Impossible for AI factions to win BI?

I have made a discovery which, if confirmed, is rather lame. It seems that it is impossible for AI-controlled factions in BI to be granted victory if they achieve the conditions set out in descr_win_conditions.txt. Can anyone confirm or refute that this is the case?

I have been developing my latest mini-mod for BI, and have therefore been running numerous campaigns using the -ai switch. In several of these campaigns I have seen the Sassanids surpass their 20-province target while holding Alexandria, Jerusalem and Constantinople - their goals - and yet there was no "you have been defeated by the Sassanids" message. Conversely, when using the normal RTW Imperial Campaign, I have seen both the Brutii and the Seleucids achieve their victory conditions and display the appropriate message.

I tested this in the following way. First, I edited the Sassanids' victory conditions to require holding only 1 province, Armenia. Then I started a new game as the Sassanids and got an instant victory. Then, using the same victory condition, I started a new game as the Celts. Nothing. The Sassanids were not awarded their victory and the came continued heedless.

For confirmation that the problem was not faction-specific I also tested it with the Saxons. Same deal - the victory conditions only trigger victory for them when the are under the control of the player, not the AI. I've also tried testing the "defeated by [faction]" scroll using the test_victory_scroll console command called from a script, and it shows up fine. It just isn't triggered by them achieving their victory conditions.

Has anyone ever seen an AI-controlled faction win BI? If so, under what conditions? And is there any way it can be enabled?

I think you're right that they don't win, unfortunately, would be interesting if anyone got them to.

Curious whether the RTW style 'outlast factions' instead of hold province would make it work?

I think CA must have deliberately prevented the AI factions from winning BI for some reason. Still, at least I now know it wasn't my mod to blame...

Lame is an apt way of putting it. A game you can't loose?

Well technically you can still lose, but only by being eradicated or having the campaign period expire. You can't lose by failing to prevent an AI faction achieving its goals. It does somewhat suck. My guess is CA felt their increasingly young target group of players would throw their toys out of the pram if they lost the campaign.

Is this for BI only or also for RTW?

Only for BI. In RTW, AI factions fulfilling their victory conditions generates a defeat message for the player as one would hope.

I think more about it in a way that it isnt much fun to lose the game after you've spend days building an empire without knowing what an other faction on the other corner of the map is doing, till you lose the game ...

I mean in Rome if the AI can win how realistic is it for them to get 50 regions??
Goals in BI seem to be shorter and much more likelly for the AI to do, so I guess its just a way of making sure that when the random odds turn on you for a moment you dont end up losing the entire campaign, and I'm not even mentioning the possible .. er .. delays that hording can bring ... ;)


G

Think about it this way- in BI, the factions are far less balanced. Rome is huge, which either means that it's easy to steal provinces from or a province eating monster depending on the difficulty level. It wouldn't make sense to have an AI Rome victorious just by conquering more of sarmatia and taking the other capital of the empire, because we all know it would've taken alot more than that. Making it impossible for Rome to win if you're playing as a faction other than Rome makes some sense. Also for hoard factions it may take awhile to get wherever you intend to establish a new homeland, and to have all the other factions working toward their goals for 50 turns before you get to start yours would be irritating.

Even still I agree it removes some of the fun.

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Originally Posted by snevets

Even still I agree it removes some of the fun.

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That I find strange, I mean someone just happened to stumble upon this by not actually playing the game himself, how does it remove the fun, without reading the topic you'd never now, without someone using the ai-switch it might have never been known ... ;)


G

Well I would say it removes some of the fun by giving the player a sense of invulnerability in that he doesn't need to worry about what the other factions are doing. I think you're probably right about the reasons it was done, but then they should have made the victory conditions tougher for all factions.