Strategic Map: AI Tactics

[Praylak]

There are several issues concerning the AI's actions on the strategic map, some may be bugs, some may be deliberate AI policy. While there are several, I'll just start off with one.

In my earlier campaigns my first impression of the strategic AI was that some factions were more aggressive than others. That may or may not be true, but I think now its all relative to economy, shared borders, and diplomatic status.
Can a AI faction be so aggressive that it just ends up going "stupid" on you? Or are these just game mechanics at work to keep the pressure and intensity on the human player?

An example I'll use here I know you have all seen. You have several frontier cities bordering an enemy faction. They are assaulted regularly and you defend them frequently. At first it appears the AI makes a real attempt to take the city, but you crush them because you had good defences, good units and a great Governor. Yet the AI persists and continues sending armies to this city in attempt to take it. 90% of the time though, it's a rabble group consisting of weak units that don't stand a chance in hell. Yet the AI keeps sending 300 leaderless troops against your 1300 man strong superfortress. If you can get one unit outside your gates, the AI is usually running. Turn after turn, it lays siege to this city with a pathetic group. Why not wait a few turns, get a leader and 1000 more men and make a "real" attempt?

I'm going to make a comparison with MTW and although it is a different game, I think it warrants using. The mechanics are the same for most part. In MTW the AI would make a real effort when it attempted to take a province. This is what made the battles great, when it tried to take something from you it really tried. I think it did a pretty good job assessing what you had and what it had and when to attack. When there was a battle, it was something to behold. I also believe it was a corner stone to its diplomacy unlike RTW. If you had good garrisons for your border provinces, it more often than not kept the alliance in check and vice versa if you didn't. With RTW we have more battles, but most of them seem redundant and pointless because of this "false" seige move the AI does. Loading and unloading of the battle engine just to see 200 peasants run for the redline for 1000th time is getting annoying. Get your cavalry out and run them down before those marathon runners make it to the beach is often tricky to pull off. And if you happen to be playing the Britons and have only chariots, don't even bother.

Oh, I didn't want to make this into a rant. Ok so, your thoughts?

[bmolsson]

Maybe you should edit a save game and after you built up a strong faction, become it's enemy....

[RZST]

there was a post somewhere here(or twc) that said some factions ARE predetermined to act a certain way.
ie: carthage is set as trader or something. so naturally they loose at the end. but if you change the trader to say "imperialist" then its a different story. you have to edit it somewhere, cant remember what to edit exactly.

[Tamur]

Yes, there's specific AI settings in the descr_strat.txt file in the imperial campaign folder (\[install root]\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\). Things like 'balanced stalin' for the Julii, 'religious caesar' for Egypt, etc. There was a post shortly after the game came out where someone here analysed what these Might mean, but I don't know that much work has been done to clarify since then.

[Praylak]

Did a search for "balanced Stalin" and I found the info you mentioned. Quite interesting indeed and it would explain why the AI is much improved using the Realism Mod. Its great what they did with the AI, I'm just not fond of other changes they made.

[D. Boon's Ghost]

I know that this is only partially tied into the original thread, but...
Could the lack of AI generals have something to do with AI daughters not being married off? I imagine that if I didn't marry off my daughters, I would have about the same amount of generals as the AI seems to; basically, none.
Again - I can not be certain that the AI doesn't marry their daughters off, but it makes sense to me that they possibly do not.

[ToranagaSama]

I agree wholeheartedly with everything you commented upon.

On your first point, others have already addressed. You can edit the file if you like and/or find a mod that's already done so.

On the second point, the *Headless-Marching Mini Armies* on of the two most annoying issues with Vanilla RTW. The other being the overal speed of combat.

I was just about ready to quit playing the game, but, then decided to check if there was a mod that addressed this issue.

Fortunately, I found one, the Total Realism Mod. Its not perfect, but does an effective job of reducing the occurrence of "Head-less Marching Mini Armies". I'd approximate that their occurence has been reduced in the area of 50-75 percent; with a 100 percent increase of Armies headed by family members with *some* Command experience. Not perfect, nor fully satisfactory, but a big improvement. Here's the link:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=53

Also, if you're like me and prefer combat speed to more MTW like, then you can also apply the Total Combat Mod along with Total Realism. Together they make for, what I deem to be, the best available RTW experience. Here's the Link:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index...howtopic=14562

Luck!

[Praylak]

On the second point, the *Headless-Marching Mini Armies* on of the two most annoying issues with Vanilla RTW.

Just thought that statement was worth repeating.

Fortunately, I found one, the Total Realism Mod. Its not perfect, but does an effective job of reducing the occurrence

You have to salute these people. The effort they made is worthy of fame, and I agree they seem to have fixed the issue in general. Well done. There are just some things this mod does that I just can't get over for the life of me. I realize its a realism mod, but they've crossed the line of realism vs fun to such a degree, well, frankly I can't stand it. For instance I love the idea of ZOR (zone of recruitment), just not the way they've implemented it. Perhaps after a few more versions they may be able to accomadate a wider user base. If I could find the exact changes that just fix the AI, I would be all set.