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  1. #1

    Default Re: A few questions

    It is impossible to remember everything, especially if “you” kind of operate under circumstances like Naga and myself who most of the time are working on special and deviating versions of MTW apart from the original. You tend to get a bit rusty on the standard trivia after a while. I’ll fill in some of the blanks here as I’m sure Naga would return the favor if the roles were reversed.


    The date for gunpowder is set to 1260. However, these dates (compass and gunpowder) do deviate slightly from time to time, about 1-3 years/turns. Anything above that and something is seriously wrong in the game.

    As for the level-thing, just as already pointed out. However, if you do have save from your first turn. Load it up and check your florins: 4000 expert/6000 hard/8000 normal/10000 easy (the standard values for MTW). That is the only way of knowing for sure.


    - Cheers
    ------------
    Naga, I didn’t know about the non destructible aspect of “land clearing”. Perhaps you could find out which one was the other and post it up in a separate thread here or something. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would find that little piece of info interesting, apart from Garnier here, as it strikes me as relatively unknown.

  2. #2

    Default Re: A few questions

    Originally posted by Garnier
    And also, is it possible in some way to make buildings not get sacked and destroyed when you take a province? This severely hurts the AI's teching ability since whenever they lose their provinces they go back 20 some years of buildings..
    Actually its not that bad - before the v2.0/v2.1 the AI factions would autopillage lands that they d conquered from each other. In VI indeed the AI factions do not autopillage when they fight among themselves. The only time the autopillaging happens is between the player and AI factions and vice versa.

    If you want to modify this aspect - you might wanna make the higher level fortifications cheaper and quicker to be built - there is less autopillaging from the Ring Walled castle and onwards.

    This however might require balancing in order to restore some of the tech tree depth and/or not mess up the Glorious Achievements goals that are associated with Citadels (like say the Krak de Chevaliers and the Alhambra).

    In general if you want the AI to respond better to human player early attacks (that are devastating since they catch him unprepared) make sure to slowshift the pace at which troops become available in early/newly conquered provinces. Typically troops produced from forts plague the AI performance because they give the chance to the player to rush him cheaply and comfortably while they leave the AI with stacks of units that are underperforming like the Slav Javs, Slav Warriors, Jobbagy. In my view provincial troops should be slightly better than decent, available only to local factions and vailable to from 1-3 provinces (otheriwse they overrride core units). Units like Steppe Heavies and Armenian Heavies are almost cheats since they are too cheap to recruit and maintain, and too easily available for their stats, while junk units like Woodsmen, plague the AI factions that prefer them due to low recruit and meintenance costs making their early stacks, that are critical for later progression, a pushover.

    The other aspect that needs calibrating is mercenaries - in my view they are too much of an advantage for the player and need either removing or have only junk units available or very few elite units from few provinces (like the Almughavars and Alans) so the player cannot exploit them for easy early rushes that win him the game essentially in 30 turns.

    In light of this - making sure that the tech tree yields a decent amount of units available to the human and AI factions that are proportional to the time/money that that particular tech tree bracnh requires is critical to improving AI performance overall througout the game and most particularly in the early stages that the *butterfly effect* (sensitivity to initial conditions) can take place. This is why early garissons and early units need to be carefully thought out - to ensure that AI faction fights are not predictable.

    Last edited by gollum; 03-07-2009 at 16:07.
    The Caravel Mod: a (very much) improvedvanilla MTW/VI v2.1 early campaign

    Please make sure you have the latest version (v3.3)
    Since v3.3 the Caravel Mod includes customised campaigns for huge and default unit settings

    Download v3.3
    Info & Discussion Thread

  3. #3

    Default Re: A few questions

    I've done a lot to make the game harder, using INNs as the AI's free 200% farming income building that I simply don't use. (this means no mercenaries of course as well).

    That and making trade worse and giving 100% import income.. and other stuff.

    Now I wonder, would it be possible to use the land clearance building as the Castle building in the main campaign, or would that only be available in the Viking campaign?

    If it were possible to make castles not get sacked, this would be really nice.

  4. #4

    Default Re: A few questions

    You can use the land clearance in the main campaign yes. I've never tried making it upgradeable though so I cannot testify if that works but you can use it for any other single buildings.
    “The majestic equality of the laws prohibits the rich and the poor alike from sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets and stealing bread.” - Anatole France

    "The law is like a spider’s web. The small are caught, and the great tear it up.” - Anacharsis

  5. #5

    Default Re: A few questions

    While Mr Nagamasa will disagree - the 100% import doesnt fix anything - since the player that usually has most fleets and the most stable network gets it too. This means that you benefit more the player with high import percents than balance the trade income out.

    One of the things that generally goes unnoticed - is AI factions king influence.

