Changing AI campaign behaviour

[Finn MacCumhail]

Hello everyone!

As far as you know, AI behavior on the campaign map is controlled by the descr_strat.txt file and by the line which starts with faction factionname. (may be by smth else as well) For example:

faction seleucid, bureaucrat caesar

where the first word (here bureaucrat) controls Development and Strategy, while the second one (here Caesar) - controls recruitment preferences of the AI


There are possible options:

Trader
Balanced
Comfortable
Bureaucrat
Religion
Fortified
Sailor
Craftsman

Genghis – scirmish and light cavalry
Caesar – heavy infantry, light cavalry, artillery
Napoleon – light and heavy infantry, light cavalry
Mao – mass light infantry recruitment
Stalin – mass heavy infantry recruitment
Smith – no preferencies
Henry – heavy and light cavalry, missile infantry

This is well known information, if you want, you can look for it, unfortunately I don't remember exactly about Craftsman, Sailor and so on,


That is theory.

And now lets speak about the practice. Who has tried to edit this lines to get different AI behavior, with other factions being *colorname* fever?

After editing some of the characteristics of several factions, I picked up Casse and wait and see what was going on. (on Alex exe)

Yes, Ptolies are not Yellow Fever anymore after I made them Fortified Mao (sit still and develop, use light infantry).

Picture

https://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc518/ebnomfinn/RomeTW-ALX2012-05-0210-13-41-76.jpg

And now I will need your help. Backup your descr_strat.txt, and experiment with this file. Lets make Pahlava, Hayasdan, Pontos and Casse new steamrolls.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I haven't tried this, but I'm going to now - inspired by your post! Would love to have a 'Red Death' instead of a 'Yellow Fever', and make Casse, Lusotann, Getai, Saba, Sauromatae, Sweboz and Carthage all go turtle as well (i.e. those factions with mainly Eleutheroi for neighbours and thus have an easier time of it.)

Here's a list of the internal faction names for reference:

Arche Seleukeia - romans_julii
Baktria - romans_brutii
Hayasadan - romans_scipii
Saba - saba
Pontos - carthage
Saka Rauka - pontus
Sauromatae - armenia
Pahlava - parthia
Ptolemaioi - numidia
Qart-Hadast - egypt
Aedui - gauls
Arverni - scythia
Lusotann - spain
Sweboz - germans
Casse - britons
Romani - seleucid
Epeiros - thrace
Koinon Hellenon - greek_cities
Makedonia - macedon
Getai - dacia

[d'Arthez]

balanced - biases towards growth, taxable income, trade level bonuses (roads), walls and xp bonus buildings

religious - biases towards growth, loyalty, taxable income, farming, walls and law

trader - biases towards growth, trade level, trade base, weapon upgrades, games, races and xp bonus buildings

comfort - biases towards growth, farming, games, races, xp bonus and happiness

bureaucrat - biases towards taxable income, growth, pop health, trade, walls, improved bodyguards and law

craftsman - biases towards walls, races, taxable income, weapon upgrades, xp bonuses, mines, health and growth

sailor - biases towards sea trade, taxable income, walls, growth, trade

fortified - biases towards walls, taxable income, growth, loyalty, defenses, bodyguards and law

(retrieved from: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/archive/index.php/t-86346.html)

[fallen851]

This is the most important thread to grace this forum in months. Thank you so much for this!

[Finn MacCumhail]

Titus, d'Arthez thanks for the information.

Well, I suggest the following list, but remember, Ptolies and AS are made weak, so it would be unfair to fight with them by human player, so pick up some Western faction to play. Don't forget to tell what was the result.

Arche Seleukeia - romans_julii - [fortified mao]
Ptolemaioi - numidia - [fortified mao]
Baktria - romans_brutii - [bureaucrat napoleon]
Hayasadan - romans_scipii - [trader henry]
Saba - saba - [trader henry]
Pontos - carthage - [trader stalin]
Saka Rauka - pontus - [bureaucrat genghis]
Sauromatae - armenia - [bureaucrat genghis]
Pahlava - parthia - [trader henry] or [trader genghis]
Qart-Hadast - egypt - [bureaucrat napoleon]
Aedui - gauls - [balanced smith]
Arverni - scythia - [balanced smith]
Lusotann - spain - [craftsman caesar]
Sweboz - germans - [comfort stalin]
Casse - britons - [religious smith]
Romani - seleucid - [balanced caesar]
Epeiros - thrace - [bureaucrat henry]
Koinon Hellenon - greek_cities - [bureaucrat napoleon]
Makedonia - macedon - [craftsman stalin]
Getai - dacia - [trader stalin]

[seleucid empire]

Titus, d'Arthez thanks for the information.

Well, I suggest the following list, but remember, Ptolies and AS are made weak, so it would be unfair to fight with them by human player, so pick up some Western faction to play. Don't forget to tell what was the result.

Makedonia - macedon - [craftsman stalin]


This looks like black death to me lol

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

These control a set of AI production personalities, which contribute a bias towards building and training (but not retraining or repairing). This bias is fairly small compared to game-generated factors such as "the enemy is attacking me with lots of cavalry, build me some spearmen". Explaining the weighting system which drives the production AI in full is beyond the scope of this document as it would take several days to write.

