AI, curious behaviour.

[Namarie]

But, I'm settling down for the night, so, wanted to ask people what their experience is with the AI during the SP campaign. In some games, it goes haywire and does really well, but in other games, it just doesn't do many things that make sense at all.

Can ppl remember what they have done when the computer goes numbnutty and vice versa?

[Gregoshi]

You've asked a highly subjective question. Some see the AI as decent. Others see it like you - sometime very good, other times dumb as a paper clip. Finally, there is a group that thinks their 4 year old brother could play a better game than the AI. I've haven't played the game nearly as much as I'd like but I think I fall into your group - sometime good, sometimes not so good.

[Monk]

ive played mtw for a while now and one thing i can say is that the Ai is unpredictable. in some cases it gives me the fight of my life, and in others it tries to kill me with a single unit of peasents. for the most part id say the Ai is reletivly good, but with much room for improvement.

[Cooperman]

I recently played a game as the danes keeping to three provinces in scandinavia and letting the AI do as it chooses, I only sent out bishops to spy on what the AI was doing. As I see it the AI mainly builds units rather than building a strong economy, attacks like crazy and when it gets to a certain size disintegrates into a civil war allowing defeated factions to emerge. Without a player upsetting the balance no AI faction ever maintained a dominant position for long although the egyptians and french did manage to conquer about half the map before their empires self-imploded.
If the AI attacked less and built up its provinces so they weren't as likely to rebel it would do a lot better especially if it established strong trade routes.

[Brutal DLX]

Well, I noticed in my campaigns that given a large anough territory and a little peace for a while, the AI builds up its provinces nicely, I once played a campaign where the Almohads conquered all of Spain and then rested for 100 years, they had all 80% farmland, citadels and 2nd or 3rd level buildings... it all depends on how you, as the player, choose the play the game. You need to interact carefully and, in some way, help the AI out a bit.

On another note, I noticed that civil wars tend to break out very often if the king's army or any sizable army loses a big battle for an important province, and the king doesn't need to get killed for that to happen.. So the major downfall is that the AI uses their kings too often at a stage where it isn't neccessary anymore...

Overall, I would say the AI really interacts with the player, so you actually have a lot of influence on what's going to happen.

[Fairlight]

Quote[/b] (Namarie @ Feb. 03 2003,12:18)]But, I'm settling down for the night, so, wanted to ask people what their experience is with the AI during the SP campaign. In some games, it goes haywire and does really well, but in other games, it just doesn't do many things that make sense at all.

Medieval: Total War has the benefit of a familiar scenario, well-realized and populated by realistic personages and units. Therefore, it's a great foundation for the Eliza effect, where random/scripted events gain the appearance of intelligence.

When the Egyptions storm their way across the whole of Europe in 60 years, we laugh. But when England and France struggle in futility for hundreds of years, we nod our heads.

It's like TV Psychics -- play a couple of times and you might see a spectacular hit. Watch for ages, and you'll see the random pattern emerge.

[rory_20_uk]

I find that recently the AI has done some really stupid things, especially the English.
At the moment, I am top dog as the Byzantines, but I am staying put in the corner, and not trying to own the whole map. The English are second, with numerically the biggest army. They have a group of something like 10 stands full to the top that seems to wander round Europe, yet not doing anything. Even when provinces revolt only a small force is sent in, typically 2 stands. Often this is not enough, then the whole army has not gone in to crush the enemy - they started to drift south again. Now, this has gone on for several years now - they got as far as Egypt, turned around, ernt around France and current;y are in Mercia. Often they are nowhere near a front line, and several tines provinces have revolted due to too small garrisons. This behavious baffles me - and I am pretty sure that there is not some hideously deep thing that I am missing out on - I've got an emissiary in every region in the land so I can keep an eye on this mass, just in case I am missing something.