MedMod Delays AI thinking in advanced games?

[Demequis]

Hi guys,

I've been playing medmod for a while now and of course I can't stop...definitely has revitalized the game, and then some
Unfortunately whenever I get to stages in the game where the AI has huge landmass and even bigger armies it spends so much time on the "thinking" stage that it makes the game virtually unplayable. I'm not really trying to fix this problem anymore as I'm pretty sure it's some conflict between my system and medmod or that my current game is corrupted (I've only played several campaigns on medmod, but the ai nation(s) is much larger in this one than in my others).

I'm experiencing delays of 2-5 minutes depending on the turn and situation of the map, with the dominant faction on the map.

Has anyone else experienced these sorts of difficulties with medmod?

I searched but the only post I found that was similar was this post (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=5;t=7877) which raises the question that it might have to do with the links at constantinople/flanders being severed?

To the coding impaired (me) this doesn't seem like it would effect the ai at all, but then again I really wouldn't know.

Anyway, just curious if others may have had a similar problem.

Thanks.

[discovery1]

You are not alone. I am suffering from the same problems in my latest campaign. Sometimes the delay lasted for minutes but other times it was normal. I suppose the only we the problem can be solved b4 v4 is released is by wiping the larger fraction off the map

[lancelot]

I dont have medmod but I did remove the flanders link and I have never had any probs with that.

I did experience slow down sometimes. This only happened when one or more AI factions became a dominant power. Also my comp at the time wasnt the greatest.

Slowdown, I think is one of the crosses we have to bear sometimes.

Just make sure you are the dominant power http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Ellesthyan]

I think in the medmod the a.i. has to go through many more units/buildings, and therefore takes a long time to work. I doubt it can be solved, and I can only conclude that the next version will have this problem even greater.

[Lord Ovaat]

I get the pauses, but not that often, though some are pretty long. It does give me a chance to go get coffee. It is odd, but it's been my experience the AI seems to really ponder when down to a few factions, but runs well when directing many factions and the whole map. Seems like the situation should be reversed.

[tombom]

The longest pauses I get are about 45 second ones when the faction is down to about 40 people stuck in the castle. For large factions, it thinks instantly.

[anvil]

I have found the same problem,, that the ai spends a great amount of time thinking in the latter stages of the game.

anvil

[insolent1]

The long "thinking" process that the AI goes through can happen in the unmodded game. I'd actually say in Medmod that it should occur less as the med & north sea are seperated.
From what I know I think its caused by troop movements & organisation. It happens when there is one very big faction that has ships in every sea zone & when it comes to every turn the AI moves masses of troops around to different provinces. It is quite annoying as the AI spends ages thinking over moving "bits of units" that rarely make a difference. It is very easy to stop this happening just attack them & take control of the sea zones. I have had it go on for nearly 5 mins & then 2 turns later i'm at war with them & all sea zones are blockaded & it goes back to normal so long as they don't have sea control.

[WesW]

Quote[/b] (insolent1 @ April 07 2004,01:48)]The long "thinking" process that the AI goes through can happen in the unmodded game. I'd actually say in Medmod that it should occur less as the med & north sea are seperated.
From what I know I think its caused by troop movements & organisation. It happens when there is one very big faction that has ships in every sea zone & when it comes to every turn the AI moves masses of troops around to different provinces. It is quite annoying as the AI spends ages thinking over moving "bits of units" that rarely make a difference. It is very easy to stop this happening just attack them & take control of the sea zones. I have had it go on for nearly 5 mins & then 2 turns later i'm at war with them & all sea zones are blockaded & it goes back to normal so long as they don't have sea control.
I think you are on to the answer with your last comment. The AI looks at each province, then its neighbors, calculates needs, opportunities, etc., and possible ways of achieving all these things in the most effective way.
When it has a lot of coastal provinces and a large navy, this increases the possible combinations of achieving its decisions exponentially, and thus you get the delays.

We had access to the time settings for these things in Call-to-Power, and did some experimenting, and I seem to remember that we helped things some, but its really a no-win situation. Either you have to wait, or else force the AI into making sub-optimal decisions. You just have to look at the present situation and decide.
Since we don't have access to the settings themselves, the other options would be to break the sea connections, reduce the number of ports the AI builds, which could kill it economically earlier in the game, or try and reduce the number of units that it builds, which again gets into economics.

From what I have read, Shogun didn't have anything more than a simple, very rudimentary trade system, and only added ships, ports, and the trade network for Medieval at the request of fans, so it wasn't a priority to begin with.
I guess that in Shogun the economics were nothing more than the land value of the provinces, with the option of building a merchant for trade with the Netherlands, but nothing more, not even ships for moving around Japan http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-stunned.gif

I realize that the tactical battlefield AI has to be the main priority for this game series, but I hope they put more effort into Rome's economic system.

[+DOC+]

In my modding experience this problem is related to the severing of established land bridges, in particular the one between Flanders and Wessex and the one between Morocco and Spain. This seems to greatly increase the AI pathfinding time.

Restore the land bridge between Flanders and Wessex in MEdmod 3.14 and voila, you should get no more massive slow downs. :)

Doc

[Rosacrux]

With my (extensive) experience with MedMod, I think it happens when a faction becomes really large. I have as long as 1 minute turns in the very late stages of the game, when a faction becomes reeeeally big.

[+DOC+]

Have you tried restoring the severed the bridges? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif

[Turbo]

Quote[/b] (+DOC+ @ April 27 2004,06:06)]In my modding experience this problem is related to the severing of established land bridges, in particular the one between Flanders and Wessex and the one between Morocco and Spain. This seems to greatly increase the AI pathfinding time.

Restore the land bridge between Flanders and Wessex in MEdmod 3.14 and voila, you should get no more massive slow downs. :)

Doc
Good point. I did as you suggested and the delays have greatly reduced.

I noticed that the game noticably starts slowing down when crusades or jihads are in play, again pointing to your observation.