Changing AI behavior?

[DrHaphazard]

Hey yall, i checked to see whether this stuff was mentioned in the FAQ, but i found that thread to be, well, chaotic. So being thwarted there ive decided to start a new thread.

In any case i'd like to point out that im no expert on this type of deal, but i was wondering how a guy like me could try and tinker with the campaign AI.

My inspiration is that the MedMod claims to have gotten the computer to build more reasonable shipping routes, which improves their trade. Is there a guide out there somewhere to help people like me to do similar stuff? Where should i start or should i not even bother?

EDIT: Curse my spelling

[Yelping Godzilla]

Well there appear to be two key ways to alter the AI's game.

Firstly, you change things within the game that benefit the AI. They may benefit the player too, but usually to a lesser extent. For example, making certain units cheaper, lowering build requirements, increasing the income from certain provinces etc these are all things that indirectly alter the game of the AI. In medmod, to get the vikings to attack more often, WesW gave them some thralls in the startpos - they left these at home to guard the homelands and they went raiding with more troops.

The second way is more direct. It still doesn't give you full control over the AI, but it is based on things like weighting and role declaration. If the other is indirect, this is direct. It involves tinkering with the weighting values in the units text, declaring which AI profiles (such as orthodox stagnant etc) are going to build a unit, given the chance, and how likely they are to do so. Additionally, the way the AI uses units may be changed by tinkering with the various roles like 'strong, cavalry, ranged attacker' again in the unit text. Also, a believe factions can be assigned the various profiles in the startpos files.

I have never tried any of this myself, so this is all conjecture, but that's how I see myself going about it. Messing around in the two fields and just testing again and again and again.

EEUURAAH.

[the Black Prince]

its also possible to alter the style of play the AI uses in the campaign. in the startpos txt files each faction is assigned a style such as catholic crucader or muslim expantionist. the file kindly gives you the entire list of those avaiable
an example here is changing the Byzantines from orthodox_stagnant to orthodox_expantionist. this makes the AI Byz far more competitive, especially in early, and allows them to conquer the Turks almost every time, so you end up with a strong byzantine faction covering most of eastern europe, creating a massive clash of the titans once the mongols invade
if you remove the trader part from Italy, changing it to catholic_expansionist, you remove a lot of the annoying naval problems that suddenly becoming the enemy of italy can produce these are fairly simple changes to make, but they can in some cases have profound effect on gameplay.


as an additional query here to a more experianced modder, if you changed the papal description from papacy to catholic isolationist would the game/papal faction
a) crash
b) remove papal restrictions like excommunication
c) make the papacy a competitive faction adjusting the balance of power in italy
d) a combination of these