RTR: AI in campaign map worse than in vanilla?

[paul.muad.dib]

Hi,

a few days ago, I reinstalled Rome and tried RTR the first time. Well, it's a great Mod, although I have some language problems with it, because my English is not that good.

My first question is, what's up with the forum? It seems to be done for a long time, but there is no information wether it will be reopened. And the website have not been update recently. Is the mod dead?

Bot now @topic:

I think that the AI in the campaign map is very weak even worse than I remember it from vanilla. Maybe it can't deal with the huge number of provinces?

I played the romans and the gauls didn't attack me at all. As I remember from the Juli campaign, the gauls become quite dangerous if you don't attack them asap.

The AI factions were generally quite passive and without a strategy.

- Armys are moved around without a destination and not moved to the front
- In a war, the AI doesn't attack when I lay siege on a city but waits until the last turn the city can hold out, even when the army in the city is bigger or as big as my army. There also often comes no reinforcements for the city.
- The AI doesn't try to conquer my cities. Sieges are always cancelled.
- Rebell cities aren't conquered, e.g. by the gauls, thus they stay weak.
- Navy movement seams to be randomly, especially blocking ports. More than once, a allied faction with a good relationship to me suddenly blocked one of my ports. When I send them an embassador, they allied again.

[Bonny]

Hi,

RTR is afaik not dead, there subforum in the center is still aktive.
The Forum is afaik down so long because of problems with the host.

To the AI:
Which version of RTR are you playing and on which difficulty settings?
The campaign AI is totally hardcoded (except some "core" attributes which can be changed, and the places roads, which affect AI campaignmap movement alot ),

[paul.muad.dib]

Hi,

thanks for your answer. I'm playing RTR 6.0 Gold in h/h. I don't want to select vh for the campaign because I fear that I can't autoresolve any battle then.
Has the AI perhaps problems with the enlarged map and number of provinces or might there be some hardcoded strategies for the factions e.g. to conquer province XY or to build move armies from U to Z?

[Moros]

Hi,

thanks for your answer. I'm playing RTR 6.0 Gold in h/h. I don't want to select vh for the campaign because I fear that I can't autoresolve any battle then.
Has the AI perhaps problems with the enlarged map and number of provinces or might there be some hardcoded strategies for the factions e.g. to conquer province XY or to build move armies from U to Z?

No, they aren't hard coded like that. IT's just that the AI is created for r:tw and not always is that suited for mods. Tough I don't know if this is the case with Rtr as I haven't played it much.

If you like harder realistic campaigns maybe EB is something for you.

[Geoffrey S]

Upgrading to RTR platinum may be a good idea, since the AI is more reliable in 1.5.

[Woad Warrior]

As for the factions not attacking Rebels, thats easy enough to change. Each factions has a number with each other faction including Rebels which shows its attitude or aggresiveness towards it. Just increase or decrease (I'm not sure which) factions ratings toward Rebels to get them to attack them more often.

[paul.muad.dib]

No, they aren't hard coded like that. IT's just that the AI is created for r:tw and not always is that suited for mods. Tough I don't know if this is the case with Rtr as I haven't played it much.

If you like harder realistic campaigns maybe EB is something for you.

AFAIK EB is still pre-alpha and many features aren't in yet. So I will wait untill a more advanced version. A campaign game takes quite a while and I don't want to start new campains every weak when there is a new version.

Upgrading to RTR platinum may be a good idea, since the AI is more reliable in 1.5.

Is platinum an upgrade? I thought it is a mod of the mod. But if it is as stable and fully developed I will give it a try.



Did anyone experience simular problems with the AI in RTR or in Rome Vanilla?

[Geoffrey S]

AFAIK EB is still pre-alpha and many features aren't in yet. So I will wait untill a more advanced version. A campaign game takes quite a while and I don't want to start new campains every weak when there is a new version.

It's beta now, and perfectly playable with most factions; updates aren't released every week, and the current build is stable. Certainly when 0.8 is released many more units will be in place and possibly the last CTD will be ironed out.

What I mean to say, it's in a very good state as it is. The word 'beta' seems to put people off, but even in these non-full version it's got more content than quite a few other mods.

[Subedei]

That is right, EB is already an excellent mod...I used to play it a lot in the 0.74 version. Until 0.8 is released I´ll stick with RTR PT. The AI is giving me a hard time,playing the Sauromate. Damm those Macedonian Phalanxes are a pain in the butt, and they have tons of them waving into my freshly conquered lands....

