AI changes in VI

[Michael the Brave]

Have there been any notable AI improvements in VI from MTW?
Has the campaign AI been improved,so that it will build better troop types ,trade etc. ?

[Just A Girl]

I bought VI about 2 days after i bought MTW, So i dunno if i noticed any,
But....

I remember playing as the egyptians becous there were no welsh people to chose from,
And it was relitivly difficult,
I bought VI And went to play as the welsh,
That was realy quite dificult,
And now i find that if i play as Egypt the game seems easy,

So dunno make of that what you will,

[Martok]

Viking Invasion makes some minor tweaks to the AI and changes the AI script for certain factions (the French tend to be much more powerful now, while the Almohads aren't nearly as aggressive as they used to be), but not like what you're talking about. It's still worth installing VI, though. It adds the Viking campaign (which I've found to be quite fun, actually), increases the number of playable factions, the pre-battle screens (where you can organize which troops are in your starting wave and which ones are in your reinforcements), the option to save between battles (a VERY nice feature!), as well as a host of numerous bug fixes and minor improvements.

For the kind of improved AI that you're referring to, Michael, I highly recommend you download VikingHorde's XL mod. It does require that you have Viking Invasion installed (along with the 2.01 patch); it's not compatible with just regular Medieval. XL is a very strong and stable mod, however, and comes with auto-install. One of the reasons the AI is better is because VikingHorde reduced trade income but increased farm income, which helps balance things out for the AI economically (it's still not very good a developing trade, no matter how you tweak it). The AI is now better at building up its provinces' infrastructure; this in turn allows the other factions to train their better troop types (and the AI tends to build better troops much more than it used to). In addition, peasants have been eliminated from the game, aside from a few peasant units that already start out on the map.

All provinces--both yours and the other factions'--also now start with quite a few more buildings than before, and everyone can start training better units right away. (Everyone's starting armies are now a bit bigger and better as well; no more starting with just your king and 100 spearmen in your home province!) As a result of all these changes, the other factions' armies tend to be smaller than before, but of significantly higher quality. Since downloading the XL mod, the AI rarely fields massive "fodder" armies consisting of mostly spearmen/archers/UM; they're much more balanced now. Finally, the mod unlocks certain factions so that they're now playable (Novgorod in Early, the Pope, and Golden Horde), adds a bunch of new factions (and they can all be played in GA mode, by the way!), new units, as well as a few new provinces. VikingHorde has also just released a patch as well, which includes various bug fixes and tweaks to unit stats and gameplay.

Install Viking Invasion, Michael, and then download the XL mod. I promise you won't regret it!

[Michael the Brave]

The AI is now better at building up its provinces' infrastructure; this in turn allows the other factions to train their better troop types (and the AI tends to build better troops much more than it used to). In addition, peasants have been eliminated from the game, aside from a few peasant units that already start out on the map.

All provinces--both yours and the other factions'--also now start with quite a few more buildings than before, and everyone can start training better units right away. (Everyone's starting armies are now a bit bigger and better as well; no more starting with just your king and 100 spearmen in your home province!) As a result of all these changes, the other factions' armies tend to be smaller than before, but of significantly higher quality. Since downloading the XL mod, the AI rarely fields massive "fodder" armies consisting of mostly spearmen/archers/UM

That's really what I was looking for...thanks alot Martok !

[Martok]

My pleasure. I think you'll find the XL mod improves your enjoyment of the game tremendously. And if you have any problems with the mod or any questions about it, just post it in the XL thread. VikingHorde is very good at answering any questions you have about his mod (we drink to him often!), and you can usually also find other members there who can help answer your questions about XL, as well as offer insight and advice should you seek it. We look forward to seeing you over there!

[Ciaran]

I´ll have to try that, too. I suppose the decrease of trade importance means that even reemerging factions do have a decent chance to come back on their feet? In the vanilla version their army upkeeps drains what treasury they might bring rather quickly.

[Martok]

I´ll have to try that, too. I suppose the decrease of trade importance means that even reemerging factions do have a decent chance to come back on their feet? In the vanilla version their army upkeeps drains what treasury they might bring rather quickly.

Actually, I never even saw re-emerging factions become strong until I downloaded XL. It still doesn't happen very often, though, and so far the only factions I've seen become strong after being "reborn" are the French and the Eggies--although a number of people have said the Pope often comes back in a big way too (I just haven't seen it myself yet).

[Michael the Brave]

I think the AI problem is one of the most important VI has, the computer always
loses mainly because it doesn't use it's money properly(and doesn't build anything to produce money).
Most of the battles on hard/expert are not won by great moves by the player...but by the fact the AI always fields inferiror quality armies...

[Grey_Fox]

This was true in MTW as well...