Does Comp have Unlimitied Money???

[Pobs]

Hi and welcome to the community,

I can't see why changing the script during a campaign to reduce the monetary help would crash the savegame though, the script is read and applied each move and the results of the addictional money is applied each go seperately, soooo... it should be savegame compatible, (but don't blame me if my logic is wrong :))


cheers,



Pobs

[SlickNicaG69]

You know before you guys assume such factions would be broken - try it first. My protest stems from the fact that even though I have the enemy practically dominated - hence FROZEN - my strategic attempt to defeat them by attrition is IMPOSSIBLE due to the fact that even though each of the AI's settlements has negative income, they get 20000 mnai each turn and are able to repair all their order buildings and barracks the next turn... so I ask you all this, who are we playing against?? A preset game configuration (such as easy/med/hard, which I believe every game prior to this one was based on and which in this game would apply to computer strategy) or a rigged game that attempts to hide its futile balance settings by giving it gold. I read an article earlier where some high level general with his whole army got bribed out of the blue... how is this possible?? Is this considered balanced?? Was it caused because of a failure in THE PLAYERS intelligence? Maybe the question should be is EB really that much more balanced than the original? I mean I started a game with Macedonia recently, and they barely compare in starting strength to Rome... and if my studies in history have led me to believe, Rome was not yet a world power, whereas Macedonia was.

I'm not seeking perfection, nothing ever is. But in terms of the gameplay of this game, I would like to think that even though some factions may go broke or frozen, I still win or lose based on fair, realistic rules. If I put Street Fighter on hard, does Bison take more hits than me? No... he just gets smarter. That is what I think is lacking in this game. The AI gets richer, not smarter... think about it!

[Drewski]

You know before you guys assume such factions would be broken - try it first. My protest stems from the fact that even though I have the enemy practically dominated - hence FROZEN - my strategic attempt to defeat them by attrition is IMPOSSIBLE due to the fact that even though each of the AI's settlements has negative income, they get 20000 mnai each turn and are able to repair all their order buildings and barracks the next turn... so I ask you all this, who are we playing against?? A preset game configuration (such as easy/med/hard, which I believe every game prior to this one was based on and which in this game would apply to computer strategy) or a rigged game that attempts to hide its futile balance settings by giving it gold. I read an article earlier where some high level general with his whole army got bribed out of the blue... how is this possible?? Is this considered balanced?? Was it caused because of a failure in THE PLAYERS intelligence? Maybe the question should be is EB really that much more balanced than the original? I mean I started a game with Macedonia recently, and they barely compare in starting strength to Rome... and if my studies in history have led me to believe, Rome was not yet a world power, whereas Macedonia was.

I'm not seeking perfection, nothing ever is. But in terms of the gameplay of this game, I would like to think that even though some factions may go broke or frozen, I still win or lose based on fair, realistic rules. If I put Street Fighter on hard, does Bison take more hits than me? No... he just gets smarter. That is what I think is lacking in this game. The AI gets richer, not smarter... think about it!

I know ure new to this, And I can totally sympathise. I 100% accertain, that the ai faction plays better with 1 or 2 settlements. That is, they actually properly defend their settlements, and send the surplus elsewhere.

To me, their is NOTHING more annoying, than reducing "X" faction to one or two provinces, and then finding they have 2 or 3 full stacks for said provines.

It's utter complete bullshit, but is an unfortunate side effect of the money script....thing is, u can toast those armies, so it isn't that much of a problem....

EB is weird, don'y expect equality. Expect to be outnumbered at least 1.5/1 . And expect to win, otherwise, ure not EB material.....

[Weebeast]

To me it seems childish to play a game where the rules are tweaked so that invisible money is given to the comp just so I can play "cooler battles"... I play the game to win.

I know right. Clearly AI is dumb so we should just accept that fact like a grown man and steamroll it.... I ride roller coaster to get off the cars.

[phoenixemperor]

You know before you guys assume such factions would be broken - try it first.

One would assume the EB team didn't put in the money script just to annoy you, but because they tested it multiple times with and without and prefer the results with.

[Macilrille]

But the AI is hardcoded, it cannot get smarter. Complain to CA, not to EB, they have done their best to balance and make more realistic a very unbalanced and unrealistic game. Because that is what they have to work with. There is no other engines to build the EB-EB II on than the RTW Games. It is but a minor nuisance compared to others.

