Important information on unit attributes with the intention to improve the AI

[Duke John]

hmmm, you can make pretty long topic titles...

Read this thread! It's vital for improving the AI:

http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...icID=330.topic

Note that after the patch things might have changed, but especially the comment about rushing AI armies is extremely valuable to optimize its tactics.

For convenience sake and the possible danger of losing the information:

Written by TF923 at .COM
Open the file in the folder Rome - Total War\Data\export_descr_unit.txt and edit all the entries there. Here's what you do.

First fix: For each entry that has the word 'naval' in it, change the line stat_cost by increasing the first number +1, and the second number by about 50%. (The first number after stat_cost is the number of turns it takes to build a ship, the second number is the recruitment cost.) This reduces the AI's tendency to choke itself building endless thousands of ships until it can no longer build anything else. The AI seems to operate more efficiently with fewer ships anyway.

Here's the second fix to that same file. This one takes a lot more time. For each entry that's NOT a naval unit, edit the 'attributes' line. You're going to be editing EVERY unit in the game so it's going to take awhile but it's worth it. On each attribute line, if a unit has the 'hardy' or 'very_hardy' attribute, remove it. If a unit does NOT have 'hardy' or 'very_hardy' you add 'hardy' to the end of the attributes. (Make sure the commas are in there correctly.)

This attribute seems to affect a lot of things the AI does. For instance, when deciding whether to rush your lines instead of letting you destroy them from afar with arrows, the AI will more often rush and try to take out your ranged units. This is just one improved behavior I've noticed. Battles are more realistic, with horses no longer getting tired so much faster than foot units.

In the unit description, when you see 'good stamina' it actually means 'poor stamina'. Keep this in mind when choosing your units--ignore the fact that it says 'good' when it really means 'bad'. The AI knows that 'good' means 'bad' with respect to stamina, and you should too. This patch affects every tactical decision the AI makes in battle mode and it really does make subtly better decisions when on the battlefield, especially open-field battles.

I've only tried this on Very Hard difficulty so if you play on easier settings I'm not sure if you'll notice a difference or not.

[Spino]

Thanks for the link DJ. I had completely forgotten about the Stamina bug!

Casualties for high value infantry and cavalry should certainly be lessened by this tweak.

On the other hand this tweak could have some adverse side effects. With this fix in place I must assume that a greater percentage of the AI's units will now be diverted to chase fleet footed missile and mounted missile units not simply through a player's main battle line (which could be loaded with pikes ) but all over the battlefield as well. Right now I see way too many heavy/medium infantry units (i.e. hoplites) breaking off from the main force and chasing after units of Horse Archers! Beyond it being an exercise in relative futility it seriously hurts the AI's chances of success when the main battle lines meet. This is not a good thing. Thoughts?

Just as an FYI Spartan over at TWC first discovered how to make the AI factions build less ships by upping the number of turns needed to build them. His naval mod is quite good, people should check it out.