Do you reckon the AI is "Cooking the Books"?

[bamff]

Call the auditors! Call them now! Time for an inquisition!

I am struggling to work out how the AI factions in my current campaign have constantly got expensive buildings popping up left right and centre, and can finance hordes of troops.

Where is the money coming from?

Okay - finished my little whinge now....

[Avicenna]

They get free cash if you're play H or VH, and can have stacks pop out of nowhere.

[bamff]

So this is sort of an AI version of the ".deadringer." cheat?

Or perhaps it is smaller than 1,000,000 fl?

[gmjapan]

I agree with the call to the auditors. I play m/m and after a few turns as greece the Brutti turn up in scicilly (sp?) with principes and balistas. How?! The brutti can only build horses and town watch in their 2 start towns. Those towns are also a size too small to build the archery range and barracks at the level required for said units.
Even if they managed to grow the towns (despite also producing units) they didnt have anough turns to build the governers new house, the building for the units AND the pre-requisite buildings.

Damn cheating comp. /rant off

[macsen rufus]

I've long suspected it. Seems there's no come-back on the AI running out of money, either. I often see a faction with a couple of stacks stuck in a poor province with too little income to support even one unit. Admittedly they don't seem to build or train anything, but shouldn't there be riots and revolutions when the army doesn't get paid???

[orangat]

Yes the AI cooks the books although I'm really not sure to what extent at medium difficulty. The AI also gets help in PO which is a real pain.

I agree with the call to the auditors. I play m/m and after a few turns as greece the Brutti turn up in scicilly (sp?) with principes and balistas. How?! The brutti can only build horses and town watch in their 2 start towns. Those towns are also a size too small to build the archery range and barracks at the level required for said units.
Even if they managed to grow the towns (despite also producing units) they didnt have anough turns to build the governers new house, the building for the units AND the pre-requisite buildings.

Damn cheating comp. /rant off

I don't play phalanx factions but it sounds odd. Sound like the difficulty is harder than m/m.

[BlueRobin]

Its an elegant and quick solution for toughening up the difficulty level. How else as a developer would you achieve this objective?

[Garvanko]

I never play VH campaigns. You may find the opening phase of the game challenging, but you will hate the middle and end phase when stack after stack come after you. I like long campaigns, not ardous ones!

[Grimmy]

I kinda like the idea of the AI building all the expensive houses, regardless of cash issues.
That only means I have less to fiddle-fart around with building when I get around to taking those cities :)

[Dunhill]

It tends to destroy any realism for me to see the AI cook the books so much.

I'd like to think the AI would be on similar footing to me, unless it is a much larger nation/state. The previous poster was right in the early game its OK, but later its just stack after stack of boring slugfests.

[Sir Chauncy]

Personally I think that in a game with this many variables, against a human opponent something [I]has[I] to the done to level the playing field between man and machine. As far as I see it, there are several ways in which people have the advantage over the computer: they can save and reload, they can out think any computer game mechanic and can actually learn too. Something that the computer in general, not just Rome Total War, is utterly incapable of doing at the moment.

As a result, Ai programmers are somewhat stunted by time and money and can often run a dangerous gauntlet of making a game too hard, too easy or just too random. Without some for of handicap for the player or some advantage for the computer how could we possibly compete on a level playing field?

Actually, they could arrange for an add on pack that does exactly this! They could have something that plugs into the USB port and pokes you randomly, or releases a ravenous ferret up your trouser leg at an inopportune moment.

Maybe I should get in touch with CA now!

[gmjapan]

A USB Ferret? I dunno mate, sounds like only a very select audience would be after that one!

[bamff]

Yeah a select market alright, but those dudes tend to have high disposable incomes, so if the price was right, a "USB ferret" might be a winner!

Damn I need to do something about this "crack Brained" vice......

[WarMachine420]

I kinda like the idea of the AI building all the expensive houses, regardless of cash issues.
That only means I have less to fiddle-fart around with building when I get around to taking those cities :)

You're going to want to destroy any buildings which impress a culture upon the people that's not yours. Mainly, we're talking about religious structures. You want to tear down any temples or shrines that are not of your culture and replace them with your own.

Will help out massively with controlling largely populated, and newly conquered provinces.

[Ludens]

You're going to want to destroy any buildings which impress a culture upon the people that's not yours. Mainly, we're talking about religious structures. You want to tear down any temples or shrines that are not of your culture and replace them with your own.

I also thought temples were the main contributor to culture penalty in R:TW, but it isn't true. It's the governement building's culture that has the most effect. Unfortunatly, tearing down these is not an option.

[WarMachine420]

I know...I considered tearing down a few Governor's Houses but the thought of rebuilding the whole tech tree from that point just wasn't worth it.

Instead I've just torn down their temples and what not and replaced them with my own...on the same level of the tech tree.

Obviously it lowers the happiness and order a bit on the very turn that I destroy them but I've noticed culture penalties and unrest drop significantly after my temple was the one standing in the city.