If you are dissatisfied you have three options as I see it:
1) Play something you like more.
2) Make your own mod that you consider an improvement on EB.
3) Find Human opponents.

As you notice, complaining is not an option, for what cannot be changed will not be helped by complaining. As others have said, change the money script and you will have only one viable faction, your own, the rest will be Eleutheroi-like. Try playing as Sweboz for 30 years into the campaign as well, you think the dumb AI could overcome that deficit without the money-script?
Anyway, my point is, nothing will change no matter how much you complain, for it is not possible to stop. So you might as well desist and look through options 1-3 above.

The day you get an AI that is actually as cunning as a Human, fear, for that day you will serve it.

That being said, and another proof that I am grumpy and arrogant, welcome to the Forum :-D

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

The harder the campaign difficulty level, the more money the AI factions get. That's why VH campaign doesn't work for me. I prefer M campaign. The AI only gets extra money if it's broke, and only a relatively small amount. M campaign is perfectly playable for most factions. I might pick E campaign if I was playing a very difficult faction, like Pontos, for example.

[ARCHIPPOS]

it's a well known fact that the last remaining settlements of a faction are always heavily fortified because of the money script. You can roleplay it as a faction making a final desparate stand. I suggest reading on zaelots for inspiration ...

[SlickNicaG69]

Nobody who has answered to this thread has yet played a campaign with the money script set at 0... You all just assume that the Sweboz or Gauls would go broke... but picture this... lets say the sweboz manage to conquer some rebel settlements, ally themselves with the gauls, is it not possible that they would have positive income regardless of the money script??

Look, despite the money script I still managed to reduce the gauls to their last 2 settlements with negative income. So why would there be a need for a script that prolongs their demise and causes me to do unnecessary things. Again with my allegory, why would street fighter have a script that makes every character of an equal strengh... Ryu > Ken ;) > Blanka > Dhalsim... just as at 270 BC Selukia > Rome = Carthage = Gaul = Sweboz > Casse...

I will restart my campaign with the script set at 0, except for the rebels because I read in the script something about altering them could lead to the script getting messed up... I encourage you all to do the same... maybe we will get some concrete answers to the question as opposed to hypothetical assumptions!

[Fedor]

The harder the campaign difficulty level, the more money the AI factions get. That's why VH campaign doesn't work for me. I prefer M campaign. The AI only gets extra money if it's broke, and only a relatively small amount. M campaign is perfectly playable for most factions. I might pick E campaign if I was playing a very difficult faction, like Pontos, for example.

Hmm. I have exactly the opposite problem. I carefully run the script each time I load a fully patched-up EB 1.2 game and, as many factions (there are several exceptions!), I just can't get enough challenge on VH campaign settings without nursing the AI along.

My most recent VH/H game, as Macedonia, has so far gone something like this:
1) smash the Greek and Epirote field armies, take the Greek mainland cities. Time elapsed: roughly a year.
2) Sit in my (somewhat enlarged) corner for roughly the next 12-13 years, waiting for the AI empires to get big enough to pose a challange for Makedonian pikes and being careful not to develop my cities too much.
3) Notice Rome not kicking enough tail to satisfy my longing to fight hordes of Scipios and start giving them 10,000 minae/turn from my over-abundant treasury. Also decide to stop using Levy Pikemen (too effective for the price) and insist on Medium Pikemen (not much more effective and significantly more costly) as line troops. Decide to disband all the Scythian Horse-Archers units I recruited (way too powerful for the price for Macedonia). Put limits on combining archers and steep downhill slopes.

It's now 247 BC and a much-enlarged Pontos, the Getae, and Epiros have allied against me. I've just started to take the kid gloves off and now permit myself to actually enter their territory. I might endulge in the conquest of Epiros, or throw Pontos out of Europe, but that might increase my available spending power (after tributes) too much.

Long story short, I've learned that, if you want a challenge, you need to help the AI along. I therefore strongly support giving the AI money. I sympathize with the particular point being made by the OP - that tiny AI-controlled powers ought to be weak - but that would ruin a lot of the historical value of this mod, in which a tiny AI-controlled Parthia can actually form an empire and then send lots of Parthian Horse-Archers to fight you. Good times all around.

You give the AI what it needs, the AI gives you what you want.