The AI is not taking attrition during circumnavigation?

[IIWW]

I know that AI normally doesn't suffer naval attrtion, but it seems it is also the case during circumnavigation, which is in my opinion wrong.
The situation: I was playing some easy colonial game, random start. I was on Iberia, tech lvl ~16, and I got a pop up that a nation located in england has comleted the journey around the world. With no colonies east of Cape, none on Pacific, a few in SA (but nothing in patagonia/near Magellan strait). For me circumnavigation was impossible, yet the AI, having far worse conditions to do it, somehow managed to complete this quest. It seems like what I wrote above, they didn't take attrition. Of course it's one sample, so it could be very unlikely coincidence, but it doesn't seem right.

 

[Casiru]

I'm fairly sure nobody takes attrition when doing exploration missions. If this is the same for the circumnavigation mission then that's why.

 

[WeissRaben]

I'm fairly sure nobody takes attrition when doing exploration missions. If this is the same for the circumnavigation mission then that's why.

Nope. You take attrition during the circumnavigation mission.

 

[Ricox]

Very likely that the AI doesn't take attrition, because I had the same. Norway, with 3 colonies in Canada, managed to fulfill the mission, it had nothing colonized besides those 3 provinces, not even the islands on the way to circumnavigation, the player in such a case would be getting enormous attrition before even getting to Hawaii and his/hers ships would already be done for. It definitely seems like a bug. Even a high maneuver explorer wouldn't explain it due to the time & distance involved. I had to fail 3 tries before I succeeded with circumnavigation from Cape around the world with Falklands, the island near Peru and an island near Australia colonized (so there would be some parts where the navy isn't out of supply range in open sea) AND I had the Maritime idea group, which allowed my ships to repair at coastal provinces (it repaired along the South American coasts and near Pacific islands & India, but still 3 fleets were sunk from attrition just a few zones away from Middle East).

Completely unbelievable (more precisely - impossible) that the Norway AI would be capable of this without ignoring attrition.

The player does take attrition in that mission, though, FYI. It's the only mission in which you can take attrition (otherwise it would be rather pointless to have any bonuses for it - you could just instantly select the mission when reaching the tech and effortlessly complete it).

 

[IIWW]

So it's an oversight. It should most definatelly be an exception from AI cheating on attrition.
BTW: I know that this mission is an exception, and the player takes attrition. But normally AI does not take any naval attrtion, officially confirmed cheat.

 

[raikaria]

AI takes no naval attrition whatsoever ever.

 

[Nth Republic]

I'm not necroing this for no reason. This just happened to me in my first El Dorado game, as Castile->Spain. I had attempted the circumnavigation mission several times, with fleets of light ships and fleets of heavy ships, including after exploring all the sea zones necessary to complete it, and I had all of South America, the Caribbean, West Africa, New Zealand and several other islands in the South Pacific colonized and/or under CNs (as applicable). None of them made it, all having died due to attrition. Around 1620, Norway completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. Norway has 0 colonies anywhere in my game; it owns just the Norwegian provinces and Iceland. I was really hoping to get this achievement during this campaign and figured it wouldn't be much trouble as I'd eaten Portugal before it even established a single CN. At 1620, only France, England, the Netherlands, and myself as Spain have any colonies anywhere in the world, yet Norway somehow beat all of us to the punch with the circumnavigation. I can't imagine what I did wrong, or how this mission can be completed without the use of strategically-placed colonies spread around the globe so as to make circumnavigation doable. Needless to say, this makes it all but impossible to circumnavigate the earth by the 1520s as was done historically. That unfortunate reality of the system in its current state, working in concert with the fact that the AI seems to be able to do this without any problems due to an apparent AI immunity to naval attrition, makes me think something is very much not WAD vis à vis the automated exploration mission to circumnavigate the globe.

 

[IIWW]

I decided to bug report this.

 

[Nth Republic]

I decided to bug report this.

