1.5 Observations My Playthrough
1.5 Playthrough
I decided I'd start off with my own observations of 1.5 just incase it helps reinforce what anyone else has seen or provides new perpectives, who knows!
I realise this is a very long read, so for those who don't love the details of the game that much I have a conclusion at the bottom. But please read it all if you can :)
Started Normal/Normal Prestige campaign as the United Provinces, just for a change, Russia Declares war on Sweden, and I don't manage to do anything in the first turn. I couldn't get a single new trade agreement with Hannover or Westphalia, and Hannover was friendly to me! this seemed quite strange. A couple of turns later I offer it again and they counter offer with a Military Alliance, military access and a trade agreement... I'm like, well I'll counter that with how about just a trade agreement, they go no, we want a military alliance and a trade agreement... This happened with every nation I've tried negotation with, even spain who HATES my guts! I try to trade flanders for some region I don't want, they mostly refuse but then, out of the blue one of their counter offers is, trade agreement, military access, money and a military alliance! and they are hostile to me!
I have to say that something must be bugged if the AI continually is trying to get the player into a military alliance just for trade agreements or region trades, I don't want a military alliance with everyone! I have also just noticed that flanders has rebelled against me with 0 happiness, so now you have to keep happiness above 0 instead of just making sure you didn't go into the negative, which is quite a change...
Having now played quite a bit more through my campaign, the 1.5 AI seems alot more able in holding cohesive armies and deciding where to attack its enemies. For example it is now 1750 and instead of the native american factions wiping out the europeans in america, great britain, france and spain have wiped out all but the most distant native tribes, they have even had alliances with them! it is definetly a changed game.
The AI does try to hold full stack armies now before attacking and will even change its mind on where to attack, although it seems it can still get confused, or decide something else entirely.
2 examples of this, I can't remember who started it but at any rate me and Sweden were at war. They took Denmark and as the UP I couldn't resist taking a country that had 3 naval ports, so I took it. They ended up trying to send full stack armies across the land bridge to take it back, but when I put one of my ships in the way, they started ignoring me. They didn't send the army by sea, instead they increased their expansion to the east and as a result are now chewing up Russia and even own moscow!
My other example is that I own Flanders and Alsace-Lorraine. When one territory was less defended than the other, France would send a full stack army to either one. once I put a half stack army inbetween so I could get to either one, france then decided to just give up aswell and didn't really bother me since in that manner.
Alot of the nations that form now seem alot more cohesive and solid, the Major nations that have evolved in my game so far, Spain, France, Poland-Lithuania, Russia, Sweden, Ottoman Empire, Maratha Confederacy.
Prussia was wiped out early on by one part of the new AI's ignorance. Prussia sent a full stack army to take the last remaining pirate island in the carribean, most likely to bolster its finances, however when it took the island, the very next turn they got wiped out because Poland took their capital. A major oversight. The AI needs to know what amount of troops to send to take something (what rakes are for, or just send a brig or sloop near the area to find out) then take it and be able to send troops back home if it doesn't need that many for garrison purposes. It also needs to be able to destroy improvement buildings and build other items that it actually needs, IE Prussia didn't need the shipyard, they needed a trade port in that region, had they not been wiped out and kept it. However Poland came along much later and took it, but they have not rebuilt the port into a trade port to generate more income either.
On diplomacy I must say I was very annoyed at first, it isn't overly bad in my opinion. Theyve programmed the AI to RIP YOU OFF BADLY, all i want is a fair deal, but then would any nation really want to give you a fair deal (I try a deal that is advantageous to me first, and then i try what I think is fair.) normally both of these are rejected outright by the AI, it can depend on the faction of course and maybe what they want to achieve as well.I would kind of hope nations that have a good history with you and are allied with you and like you, might give you fairer dealings, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I just feel diplomacy could be improved, at least either tell us how we get protectorates, or make it a teeny bit easier. 1.3 protectorates probably were tooo easy, but 1.4 and 1.5 feel like its just impossible.
For Example, Denmark owns only iceland. I offered them France (still under alot of unrest, probably why rejected) and new france, upper canada and upper louisiana and a bunch of techs and they said no to all that in exchange for becoming a protectorate, yet somehow Wurttemburg can get hannover to be its protectorate? what does it take!
On alliances in the game, the AI is actually making them and holding them, and only in rare instances breaking them. First example is that the Maratha Confederacy had an alliance with the Mysore nation, the Marathans ended up completely wiping out the Mughals but have left mysore completely alone. The Maratha confederacy then expanded up into europe, They ended up making an alliance with the Ottoman Empire and Russia. As a result, the Marathans have stopped at Georgia and haven't expanded into russia or the ottoman empire since (don't know if theyre doing anything else)
At the start of the game I declared war on Spain and France joined them against me. Very recently they declared war on each other and I was completely taken aback because it was spain and france vs a coalition of me, great britain and a couple of other nations and they now seemed to have gone at each others throats, indeed in the last turn spain took france! I'm just wondering if it was a war of accession that made them break their alliance? I guess I will never know!