    This is one aspect of the game that the GA mode has an advantage over domination in terms of AI performance. This is because certain factions (the best example of which is Hungary) get the GA homeland influence bonus every 25 years. Usually even large AI faction empires fall victime to low king influence - and that is a major game breaker (much less challenge).

    On top of this the AI faction personnality setting is paramount together with the king influence aspect. The expansionist, naval_expansionist, crusader, crusader_trader, trader for Catholics and the expansionsit, devout for Muslims as well as the expansionsit, stagnant for Orthodox are AI faction killers.

    The expansionist AI personalities focuses AI faction on constant attacks - so much so that it burns them out (and also does not leave developed lands behind for the ones that do conquer them eventually).

    The crusader AI personalities, are litterally a curse for the long term as they set Crusading as a focus. AI crusades often fail and this in turn instigates civil wars that destroy a blossoming French kingdom or HRE say. This actually is a very significant long term effect and i noticed it while playing GA camaigns to the end. The end rival whoever i played in GA mode were the Hungarians (unless i played one of their immediate neighbours like the Byz or HRE). This is because the Hungarians are set to CATHOLIC_DEFENSIVE, cannot crusade and do take the homeland GA points (they start with them) that yield influence so they always have the best chances of survival.

    Actually the DEFENSIVE AI personnality is the Best for AI factions unless they start too small and/or surrounded (say Turks, Danes, Novgorodians and Aragonese in early). For all other factions that have enough starting land/income DFENSIVE is best long term. In Defensive the AI factions do still crusade, but not as assiduously as when set to Crusader. They use more sense and when they do Crusade they have more focus as it is apparently regarded as a luxury and its done only when the AI is really rich and stable.

    For the Turks ain early (as example of situation) EXPANSIONIST is best - time is against them otherwise. Thewill get swallowed by their powerful neighbours if they just sit back.

    For the Danes, Novgorodians and Aragonese EXPANSIONIST is also best (otherwise they fade out - too low starting income). Otherwise they get swallowed.

    To Asai Nagamasa; the DEFENSIVE AI personality also handles shipping better than any other AI personality in vanilla - it builds sensible amounts even when it expands the trade network and covers its coasts as a priority. So for the Sicilians actually DEFENSIVE is also the best long term. They have less chances to win the game (they expand much slower) but in the few cases that their empire does pick up its more stable - it doesnt easily disintergrate.

    The equivalent of DEFENSIVE for Muslims is PEACEFUL. DEVOUT muslims make too many Jihads that melt them through influence hits. EXPANSIONIST burns them out. For the Almohads and Egyptians PEACEFUL is best in early.

    All in all try setting everyone unless too small or sandwitched between powerful neighbours like the Turks in DEFENSIVE, particularly in long games - challenge should rise.

    The Caravel Mod: a (very much) improvedvanilla MTW/VI v2.1 early campaign

    Please make sure you have the latest version (v3.3)
    Since v3.3 the Caravel Mod includes customised campaigns for huge and default unit settings

    Download v3.3
    Info & Discussion Thread

  6. #6

    Default Re: A few questions

    Quote Originally Posted by gollum View Post
    While Mr Nagamasa will disagree - the 100% import doesnt fix anything - since the player that usually has most fleets and the most stable network gets it too. This means that you benefit more the player with high import percents than balance the trade income out.
    It may come as a surprise to you gollum-san, but I'd actually worked this out quite some time ago. Trade and shipping in MTW doesn't work, period. The only solution to the problem IMHO is to take out sea trade and shipping altogether. This gives a more balanced campaign with more realistic expansion of territories and individual theatres of conflict.

    If you're going to go for an increased import tax, then 100% is probably too high. The player can spam fleets and build realistic trade routes - the AI has unlinked fleets dotted around all over the map doing nothing.
    “The majestic equality of the laws prohibits the rich and the poor alike from sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets and stealing bread.” - Anatole France

    "The law is like a spider’s web. The small are caught, and the great tear it up.” - Anacharsis

  7. #7

    Default Re: A few questions

    Originally posted by Asai Nagamasa
    It may come as a surprise to you gollum-san, but I'd actually worked this out quite some time ago. Trade and shipping in MTW doesn't work, period. The only solution to the problem IMHO is to take out sea trade and shipping altogether. This gives a more balanced campaign with more realistic expansion of territories and individual theatres of conflict.
    Oh no it doesnt, i just thought that you regard high import still a good idea if one wishes to play with the naval aspect on - removing shipping and trade altogether is a very good way to go - i am certain that there is a lot to be explored down that route.

    Last edited by gollum; 03-07-2009 at 21:47.
    The Caravel Mod: a (very much) improvedvanilla MTW/VI v2.1 early campaign

    Please make sure you have the latest version (v3.3)
    Since v3.3 the Caravel Mod includes customised campaigns for huge and default unit settings

    Download v3.3
    Info & Discussion Thread

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