Why does the AI not buy me out when it could?

[jhw]

I realize many posters on this forum feel that the AI for Railroad! is not very competetive, but I have only been playing for 2 weeks and am just beginning to win consistently against the AIs on Hard routing and Robber Baron difficulty.

One of the things I have noticed several times now are situations where an AI has plenty of money to buy me out, but refrains from doing so.

I've seen two flavors of this.

In one, I own 100% of my own stock, but the AI has a lot more than 20 times as much cash as my per-10% cost e.g. my shares sell for $1M, and the AI has $54M in cash, but doesn't bother to wipe me out.

In a more common case, I own say 80% of my shares and the AI owns the remaining 20%, and similarly I own between 30%-70% of that AI and it owns the remaining 70%-30%. We are in a cash race to see who can buy out whom, and I see that the AI has enough cash to buy me out, but never pulls the trigger. I end up catching up and being able to buy the AI out, when by rights I should have been eliminated.

I have also noticed AIs with gobs of cash leaving me alone when I own like 50% but the remaining 50% of my shares are unowned.

Has anybody else noticed this behavior? I assume so - but does anybody else have a better characterization of this behavior from the AI.

My best guesses are that AIs simply don't try to buy you if you have half of your shares, or that some AIs are not predatory in character (though I have seen this behavior from AIs which previously bought out a third competitor).

I'm not happy with the vagueness of the above - but I'm also a bit disapointed with the way the AIs are behaving. I feel like I am playing on max difficulty, so if I can be eliminated I should be eliminated - at *least* if my behavior suggests I am about to eliminate the AI in question.

Thanks to RedKnight and everybody else who contributed to the Wiki. It's great.
-Jesse

[snoopy55]

jhw - take a few minutes and read the following threads in "Strategy" and see if they clear anything up for you. Then come back here and tell us if you are more confused.......hey, this whole game is one big confusion...


Why is buyout price not tied to net worth?

I had the money, but i was bought out??

Confused About Buyouts

[jhw]

Thanks for responding, snoopy55.

I was familiar with those threads already, but on your advice I went back and reread them. The only post I found which addressed my concern was from you under I had the money, but i was bought out??, saying:

I just played a game where the top guy had 70% of my stock. At the time I couldn't do anything and thought the end was near! But I kept on going and eventually bought the 2nd richest out (who had gotten the 4th) which left me with 2.5mil. I reached 8.3mil and took the last guy.

Never say the end is near until the end is here and gone!

The other issues covered in those three threads cover confusion about buyout price, and misunderstandings about how a player could come to be bought out.

I'm not confused about any of those things: what I'm confused about is why I am not bought out by a very, very rich AI who has more than enough money to buy me out.

Example: I have 60% of my company, they have 40%. My buyout price is shown to be $8M, from which I calculate their buyout price is $12M. They have $15M, and I am rapidly saving up enough money to buy them out, but I'm not there yet. They don't, and I get a monopoly.

It isn't the mechanics that bother me, but the AI behavior: sometimes, inexplicably, they simply fail to pull the trigger.

I guess I'm really asking if anybody has a mental model for when the AIs decide to buy you out, and when they decide not to, because I'm certain that it isn't merely because they can't.

-Jesse

[CalmDragon]

dunno, maybe they are saving up for something more profitable. Tough one to figure out. On the railbaron setting, I seem to be bought out every game, no matter how much of my stock I have left. So I have been leaving one available, and when it gets bought, I work towards getting them instead.

[snoopy55]

Well, let's try this, each Character has different Skill Levels. These are found in RRT_Characters.xml in Assets\XML of the main game. Here is an explanation from Wiki of these 4 different skills:


<iBuildSkill>4</iBuildSkill> - This number decides the building skill of the player, 0 to 4, 4 being highest skill level.
<iFinanceSkill>4</iFinanceSkill> - This number decides the financial skill of the player, 0 to 4, 4 being highest skill level.
<iOperatorSkill>4</iOperatorSkill> - This number decides the train operating skill of the player, 0 to 4, 4 being highest skill level.
<iRobberSkill>4</iRobberSkill> - This number decides the goods stealing skill of the player, which decides how much he will try to take Goods from other players production, 0 to 4, 4 being highest skill level.

Just for the fun of it, go in and change all the <iFinanceSkill> levels to 4. (after you save a copy of the XML of course) Then play a map and see what you get.

If you look at RRT_Difficulty.xml while you are in there, you'll see that playing levels have nothing to do with the abilities of the AIs. They modify the cost of building your railroad, the money you start with, the number of stocks you start with and some of the timing settings.

If you want to note which AIs have the hardest settings rather than changing them, you can edit which AIs can be played in each map. It's a Scenario XML setting.

[jhw]

Sounds like a good plan - I'll give it a shot next time I get a chance to play (way too much work tonight).

[Star Ranger4]

Also, I have every reason to believe that what you are seeing is their NET worth, not neccecarily their cash on hand. SO while their net might be enough to buy you out, most of their worth is actually tied up in their own stock and equipment, and is not actually liquid and available for use in a buyout...