Modding Question About Balanced AI Armies

[General Store]

I have done a few searches to find a definitive answer to this and there doesnt seem to be one. Can anyone please tell me what needs to be altered (in the unit prod file I assume ) to enable the unit to be built more or less frequently?

I would appreciate any help on this

GS

[KukriKhan]

Which game/mod?

[General Store]

MTW + VI, am just working on my own thing so no existing mod

Just want to make the AI build strong balanced armies, any help would be appreciated

Thanks
GS

[Ludens]

Just want to make the AI build strong balanced armies, any help would be appreciated

I don't have M:TW installed here, but the crusader_unit file has a collumn in which the AI personalities (Catholic_expansionist, Orthodox_stagnant, poverty_stricken, etc.) are listed followed by a number. This number determines how like a faction operating under that personality type is to order that unit when it is available. Also, the A.I. seems to prefer expensive units, but on the other hand it will always build lots of peasants.

Standard M:TW preferences place too little importance on farms, ships and traders, so the A.I. will quite often be broke. As such just changing the units preferences won't help: you have to balance the A.I. economically before it will actually field strong armies.

[General Store]

Thats great info, thanks very much!

Do you know in which file the building priority is declared, so that I could associate a higher priority for trade related buildings?

Many thanks
GS

[Duke Eugen]

You can adjust a factions starting money. In campmap/startpos/early or high or late. halfway down or so you will see faction start money.

listed by faction then dificulty level, an extra 2000 Florins might keep an A.I. in the game a little longer.

this is good for play balance. at the begining anyway

[R'as al Ghul]

Thats great info, thanks very much!

Do you know in which file the building priority is declared, so that I could associate a higher priority for trade related buildings?

Many thanks
GS

GS,
the build_prod file contains the building priority switches.

Concerning the balancing of armies, it's a difficult task.
I found out that the personality triggers mentioned by Ludens don't have
as much influence on the unit production as one might think. Instead it seems to be more influential on the general politic of that faction.
Imo, the decision to build a certain unit results from several points:
AI personality, infrastructure, threats, unit size, suitability to certain battlefield tasks. The last point is very interesting here.
When the first versions of Nap mod came out the AI would only build Cavalry. The Ai was confused by all the missile units and it somehow thought cav was stronger. When I changed the unit labels in unit_prod like "Attacker, Skirmish, Strong" or "Defender, Anti-Missile, Weak" etc. I was able to change that behaviour towards a balanced armies that consisted of over 50% missile units (line infantry), a small cavalry contingent and 1-3 artillery pieces.
I'm trying to do the same thing in our Samurai Warlords mod. The labels tell the AI the suitability of a unit for certain tasks. So if the enemy has a lot of cav, a unit labeled "Anti-cav" or "spear" (don't remember the exact labels) will be considered a good buy.
You may want to download the formation_data_files which contains a list of all possible labels for VI that can be used in unit_prod. /see download section)
I encourage you to try this approach.
Of course, a faction requires the necessary buildings to build units at all, but the selection of the units is a different thing.
You can also search the modding section of Medieval, the topic has been discussed before. It's been a while, though.