NOT A BUG: Disembarkation during naval battle: AI cheating or Bug?

[unmerged(9757)]

Disembarkation during naval battle: AI cheating or Bug?

I was advised to post this query to this forum. So here goes:

In a game as England, Spain has declared war on me several times now. In the last war, I set up a naval blockade to stop him from landing troops to recapture the colonies I took from him. (My naval tech was 11, Spain's was 5, and my DP was maxed out on Naval, so I could usually beat off his 30 ship armadas with just 5 or 6 ships). Much to my surprise, I found that the AI was still able to disembark troops even while the ships were still engaged in combat. So much for my blockade!

My question is: is this an intentional AI cheat, or was the AI overlooked when the "stop disembarkation during naval battle" change was made? Personally, I think it is a bug since it makes blockades rather pointless.

 

[State Machine]

I'm inclined to think bug. IIRC, naval combat would stop landings in EU I.

 

[EUnderhill]

Maybe by only having 5-6 ships it is taking too long to fend them off. If you have a spare savegame edit in a buttload of ships, enough to truly blast them out of the water, and see if it makes a difference.

Maybe I am wrong, but aren't you supposed to blockade ENEMY ports... not your own!!!

 

[unmerged(9757)]

Originally posted by EUnderhill
Maybe by only having 5-6 ships it is taking too long to fend them off. If you have a spare savegame edit in a buttload of ships, enough to truly blast them out of the water, and see if it makes a difference.

Yes, when I have more ships, then he loses too quick too disembark.

But that's not the point. He should not be able to either continue or commmence disembarking while engaged in a naval battle, IMO. By having no disembarkation happen during a naval battle, I am able to stop him from every landing troops: i.e. even if I am losing the battle, I can call in a squadron from an adjacent sea zone to start another naval battle before he can disembark. The AI does this to me all the time when I try to land on his islands; one fleet after the other keeps showing up, keeping me from landing my troops. I want to do the same!

Maybe I am wrong, but aren't you supposed to blockade ENEMY ports... not your own!!!

I thought the term "blockade" might be confusing, but I went ahead and used it. Perhaps "quarantene" might be a better word.

 

[State Machine]

Originally posted by cap_and_gown
I thought the term "blockade" might be confusing, but I went ahead and used it. Perhaps "quarantene" might be a better word.

I think "cordon" is the better term. In English, a line of force around something to either contain or keep out. Another term that would work, "picket line", being the patrols used to protect encampments, but it, I think is used more to detect problems rather than deal with them.

 

[EUnderhill]

So is the problem that when new ships enter the battle it resets the clock as to when the battle started, at least when you want to land troops, so that the troops never land because the game engine thinks that the battle has just started when reinforcements arrive? If not, I am inclined to think that it is working as designed. Despite the higher quality of your navy (and I thank you for not neglecting it) your underwhelming numbers maybe should not be sufficient to prevent invasion, so maybe you are making empty ships run screaming home


BTW nothing personal about questioning whether or not you were in the proper forum, but remember that I probably would not have seen your post had you not started it in GD. As State Machine may recall, I did a bit of testing on my own before reporting what turned out to be bug #206. When I am guilty of expecting others to act as I do, it is because I felt I was acting in the manner I would have expected others to expect me to act; sometimes I guess incorrectly.

 

[AndrewT]

Cap_and_gown: Do you have 1.05 applied? It changed the behaviour of ships and (un)loading in combat quite a bit.

 

[unmerged(9757)]

Yes, I am using 1.05. That is why expected my cordon to stop him from disembarking. That *is* one of the changes that was made for human players. I had thought that this would change would apply to the AI as well.

 

[AndrewT]

I'm sure I recall having unloading troops stopped by naval combat since 1.05, so if you are seeing what you say you are that does sound like a problem. I'm checking it up back in the beta forum.

One thought - could it be there's more than one AI fleet, and you are fighting one while the other unloads?

 

[AndrewT]

The betas agree - it is likely there were two enemy fleets involved. As naval combat is not automatic at lower naval tech levels a troop-carrying fleet may have slipped by your cordon while the combat was occurring.

 

[unmerged(9757)]

OK, I guess that was what happened; there were multiple fleets.

 

[unmerged(1345)]

I have seen both my fleets and the AI's fleets be blocked from dis-embarking troops through naval combat. It can be unnerving when you're trying to land troops, but very realistic. . .