Good call. I've never done a bug report before and this really doesn't feel like it's working the way it's supposed to. Seeing that popup for Norway's achievement was infuriating...

 

[Jorlaan]

The AI is not supposed to get naval attrition, this is WAD.

 

[IIWW]

The AI is not supposed to get naval attrition, this is WAD.

Have You even read this thread?

 

[Xinkc]

Part of the problem is that the mission doesn't cause your ships to dock up if you have developed colonies or anything along the way. You're just chugging along, getting ever increasing "in open sea" modifiers to naval attrition. If I recall my history correctly, Magellan's voyage had many stops. How in God's green Earth do a hand-full of ships carry enough food and fresh water to adequately last them throughout a circumnavigation trip? Wouldn't the food spoil?

 

[Nth Republic]

Part of the problem is that the mission doesn't cause your ships to dock up if you have developed colonies or anything along the way. You're just chugging along, getting ever increasing "in open sea" modifiers to naval attrition. If I recall my history correctly, Magellan's voyage had many stops. How in God's green Earth do a hand-full of ships carry enough food and fresh water to adequately last them throughout a circumnavigation trip? Wouldn't the food spoil?

Yep. I noticed that too, and as far as I could tell, there wasn't a thing I could do about it: I simply had to watch yet another flotilla race against the attrition clock, apparently under the assumption that there was no land anywhere on earth, nowhere to rest, nowhere to refit. My colonists must have been wondering what was going through my explorer's head as they waved and looked on as he passed them by dragging 3-6 ship carcasses. The whole system seems a complete mess...

 

[Ontos]

I managed to circumnavigate as Ming in 1575-ish. It involved setting a colony in Patagonia, one in Brazil, and pretty much colonising the whole colony jump between South Asia and East Africa to prevent the AI from doing so.

I think the AI can only circumnavigate if their supply range covers the entirety (except for open sea) of the circumnavigation route.

 

[terminalstatus]

Yeah is kinda lame that the AI can basically do it easily. Had Brittany do it with no colonies, and with 3 provinces in the french region still.

 

[Squirrelloid]

Is anyone actually surprised by this?

I keep having random Indian nations I'm at war with as Denmark sailing troop transports all the way around Africa to try to land troops in Northern Europe. Human players would not do that - their ships would sink before they got there - so this isn't a case of ignoring attrition letting the AI do things a human can judge as reasonable or survivable. Ignoring attrition just leads to ridiculously stupid AI behavior.

 

[ArtayOfficial]

AI can explore with transports, that's why I'm not impressed. AI have a multiple bonuses, even when doesn't have "Bonuses: AI" activated. Maybe that was planned by PI.

 

[A-150]

Why is the AI not supposed to take naval attrition? Im my game France circumnavigated the globe in 1638, but they had no colonies in SA, some in NA though but very little, and 1 African colony south of Mali. I tried it with 5 ships, all died, and i had colonies in SA, NZ and the pacific. I didn't even make it past India.
Seriously though, they add new features that don't work. I want my fleet to stop and rest but no.

 

[Duruial]

Why is the AI not supposed to take naval attrition? Im my game France circumnavigated the globe in 1638, but they had no colonies in SA, some in NA though but very little, and 1 African colony south of Mali. I tried it with 5 ships, all died, and i had colonies in SA, NZ and the pacific. I didn't even make it past India.
Seriously though, they add new features that don't work. I want my fleet to stop and rest but no.

The AI does not take naval attrition due to the fact that it is not very good at managing attrition, unlike the player who can actively manage it. I agree, however, that the circumnavigation mission should be an exception to this rule, as the player cannot manage attrition during circumnavigation either, so the AI would be on even footing with the player in that regard.

 

[grommile]

Why is the AI not supposed to take naval attrition?

Because getting the EU3/4 AI to effectively handle naval attrition (i.e. to not lose ships purely to attrition while still being able to execute reasonable beyond-supply-range manoeuvres) is sufficiently hard, and sufficiently low-priority, that it hasn't been done yet.