Tired of seeing AI Castile & Portugal in Canada, can this PLEASE be fixed?

[LiberiusX]

I don't mind seeing Castile and Portugal in Canada or Chesapeake. What I do mind is them prioritizing it over South America, Mexico and any other area from which they can effectively steer trade to Seville. Chesapeake and St. Lawrence should be among there lowest priorities.

 

[greendevil]

I don't mind seeing Castile and Portugal in Canada or Chesapeake. What I do mind is them prioritizing it over South America, Mexico and any other area from which they can effectively steer trade to Seville. Chesapeake and St. Lawrence should be among there lowest priorities.

+1

 

[bisthebis]

I agree with Liberius, South america should be prioritized
BTW, I'm pretty sure the problem comes from the southern american climate, since 1.8 there is a lot more jungle

 

[greendevil]

I agree with Liberius, South america should be prioritized
BTW, I'm pretty sure the problem comes from the southern american climate, since 1.8 there is a lot more jungle

Yeah well AI is pretty poor when it comes to that, as well. During my Portugal campaign Castille parked a colonist in some western african jungle or desert province, can't remember. They had a stellar growth of ONE SETTLER PER YEAR and despite having discovered a lot of lands in the Caribbeans and America they continued to keep that settler there, for several decades.

 

[pgroves]

Not even a comment from Wiz? Seems like every obscure issue with the AI gets at least acknowledged or explained, yet this issue that many people have been complaining about since launch basically not only doesn't get fixed, it doesn't even get addressed, even if just to explain why it is impossible or not desirable to fix it.

Especially as they did used to colonise correctly in the early patches!

 

[Maria Theresa]

This is by far the most annoying thing about EU4 at the moment. I almost feel compelled to only play as England, France, Netherlands when playing in Europe and rush to Canada before the Iberians to stop them from ruining everything!:wacko:

 

[Pugman]

When they could use it to pull trade to their home trade node it sort of made sense, but now it doesn't. In fact, it now seems the AI doesn't consider trade at all when deciding where to colonize.

 

[Wesen]

As long as this sort of thing happens, Portuguese Canada really doesn't bother me all that much:

Wonder if things would change if the AI had a lower/no bonus to colonial range. Does anyone know if you can change it anywhere?

 

[LiberiusX]

When they could use it to pull trade to their home trade node it sort of made sense, but now it doesn't. In fact, it now seems the AI doesn't consider trade at all when deciding where to colonize.

Correct, but this has been a problem since before the West European Trade Node. The WETN just removed the symptoms of the disease, it didn't fix it at it's root cause.

Especially as they did used to colonise correctly in the early patches!

Yes, to the best of my knowledge, Castile and Portugal were making relatively smart colonial decisions in 1.0 and 1.1. I noticed it in 1.3. I was told that it was a problem since the release of 1.2(which I didn't play much due to battle mechanics being broken).

To the best of my knowledge, Wiz(or any other dev) has never commented on this issue.

 

[Ricox]

Not even a comment from Wiz? Seems like every obscure issue with the AI gets at least acknowledged or explained, yet this issue that many people have been complaining about since launch basically not only doesn't get fixed, it doesn't even get addressed, even if just to explain why it is impossible or not desirable to fix it.

The topic was made about 13 hours before your post, which was made at 15:45 (if Sweden was GMT +1, I don't even remember tbh, but they're close so Latvia so maybe +2) or 16:45 (not precise numbers eh). Not much time given here.

 

[LiberiusX]

The topic was made about 13 hours before your post, which was made at 15:45 (if Sweden was GMT +1, I don't even remember tbh, but they're close so Latvia so maybe +2) or 16:45 (not precise numbers eh). Not much time given here.

I think what Jubo means, is that this has been an issue for a long time. 1.2 was released September 24, 2013. That's well over a year ago, and there have been multiple threads on this topic since then. It is a pet peeve of mine, so I read through the threads when I see them and, as I said, to the best of my memory, I've never seen Wiz, Johan or any dev comment on this.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Portuguese fishermen visited Newfoundland before any Europeans settled there, and even made some small 'supply depot' villages. The idea that in an alternate history they could have been the ones to settle Canada isn't far-fetched at all.

It's trash in-game though. It costs money to colonize and the opportunity cost is colonizing a higher tax province in a trade node where they'll actually see value. Even in alternate history, the AI shouldn't shoot itself in the foot. It was the same problem with Siberia; history aside it is idiotic to colonize that as an Iberian unless you're conquered all of Russia and moved your capitol or you have no better alternative at all, which is almost never.

 

[Hiram_Maxim]

If I recall correctly, Spain had a historical claim to Canada that is reflected in their heraldry: You know that bird in Spain's coat of arms? It was inspired by a particularly majestic eagle Christopher Columbus observed flying over what is today Newfoundland.

 

[Kombatdoctr]

As long as this sort of thing happens, Portuguese Canada really doesn't bother me all that much:

Wonder if things would change if the AI had a lower/no bonus to colonial range. Does anyone know if you can change it anywhere?

I think they may have removed the bonus colonial range for AI in 1.8, I looked in the static_modifiers.txt and the only bonus to range now is for the tutorial.

 

[Sir Iain]

If I recall correctly, Spain had a historical claim to Canada that is reflected in their heraldry: You know that bird in Spain's coat of arms? It was inspired by a particularly majestic eagle Christopher Columbus observed flying over what is today Newfoundland.

You mean the Imperial Eagle that's reflects the Hohenstaufen hertitage of Naples?

Anyways, I agree that AI colonisation seems to be off at the moment. The AI doesn't seem to focus on specific nodes/colonal regions.

 

[Demetrios]

If I recall correctly, Spain had a historical claim to Canada that is reflected in their heraldry: You know that bird in Spain's coat of arms? It was inspired by a particularly majestic eagle Christopher Columbus observed flying over what is today Newfoundland.

I'm pretty sure Columbus never got closer than 1000 miles or so from Newfoundland.

 

[ahyangyi]

You mean the Imperial Eagle that's reflects the Hohenstaufen hertitage of Naples?

Anyways, I agree that AI colonisation seems to be off at the moment. The AI doesn't seem to focus on specific nodes/colonal regions.

They shouldn't, anyway. Otherwise the Random New World would be a even worse experience.

The key problem is they can't value colonization opportunities correctly. The correct fix is to fix their evaluation functions.

 

[Sir Iain]

They shouldn't, anyway. Otherwise the Random New World would be a even worse experience.

The key problem is they can't value colonization opportunities correctly. The correct fix is to fix their evaluation functions.

I've never used the random New world, but in the normal map, there's no reason for AI nations to have colonies all over the place, if it's possible to have more defensible and more profitable chunks of land.

 

[ahyangyi]

I've never used the random New world, but in the normal map, there's no reason for AI nations to have colonies all over the place, if it's possible to have more defensible and more profitable chunks of land.

Well, I was wrong in stating AI shouldn't have focus I meant they shouldn't have hardcoded focus, instead the code needs to consider the profit of the colonization more accurately.

 

[Casiru]

The AI is still colonizing the west coast of Africa before moving on to the America's so the whole system obviously needs an overhaul. I had a game where Spain was trying to colonize a West African province with -5 settlers per month and when the colony disappeared they just sent the colonist back to the same province.