it did change dramatically, (for example the Drath do have some of such planets [also with the RCC]), but in order to verifiy that I made some tests: conclusive.
See for yourself. Take the Drengin and control-N as long as you have 2 production-related bonustiles at your homeplanet, then use CTRL+SHIFT+R give yourself all technologies. The Drengin do have 2 production enhancing improvements (Devils Forge & Death Furnace), make a planetary governor:
1. Starport
2. Devils Forge
3. Death Furnace
4. Slave Canyon
5. Slave Canyon
Put this governor on your planet and check the results:
USING THIS MOD:
- Starport isn't placed because it's already there
- Devils Forge placed on bonus tile (bad)
- Death Furnace placed on bonus tile (bad)
- both Slave Canyons placed on free tile, because no bonus tiles were available anymore (bad)
USING VANILLA:
- Starport isn't placed because it's already there
- Devil's Forge placed on non-bonus tile (good)
- Death Furnace placed on non-bonus tile (good)
- both Slave Canyons placed on bonus-tiles (good)
The vanilla game does handle itself correctly, at least, in the described dimensions. As you see, there is a reason why many/most enhancing improvements do ONLY hold a percentage bonus and NO BASE - so the game can handle the placement correctly. At least, in his standard manor.
The balancing of the improvements did incorporate the devs knowledge of the hardcoded routines, something we can only guess at, or deduce from what we see in our games, although ultimately, things might still be way more complicated as it may appear in the first place
If I now use the governor to design either a research-only planet, or a production-only planet, and if there is a related bonus-tile on such planet then I will have to manually correct the queue all the time - although it did work out fine in the unmodded game.
Are you ok with introducing new nuissances? Esp. when I have reasons to believe that the AI uses the same logical routines and that it's not possible for the AI to "manually correct" himself....