Peasant production - AI

[warlordmb]

Hi people,
Does anybody know a way to reduce the AI preference for producing Peasants and to make them produce something more useful. I'm getting fed up of facing big AI armies only to find they have too many Peasant units. Peasant units are pretty damned awful in combat and large armies of them are very easy to beat with a small army of only decent type units. Any suggestions will be very welcome.
Much thanks.

[VikingHorde]

Hi people,
Does anybody know a way to reduce the AI preference for producing Peasants and to make them produce something more useful. I'm getting fed up of facing big AI armies only to find they have too many Peasant units. Peasant units are pretty damned awful in combat and large armies of them are very easy to beat with a small army of only decent type units. Any suggestions will be very welcome.
Much thanks.

Well, it's not easy to say. My mod has solved some of the AI problems, but Im still working on it. You can read about AI tweaking here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=33846

[Ludens]

May I recommend MedMod? The 2.04 version (Abbey road) does not change any units, but it improves the AI dramatically. The problem with the AI is that it does not build economic improvements. That's why it tends to be dirt poor. And the AI is programmed to build peasants when it doesn't have any money. WesW has reprogrammed the AI and made several changes to the game with the AI in mind to create a more powerful opposition. This resulted in a AI which builds more economic improvements, trades more, thus has more money and builds more powerful armies.

You can find WesW's MedMods on this site Wes Whitaker's Total Modification Site.
V2.04 it the version that improves the AI while not changing units. It creates four new campaign next to the existing ones, so you do not need a clean install of MTW. The mod does require VI.

MedMod v3.14 (Total Immersion) is a total modification, it does change units and countries. But I understand WesW is working on MedMod v4, a modification that will be even better. Wes himself described as 'the game MTW ought to have been'. I am interested how that will turn out.

[Sinner]

A quick & simple mod is to copy the Muster Field from the vikings_build_prod.txt file to the crusaders_build_prod13.txt file then edit both the Peasant and Muslim Peasant in crusaders_build_unit11.txt to require the Muster Field instead of the Fort as the troop producer.

This makes it less likely that Peasants will occur simply because the AI won't get them as default by building a Fort. If you want them to be even less common, you can go further & reduce the likelyhood of the Muster Field being built - follow the links given above for details to avoid repeating the info.

I also amend the startpos files so that all Peasants & Muslim Peasants are replaced by the appropriate Spearmen unit for each faction, ie. Spearmen, Round Shield Spearmen or Negro Spearmen. With rebel regions I pick whatever seems appropriate based on neighbouring factions.

Together these easy changes make Peasants far less common, mainly appearing in rebellions and being occasionaly built by factions that really are on their last legs anyway, so it's fairly acceptable that they build what are desperation units.

EDIT: Another idea that I only just thought of would be to increase the unit cost to 200 while decreasing the support cost multiplier to 1. The increased cost means that the AI will be less likely to build them - the Spearmen units are all cheaper - without the need of a more complex mod, while the drop in support cost multiplier is to compensate to a degree for the increased build cost. These changes could be reasoned that turning peasants into troops is expensive because of the loss for tax revenues from the farms, etc they once worked, but the still low support cost represents that they don't need much in the way of supplies once they are built.

[warlordmb]

Ludens,

Thanks for the help.
I checked Wes's site as per your suggestion. Some good stuff.
I'll try tweaking the AI when I get home tonight. I'm really intersted in fine-tuning the AI to make combat, and thereby the game, much harder - yet retaining as much realism as poss.

Thanks again.

VikingHorde,

I followed your advice as well. Also some good ideas. I'm starting to understand how the scripting relates. Your idea about Unit Cost influence is pretty obvious now you have pointed it out.

Thanks for your help, {and your hard work}.
Cheers.

[warlordmb]

Sinner,

That's a great idea about changing the prod. costs and the support costs. Simple and effective. {Aren't the simplest ideas always the best??}.
Just one query - where is the unit support cost multiplier? Is it in the CRUSADER_unit.txt file? - and under which header?

Good thing you reminded me to change the Muslim Peasant troops as well - completely forgot about them. They really do need every encouragement to produce good infantry. {It has just occurred to me to add at least one iron deposit in each of the three Muslim faction provinces}.

Thanks for the help.

[Sinner]

Sinner,

That's a great idea about changing the prod. costs and the support costs. Simple and effective. {Aren't the simplest ideas always the best??}.
Just one query - where is the unit support cost multiplier? Is it in the CRUSADER_unit.txt file? - and under which header?

Good thing you reminded me to change the Muslim Peasant troops as well - completely forgot about them. They really do need every encouragement to produce good infantry. {It has just occurred to me to add at least one iron deposit in each of the three Muslim faction provinces}.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks warlordmb An idea is only simple once somebody thought of it.

The support cost has the header of 'Support Cost' & is the 4th field in the crusaders_unit_build11.txt file - it's immediately after the unit cost. For both types of Peasant units the current value is 3.

Instead of giving the muslim factions an Iron region - not all christian factions have one either - I've modded my game so that the lower levels of Metalsmith don't require Iron, only the Master Metalsmith, using the same mod for the Armourer. I explain the method in greater detail in the Newcomer saying Hi and asking for Help! thread, but basically it involves removing the Iron dependancy from Metalsmiths, copying the Blacksmith from the Viking campaign & making that Iron dependant, then making both Master Armourer and Metalsmith dependant on the Blacksmith. It means every region can provide attack and armour bonuses, but there is still a bonus for having Iron.

Just had another thought: I'm going to alter my Armourer/Metalsmith mod, changing from Blacksmith to a new building type of Iron Mine, making the two Guild level workshops dependant on the basic mine and the Master workshops dependant on the mine complex. I might add a slight economic boost as well, perhaps the same amount as the salt mine, to represent the non-military benefits of plentiful iron supplies.

[VikingHorde]

Ludens,
VikingHorde,

I followed your advice as well. Also some good ideas. I'm starting to understand how the scripting relates. Your idea about Unit Cost influence is pretty obvious now you have pointed it out.

Thanks for your help, {and your hard work}.
Cheers.

I followed komninos theory and my mod has become a lot more agressive (and smart). It's a lot of work, but great when it's done. ~:p