The AI still seems quite reluctant to trade with as many nations as possible, but they do seem to go for trade nodes, although not as well as they did in 1.0 or 1.1, I can't remember which version. It seems to be hit and miss, some nations seem to have a few ships on a spot and some nations only have 1 ship on a spot. although A couple of AI nations have tried using their trade ships (Indiamen) as their war fleets! without much success, expect for the powerful spanish galleons.
Also quite a few menu bugs seem to have appeared in 1.5 that I never noticed before. The Technology panel for starters can get bugged, where you can't access the military techs and you have to close and reopen the window. The Diplomacy trading techs window is the worst. That is very bugged! Its almost impossible to use now and needs patching badly, I don't understand how it got broken! it was working fine earlier.The other thing is that the menu still shows me the warlords menu and they said that would be removed from 1.5.
The economy now at first is very challenging and it feels like a real fight to get yourself on an even keel. I almost now do feel like putting battles at hard difficulty so the game will actually prove to be a real challenge for me and battles will feel more decisive!
The other things is that the units cards on the campaign map are so badly out of whack its not even funny, looking at their stats in a battle, especially for ships shows an incredible change in the stats making the campaign stats entirely unreliable.
One final thing is on prestige the game is at the year 1750, I have around 1700 prestige points and the Maratha Confederacy my closest rival has 1600 Prestige points! If I don't do anything about them, they may well end up catching up to me!
CONCLUSION:
I haven't entirely finished the campaign yet, not by a longshot but I feel like I'm on the way to winning it now. It feels to me like this has been the most challenging (and fun) campaign i've played so far and the AI does genuinely seem improved although it does have its faults still. The naval invasions have been done well but sometimes the AI overdoes them and in Prussias case, commited suicide by sending its only army to america and prussia took their last region the next turn.
The AI does actually try now to send full stack armies to your less defended regions which is an improvement over previous versions and barring the rare freak occurence, it values and holds onto alliances, no longer are AI's at war with everyone else! or almost everyone. The AI still could use a few more smarts as it could have ruined me utterly at one stage financially by blocking my trade ports with its superior navy, but instead concentrated on something else, not sure what.
The main things I feel that could be improved is the AI's deal making and counter offers, stopping its reluctance to trade with other nations, although that may help in creating conflict so thats a maybe,
the aggressiveness isn't too bad right now, nations will declare war on you and you will have to declare war on nations so it works out fair. Haven't had too much trouble with peace deals yet, sometimes you just have to wait a while.
In the end, this is what Empire should have been on release. It feels more like a game now, instead of a stressout, with all the AI's declaring war on you in the old versions, theres some bugs in it that just frankly shouldn't be in there considering they weren't in there earlier (tech menu bugs!).
Verdict: NEEDS a 1.6 major patch to make it what I wanted to buy at the start of the whole ordeal/experience/thingy.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READ THIS IN ITS ENTIRETY :balloon2::balloon2::balloon2: :2thumbsup:
Re: 1.5 Observations My Playthrough
I play prestige, Austria, H/H, it is year 1765.
I have 2000 prestige points and Maratha has 2700!!
I have shipped 3 stacks to fight them, but the odds are overwhelming. Captured 3 regions and have been forced to take peace :(
Will go to war soon again. Need to wipe the out :-)
Re: 1.5 Observations My Playthrough
Sorry, but I'm not gonna read that whole thing. I read the first half though, and I want to mention a few things:
Quote:
I have to say that something must be bugged if the AI continually is trying to get the player into a military alliance just for trade agreements or region trades, I don't want a military alliance with everyone!
Well people kept complaining about how the AI should think about itself. It doesn't care that YOU don't want a military alliance, and it doesn't even KNOW that you don't want a military alliance. The AI probably decided that it's in a tight situation and allies could help it.
Quote:
Wurttemburg can get hannover to be its protectorate? what does it take!
Several things. It's very possible that the two were at war, Wurttemburg was superior. They have been the BESTEST friends in the whole world. Let's say that somebody offered you a huge house and a really big TV in return for you being their slave. Now let's say that the person was a complete stranger who you'd never met before. How willing would you be to accept that offer?
Re: 1.5 Observations My Playthrough
well it is your choice but there were alot of interesting things in there! at least I thought, anyway they were at war, so it was most likely that wurttemburg won, but i haven't heard of many people that have managed the same thing, the reason I posted such a long post was that I just felt it would be senseless to put in all my observations about 1.5 in all these different posts, whereas if I just put it in a topic, that was just easier and everyone could tell me their experiences, so far 1.5 is alright, but it does need the 1.6 patch.
