Armies not aggressive enough?

[GeneticFlea]

hey everyone, im currently playing on medium/medium as the Arverni in the year 257 bc. Ive taken the fog of war off and ive been noticing that most of the factions havent done much yet expect capute rebel provinces. most of these provinces were capture about 10 years past in the game and now most of the factions are just sitting there bordering eachother and aimlessly moving troops around the border. this is especially true for Germany and Dacia. who share a large border. Macedonia and hellenon and epeiros continue to send one or two unit armies at eachother for no avail. Egypt is the only exception, taking seluicid properties all the way up to nearly the caspian, then losing them all again.

Karthadast and Iberia have gone to war against each other for about 2 years now, yet they have yet to engage in a single battle, even thoug they each control half of spain and have troops littered all over each others territories.

Also funny is that Epeiros continues to send a huge stack into sicily, seige messina for a turn, and then pull out, theyve done this for about 15 years.

And finally, rome, the great aggressor of history has yet to take a single province. Theyre sitting idly in their territory with one full stack army and a couple fleets going back and forth along the coast.

I know the AI is hardcoded, and probably all of this is unfixable...just venting a little on the idiocy of the AI. Perhaps the seemingly constant appearance of brigands is keeping the ai factions from focusing on eachother and instead chasing down rebels? If we got rid of Brigands would they perhaps become more aggressive against eachother once the rebel cities are done with?

Or perhaps CA could give us access to AI commands? heh in our dreams maybe..

great game! keep up the good work!

[O'ETAIPOS]

Same problem with Rome - they setteled fullstack army on with Epirus and march it back and forth. Both Rome and Epirus are in peace with everyone.

[Ludens]

I know the AI is hardcoded, and probably all of this is unfixable...just venting a little on the idiocy of the AI. Perhaps the seemingly constant appearance of brigands is keeping the ai factions from focusing on eachother and instead chasing down rebels? If we got rid of Brigands would they perhaps become more aggressive against eachother once the rebel cities are done with?

Or perhaps CA could give us access to AI commands? heh in our dreams maybe..

Are you reloading the game often? You might be encountering the notorious save-load bug. This makes the A.I. behave quirky after reloading a game. With quirky I mean withdrawing armies without apparent reason, accept the most outrageous of diplomatic offers, and so forth. The 1.3 almost fixed it, and 1.5 fixed it completely.

Incidentally, I don't think it is possible to do much about A.I. behavior without altering the .exe file. Moddable A.I. may sound nice, but it would very difficult for a designer to implement. After, it is an integral part of the game.

[Spendios]

You want to be attacked by AI ?

Step 1 : Play Pontos
Step 2 : Choose Very Hard for the Campaign
Step 3: Wait for Seleucids, Hayasdan, Makedon, Koinon Hellenon and some nasty Galatai to attack you from all side...

[Slartibardfast]

Non-aggressive AI?

I know naff about software programming but just had a quick chat with with an ex hacker mate on the subject.

Modable AI is , so he says, just a matter of CA releasing the hardcode. Then using a script editer similar to those used in CRPG's. Long, involed, but eventually doable.

Lets all hope Ca do release the code at some point in the near future.

[fallen851]

The AI seems quite aggressive (at least in terms of expansion) in vanilla 1.3 and 1.5. Maybe if (or hopefully when) the mod gets ported over, it will resolve this issue.

I'd love to see a CA open up the game, or at least improve the AI to the point where a player is challenged...

[Ano2]

1.5/1.6 providea a challenging A.I..

[Jebus]

AI not aggressive enough?

In my current campaing as the Romans (209BC), I am at war with the Swéboz, Iberians, Getai, Epirus, Carthage, Makedonia, Ptolemaioi, and Koinon Hellenon. I'm already trying to fight a four-front war with the three armies I can afford - slaughtering on average four to five full stack armies each turn. If the AI were any more agressive, it would have to mean the Baktrians declaring war on me too.

And we don't want that. It's already impossible for me to win as it is.

[AggonyDuck]

Well I've not seen that much aggressiveness by the AI vs other AI nations, but boy they sure are aggressive vs you....

[Geoffrey S]

It hasn't been real agressive against me yet, but I have presented a formidable target as the Romans.

Also, play with campaign map difficulty set to Very Hard.

[Reenk Roink]

I am noticing that the AI likes to break off sieges a lot...

but I guess that's hardcoded...

[Nagarythe]

I've also found that AI loves to starve towns instead of attacking them. It slows them a lot in conquering new territories. But even considering this, I find the AI good in expansionistic terms, at least the celtic factions. I've played with casse and sweboz, and in both campaigns aedui and arverni had conquered near all france before I arrive (and I arrive very soon, 265 as casse and 267 as sweboz), so I don't see problems with AI expanding, at least for now.

[GeneticFlea]

ok, i didnt click the post button this many times...i swear.

[econ21]

In my current campaing as the Romans (209BC), I am at war with the Swéboz, Iberians, Getai, Epirus, Carthage, Makedonia, Ptolemaioi, and Koinon Hellenon. ....It's already impossible for me to win as it is.

Here, here! That reminds me of a great RTR Roman VH campaign I had. Somehow I got into lots of fights I could never fully finish.

I have not got as far as you in my EB Roman campaign. It's around 248BC and I've been attacked by Epirus, Carthage, Greece and the Averni. I have decided to wipe out offending enemy factions remorsely as I think it will be much tougher than RTR to take on all comers. (Partly it was exasperation with Epirus buying up my towns!). Epirus is now gone, Carthage city has fallen and the Greeks have been expelled from their mainland.

But some of the fights have been tough - I only won Sparta thanks to my general's cavalry wiping out multiple Greek units after the rest of my army had been routed. [It was fun but I now agree with Qwerty that general's units need weakening - maybe they should be like royal knights in MTW; about 20 strong with IIRC only 1HP?]

[Iskandr]

I have also seen this a lot- huge AI stacks glaring at each other with little or no actual fighting, while I get spammed turn after turn with armies. I really hope patching to 1.5/1.6 fixes this.

Iskandr

[the_handsome_viking]

This may seem like a bit of a silly question, but if you choose" hard mode" what exactly is "harder"

Is it that your enemies become unrealistically tough, as in they simply wont die as quickly as they normally would, or does the artificial intelligence just work harder?