[Game Breaking BUG] Return of Rome, AI Monks can covert player buildings from far away!

[TheChrno]

GAME INFORMATION

^{These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed.}

• GAME BUILD #: 101.103.16877.0 （#147949）18848918 Return of Rome
• GAME PLATFORM: Steam
• OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 11 & Windows 10

ISSUE EXPERIENCED

^{DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). LIMIT TO ONE BUG PER THREAD.}

This bug existed for months now if years, without any fix!

In Return of Rome, AI Monk can covert player’s buildings without standing next to it, including towers, along side all other buildings that a monk can convert.

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

^{How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; DELETE THE REST!}

• Less than 25% of the time / matches I play (RARELY)
• 25% of the time / matches I play (SOMETIMES)
• 50% of the time / matches I play (FREQUENTLY)
• 100% of the time / matches I play (ALWAYS)

100% of the time

REPRODUCTION STEPS

^{List CLEAR and DETAILED STEPS we can take to reproduce the issue ourselves… Be descriptive!}

Start an extreme AI game, give AI some monk civs like Egyptians or Babylons. You will see their monks start coveting your buildings from far distance, the Egyptians Monks can convert Towers from distance out of the Tower’s reach! Note human players’ monks CANNOT do that!

EXPECTED RESULT

^{What was SUPPOSED to happen if the bug you encountered were not present?}

Monks are expected to covert buildings only when they are standing next to the buildings.

IMAGE

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GAME FILES (SAVE / RECORDING)

^{Attach a SAVE GAME (.aoe2spgame) or GAME RECORDING (.aoe2record) of the match where you encountered the issue. Link it below if using an external file service.}

[Carver]

This bug has indeed been around for a very long time. +1 for fixing it

[TheChrno]

SP Replay v101.103.20329.0 @2025.08.03 035243.aoe2record (4.5 MB)

Can confirm the bug still exists in the latest PUP, screenshot and rec file from current pup_july test build (tested on Aug 3) for your reference.

[w4tt1e]

+1
I guess can be joined with this Bug-report from 2023

Monks converting buildings from a distance

Thank you, I added this savegame to our tickets system

(mentioned again in April 2025)

and this one from April 2024

Why my siege workshop converted IN DISTANCE!?!?

GAME INFORMATION These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed. GAME BUILD #: 101.102.44203.0 (#109739) 13929218 GAME PLATFORM: Steam OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10 ISSUE EXPERIENCED DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). LIMIT TO ONE BUG PER THREAD. My seige workshop and range yard converted by monk IN DISTANCE! FREQUENCY OF ISSUE How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; D…

and this one from Okt. 2024

AI monk convert building from full range

GAME INFORMATION These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed. GAME BUILD #: 125283 GAME PLATFORM: Steam OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10 ISSUE EXPERIENCED DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). LIMIT TO ONE BUG PER THREAD. monk convert buliding from full range FREQUENCY OF ISSUE How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; DELETE THE REST! Less than 25% of the time / matches …

and this one from Jan. 2025

AI Monks Convert Buildings From Distance

GAME INFORMATION These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed. GAME BUILD #: 130746 GAME PLATFORM: Steam OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 11 ISSUE EXPERIENCED DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). LIMIT TO ONE BUG PER THREAD. Occasionally the AI Monks can convert buildings from a distance instead of being next to it FREQUENCY OF ISSUE How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; D…

[w4tt1e]

Reported on reddit in June 2023 https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/14bjsm2/monks_converting_buildings_from_a_distance/
Mentioned again in April 2025

One more report on reddit from Okt. 2024
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/1gf67mw/immortal_ai_is_converting_my_buildings_from_afar/

[w4tt1e]

Reported by an aiscripter in the aiscripters-discord bug-reports-channel in May 2024
Reported in the same discord channel by another surprised veteran aiscripter in Nov. 2024

Reported in the Return of Rome community discord in Sept. 2024

Reported in the MS discord in March 2024
and in Jan. 2025
and in March 2025

Listed on the aiscripters-community bug-tracker since May 2024 Bug Tracker

Updates and DLC came and went, many civs and mechanics got introduced, jet this doesn’t seem to make it to the priority list of decision-makers

[SlenderBadger98]

Having priests converting buildings from the distance like they are units is crazy, combining that with the technology that makes it unnecessary for a group of priests to also regenerate faith is even more insane.

[hugehugecat]

Maybe the building conversion resource has set to 2 accidently

[w4tt1e]

Yet another long distance building conversion in the current community AI tournament. More to be expected. There’s clearly no significant issue to convert enemy buildings from outside the enemy players walls on arena, or is there?
In total there were FOUR buildings converted from distance/outside the walls in this game alone!
Game was played on the old patch, but there hasn’t been a change as far as I’m aware anyway.

[w4tt1e]

This time on the current patch.