Just why is the AI so bad!!??

[Ldvs]

As far as I know, you won't be able to mod the AI to your liking. If I understood well, the only mod you've been playing with is WesMod. In case I'm not wrong, I suggest you give a try to mods like BKB's, it features many more factions so it's way harder to have a "rush" tactic at the beginning. The game is very challenging, especially in the East with many new factions (Kievians, Armenians Il-Kahnate...) and buildings.
In my opinion, WesMod is based on a very good concept (homeland) but in the end, once the AI factions lose their homelands, they only produce junk units.

If you want a "brand new" game you can only try HTW (Hellenic), it's really worth playing.

[noodle]

Slaists - I am only really talking about the strat map AI. I do think the AI does a pretty good job in Battle Mode, especially when it has to juggle all of the factors that you've described.

No, my issue is with the strat map decision making portion of the game. Here, time is not an issue, and essentially it's a numbers game.

[HicRic]

I think part of the problem is the "fine line" balance needed. If they go too far with the AI, it would produce perfect optimum builds and make exactly the best choices in every situation, and would be very hard to beat, and so a frustrating experience for the player. However, I don't see why this couldn't be done on something like Expert, or maybe one higher than Expert.

In RTW, there's a seperate difficulty level for the strat map and for the tactical battles. Perhaps they have addressed this issue in that game-I've only just got it and so can't say for sure. I've not played MedMod myself but I'm told it features better AI build choices in terms of not churning out rubbish units and so on. But you said you'd played that and still didn't find it a challenge.

One idea is to build up a powerful empire with large armies and money. And then switch to the worst faction you can find (using the -ian thing) and try and beat your old empire with this rubbish little one! THere you have it, one pre-made powerful opponent for you to try and take on (your own creation!). I've heard some people have had fun playing like that.

[noodle]

HicRic - To be fair, I have had a challenge playing MTW, but frustratingly it never seems to last.

I see your point about it being a fine line although I reckon you could code in simple rules which would give each faction some individulaity and make it look like they were not robots making perfect decisions whilst still improving things...eg have the AI make perfect economic decisions but impose penalties on the income it has to work with to simulate wastage, bad management etc.

Building up better enemies via the -ian cheat or pre modding them via the data files doesn't really seem to help either.

I guess I could get 10 mates or so to come round, and using the -ian cheat have them control the economies of all enemy factions, while I keep my eyes closed.

[English assassin]

There is one very simple change they could make to the AI that might make things better. I saw it as an option in computer Risk (must have been years ago), and it was simply that if you took a territory off an AI player it remembered that was "its" land and basically threw the kitchen sink at getting it back. (And for MTW also code it so that there is none of this "The XXXX decide they cannot win the battle" nonsense.)

It doesn't sound like much but believe me you could beat the AI with your eyes shut with that option turned off, but with it turned on it was almost impossible to win.

I think its right that the AI's economy is half the problem, to be honest although its a total cheat I wouldn't mind a crude system that just gives the AI the average of what a human player would get from a given province in a given year regardless of what it does with its trade ships or whatever. Also a complete ban on the AI building peasants would be no bad thing.

[VikingHorde]

Some of the AI problems can be solved, also the trade "cheat" that the player can use by building a huge trade empire. In my XL mod, I reduced the trade value of goods, increased farm income by 30%, changed AI building setup, increased unit morale and most of all removed peasants. The AI now builds a lot more HQ units (large stacks!), battles are harder and the player dosn't have the trade advantage. My mod also adds more units and factions to the game. Try it out.

[Procrustes]

The problem w/ an AI - and I don't think there will be a way around this until HAL comes along - is that it can't learn, it will only ever know what was tediously programmed into it. I mean, I made a lot of the same dumb mistakes that the AI makes during my first campaign. I thought about it, read the manuals and checked the boards, and made a lot few mistakes the second time. The AI however didn't learn a damn thing and never will.

My imperfect solution has been careful use of the -ian switch to give the AI a hand here and there, and to use a few self-imposed rules to keep me from mauling the AI too badly and ruining all the fun.