So in short, the building construction personalities are these: (ranked highest to lowest - therother)

balanced - biases towards growth, taxable income, trade level bonuses (roads), walls and xp bonus buildings

religious - biases towards growth, loyalty, taxable income, farming, walls and law

trader - biases towards growth, trade level, trade base, weapon upgrades, games, races and xp bonus buildings

comfort - biases towards growth, farming, games, races, xp bonus and happiness

bureaucrat - biases towards taxable income, growth, pop health, trade, walls, improved bodyguards and law

craftsman - biases towards walls, races, taxable income, weapon upgrades, xp bonuses, mines, health and growth

sailor - biases towards sea trade, taxable income, walls, growth, trade

fortified - biases towards walls, taxable income, growth, loyalty, defenses, bodyguards and law

These biases are towards building properties, rather than buildings themselves. The game does not know what a "Blacksmith" is, for example, it only knows that it is a building which provides a weapon upgrade, and hence a Craftsman AI would be more likely to build it than another AI personality type.

These are then combined with a troop production personality, as follows:

smith - exactly level

mao - biased towards mass troops, light infantry

genghis - biased towards missile cavalry and light cavalry

stalin - biased towards heavy infantry, mass troops and artillery

napoleon - biased towards a mix of light and heavy infantry, light cavalry

henry - biased towards heavy and light cavalry, missile infantry

Caesar - biased towards heavy infantry, light cavalry, siege artillery

The same system as for the buildings applies. Troop category and class are combined at the time the unit database is loaded to give a unit production type, and the likelihood of the AI choosing to produce a given unit type which can be produced is then modified by the unit type weighting. There is also a random element in the choosing of which building or troop type to produce next, so the effect of the bias is a statistical thing. Another factor that is applied over the top which may obscure the bias is a tendency towards producing troop mixtures (according to what is already in the garrison) and a weighting according to unit strength.

The two sets of types can be freely combined; for example, although Fortified Caesar does not appear in the list of options currently used by the vanilla RTW game, it is a valid combination.

From: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/archive/index.php/t-86346.html

[Finn MacCumhail]

Thanks you, Titus Marcellus Scato, but d'Arthez already explained that stuff https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?141275-Changing-AI-campaign-behaviour&p=2053447398&viewfull=1#post2053447398

All in all this is theoretical speculations. But I suggest to find out on practice what would happen. Changing descr_strat will not affect your ongoing campaigns. But perhaps you would have another gaming experience in the campaigns launched from edited descr_strat.

From what I have seen, Pahlava doing well in the first years. They take Marakanda and the city southern to Nisa in the very beginning. Then they assemble troops in their towns and defend from AS stacks. Sometimes AS takes Nisa, but it always rebels back to Pahlava. Baktria is very aggressive, in first 10 years they take Taxila, Kophen, the Northern city with HA fullstacks, some southern cities and ready to continue. Saka is very active. Pontos is about to controlthe North of Asia Minor. Carthies forot about Numidia and decided to take Ptolies first. Sweboz are good as always. AS has not lost it's power. Makedon ddn't became Black death.

Anyway, this is only my observation, it might be the accidental thing, so i would like someone else try and tell what has happend.

[belliger]

hi all.- is the changing AI savegame compatible?

[belliger]

hi again. I ask: if i change descr_strat, is it savegame compatible?

[Finn MacCumhail]

Hi belliger, yes it is savegame compatible. It will not affect the AI behaviour of your ongoing campaigns, or future campaigns generated from different descr_strat.

Don't forget to backup descr_strat.

Good luck to you, and don't forget to inform us what has happen.

[belliger]

''don't forget to inform us what has happen.''
you made me scared...

[belliger]

actually, i am playing already with some changes, and ... so far so good. i the former game, i was a bit upset about te s.c. 'yellow fever' that, as you all know, is absolutely unrealistic. so i will see if it is working. right now, i am still fighting in itay celts and qarthadastinners

[Blxz]

So in 3 weeks has anyone got any screenshots or any data to show if this works or not?

[Finn MacCumhail]

Unfortunately I don't have time right this days to make a deep practice research in this direction. But, Blxz, you can get to know if this works or not by yourself.

Nothing bad would happen. It will not affect your ongoing campaigns. In case if this is works, you will have another gaming experience, if it doesn't works, you would have usual EB factions behavior.

You have nothing to loose.

[Blxz]

Time is a little short for me lately. I haven't been playing EB at all for a few months. I was however, just curious about whether this works or not as I remember thinking about something like this for myself many moons ago (not that it was quite as detailed or that I ever did it). So I am interested to see if anyone has tested it.

[d'Arthez]

Is there not a way to run with automated scripts?

[mikepettyrtw]

I am trying this now and starting a new Getai game. Will post results (and screenshots) and post any changes I made.

[moisesjns]

I have no pictures as proof. But i will say this. I followed your advice and made these changes, but i also edited the money script so that each faction is at a constant 30 thousand denarii and if they dip below that they are given 40 thousand more and the armies have been a lot better than they were before. I am playing on Alx.exe as well so i have seen actual professional troops and armies now. Of course i will have to wait for the roman reforms in order to see how they are.