[Arbaces]

Though older releases of RTR hadn't got an AI nor better nor worse then the vanilla RTW 1.2, RTR:Platinum Edition (which is for 1.5/1.6) with BI.exe (1.6) has a pretty powerful AI. At least this is what people who tested it say. I wish I had time to test it myself. Here ya go some links:
To download RTR PE: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...t=55808&page=1
How to play with BI.exe guide: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...t=58291&page=1

There are also numerous challenges through mini-mods like Imperator, Metropolis-Naval, search yourself for them if you are interested further.

Arbaces.

[paul.muad.dib]

Thank you, I will try that. I'm already looking forward playing against a challenging AI.

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

I`ve seen a preference of the modders to mod mainly version 1.2 of RTW... most of the mods are suited for that version. About RTR, i tried to install it but it didnt went (because of the internet conection, after i stood one day to download the file they where corrupt .... ).. about EB i`ve seen they have put in a tremendous amount of work... all the respect for the modders, i wait for the launching of a version for 1.5. howewer when it came so the map i have plenty of things to criticise, especially the names of some provinces and settlements which in the light of what i`ve personally read about those areas, are purely fantesistic, etc.

[Moros]

I`ve seen a preference of the modders to mod mainly version 1.2 of RTW... most of the mods are suited for that version. About RTR, i tried to install it but it didnt went (because of the internet conection, after i stood one day to download the file they where corrupt .... ).. about EB i`ve seen they have put in a tremendous amount of work... all the respect for the modders, i wait for the launching of a version for 1.5. howewer when it came so the map i have plenty of things to criticise, especially the names of some provinces and settlements which in the light of what i`ve personally read about those areas, are purely fantesistic, etc.

fantesistic? They are mostly all the historic names in the local language of that time (or the language that mosts resembles it). Except for some nomad settlements which should represent nomad hordes. (because of the limitations of rtw.)

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

fantesistic? They are mostly all the historic names in the local language of that time (or the language that mosts resembles it).

There is a little thing to consider when you have to work and name a region which is inhabited by 2 or even 3 nations at the same time. You have to choose, either you put the reconstructed name given probably by the dominant nation (either that nation was dominant for a couple of centuryes despite beeing numerically inferior to the locals), or you give the locall name.

I`ll enter a bit into a couple of examples :

ERAVACOUW , a name for the what is now western hungarian plain, which i guess is a reconstruction from the name of the celtic tribe which inhabited for a while the area. It is a clear example of the above. The area was inhabited not just by celts, but also by a large number of illiryans and thracians , which where probably the dominant people (as numbers). The fact that the celtic presence in this area was just a military one, is given by the fact that after 80BC whith the campaign of Burebista, there are no more celtic remains in the area, that means they shouldnt have been many of them. I think the name of PANNONIA should have beeen much better suited, instead of making Vindobona the capital of Pannonia (it was an important city in Pannonia Superior, only after the division of Traian, but this is outside of the game time late in 103 AD)

The same story aplyes to SCORCOUW, howewer in this case the celtic name is better justified because a celtic state did exist.

Going further north into what is now modern Slovacia, we find COUTINOE... this is really a very, very strange name, whith the capitall of Lucarotea. The area , indeed was inhabited by a multitude of tribes, but none of them, as farr as i know beared a name whith any resemblence to COUTINOE. Whe had there Celts (the Annarti - a celtic tribe which remained there for a long time, the Taurisci , another celtic tribe), whe had probabl some germanics, and surely north-thracians (dacians).

Going further west, we find MROGBONNA ...
History tells us that the area was inhabited by the BOII celtic tribe ... from theyr names came the name "Bohemia"... wouldnt have been much better a name derived out of the names of Bohemians...

I`ll finish here, giving just a couple of the examples.There are many more things which are not in the right position, which have even more problematic names, etc.

You shouldnt take it as a critic. I am a big fan of your mode and i cant wait to see the version for RTW 1.5 , but about the province drawings - i have these objections.

[M.Cornelius Marcellus]

I definitely recommend using the BI exe version of Platinum- its a much more exciting gameplay that has a few more options for you that will enhance your game. Check out the threads over at TWC if you need more info.

EB is a great mod too- definitely check it out.

MCM Felix