2 questions about the AI

[Pericles]

A few comments on the 5 Minute Mod:

1) Italy made peace with me in 1196 AD. We were at war for almost 100 years. I also built a fleet and took out Italy's fleet.

2) I am not at war with anyone right now.

3) In most vanilla games I play, the HRE and England are quickly wiped out, while Italy goes on to become a superpower.

However, with my modded files, I am finding that England, the HRE, and Egypt are becoming superpowers, while Italy and the Papacy are slipping fast.

It should be noted that I have NOT edited the factions on the map in any way. Yet, with the 100,000 Florins I gave each faction I note that the quality of units being produced by several factions is generally on par with those of my troops. Yes, they have even built armories to upgrade units.

I found that the factions just needed more money, and they seem quite capable of taking care of themselves.

4) I modded the "Early.txt" file and gave ALL factions an Inn. I think being able to recruit mercenaries even early on is both practical and historical and should allow the AI factions to inject some meaty units in their troop line-ups. This should not be unbalancing in any way since few mercenaries are available at any one time.

One tactic I have often used is to recruit mercenaries to take over provinces when I didn't have enough troops. Now the AI factions (having an Inn) will have this "leveling" opportunity as well. And this should help close a loophole that some players use (including me).

5) One thing I have noticed even in the vanilla game is the fact that the same factions (such as Turkey) seem to run out of heirs and then become rebel factions.

One annoying thing is that all heirs seem to hang out in the same province as the King. Attack that province and you eliminate all heirs. Is this hard-coded? Can the heir placement be changed?

To counter this loss of heirs I have also modded the "Early.txt" file and doubled the number of heirs for all factions and spaced out their arrival times, so that an heir will always show up. Some factions might still lose all their heirs, but at least this should slow it down.

Have any modders found a better and more effective way to ensure that factions always have an heir?

So far in my current game as Spain (Hard, Early), it looks as though Egypt is going to be a monster to take on. I also note that England and the HRE are expanding rapidly.

Thus I have one superpower expanding to the south and east of me (Egypt - it also has a sizable fleet in the Med), while England is expanding rapidly to my north and is showing up in my waters with a fleet.

Should prove to be an interesting game.