game balance

[kalkwerk]

Ok Ive been playing the romans and this are my suggestions about game balance/factions balance. Playing with BI.exe VH/VH.

1. Carthage is very strong and this is good. But they fight a lot of desert wars with the Ptolamaics and that should be avoided. Why dont you make those desert regions unpassable for land forces like in RTR PE? That would fix the problem.
2. Bactrians are way overpowered.
3. In my opinion the seleucidains and the ptolemaic kingdom are both too strong. One of them is gonna nerve the other and then be a superpower. Maybe make some more rebel armies inside their empires at the start?
4. Id like Parthia to be stronger on the cost of Bactria.
5. The other factions are all okay, but Id still want to see hellenistic factions expanding direction Asia minor instead of Balkan/Eastern Europe. Maybe you can put up greek/macedonian/epirote spies in Asia minor at the start?
6. Other factions are ok.
7. I dont really figure out wether the ship building limits are due to game balance or historical reasons. If its meant to be historical, Tarentum should be able to build some ships as the romans did so in the 1st punic war. But on the other hand the naval warfare was funcioning in my game, so if its game balance reasons its okay now.
8. Id suggest that not all cities can be huge. This may limit the economy of the superpowers in a reasonable way.
9. Id also suggest that some technologies (huge temples, arenas) are bein made more expensive, but know there may be problems if the AI doesnt build them then.
10. Mines are a bit too profitable and there are a few too many. I like that those spain mines give huge profits for historical reasons. But Sardinia 10000?
Maybe 7-8000 is more reasonable for mining complexes. Give parts of spain uniqe mines maybe.

I do know that all campaigns are different. Still I think that the suggestions above will be relevant in most cases.

Regards Kalkwerk

[Bonny]

1. Carthage is very strong and this is good. But they fight a lot of desert wars with the Ptolamaics and that should be avoided. Why dont you make those desert regions unpassable for land forces like in RTR PE? That would fix the problem.

afaik they fight at the coastline and not in the desert

2. Bactrians are way overpowered.

We willl see what the what the enhanced steppe factions do to them

4. Id like Parthia to be stronger on the cost of Bactria.

You haven't fought against theire new 0.80 Bodyguard unit, have you? they are killers

6. Other factions are ok.

8. Id suggest that not all cities can be huge. This may limit the economy of the superpowers in a reasonable way.

hardcoded

9. Id also suggest that some technologies (huge temples, arenas) are bein made more expensive, but know there may be problems if the AI doesnt build them then.

i don't think that the ai has problems with that

10. Mines are a bit too profitable and there are a few too many. I like that those spain mines give huge profits for historical reasons. But Sardinia 10000?
Maybe 7-8000 is more reasonable for mining complexes. Give parts of spain uniqe mines maybe.

mines are going to be nerfed in the upcoming patch
(10000 is not the amount of mnai mines give you, look at the settlement details and there in the trade details, there you will see the real amount. The 10000 is only a number the engine needs to calculate the income)

[Danest]

The Ptolemies didn't expand into the Seleucid empire in real history, is that right? What happened in history to keep them from snapping up this collapsing empire, or from conquering or being conquered by Carthage? (all of which seems to have a high probability of happening in the game).

[Watchman]

The answer to the latter doubtless has much to do with the vast stretch of desolate Libyan desert in the way, and both being busy with other stuff.

[Krusader]

The Ptolemies didn't expand into the Seleucid empire in real history, is that right? What happened in history to keep them from snapping up this collapsing empire, or from conquering or being conquered by Carthage? (all of which seems to have a high probability of happening in the game).

The Ptolemaic military went in to decline before the Seleukid one and when the Seleukid empire did begin to collapse, the Ptolemies had enough internal troubles to keep them occupied from invading the Seleukids.
As for Carthage, as Watchman says the terrain between the lands was not so favourable, however there also seems to have been a friendly relationship between the two empires.

[Lovejoy]

hardcoded

I'm pretty sure Metropolis for RTR does that. They make it VERY hard to get the biggest town in some settlements at least I believe. Which I like tons.

[Eminos]

I´ll have to say that it will get interesting to see if the steppe factions will do any damage to the Baktrians. Personally I really hope so, since in all four of my campaigns (v. 0.80) the Baktrians have managed to qualify as a member of the "superpowers". Maybe its a coincidence, and maybe I need some more campaigns "in the bag" to be sure that this is a real problem. However, if it so, then I think that the very fact that I never heard of any Baktrian Empire of the same caliber as the Roman and Seleucid empires is enough for me to think that there is something wrong with the balance in the game.
The other thing I want to comment is the following. If hardcode is the reason why one can't limit some factions economy via city size, it must still be possible to restrict their income through the script. As I have understood it, all computer controlled factions cheat via the script. I haven't looked closely into the matter, but doesn't all factions get the same amount of cheat money every time they go below a certain "threshold"? If so, maybe that opens up a possibility. By simply not treating all factions in a "democratic" way the amount of cheat money could be adjusted depending on faction.
I realize that I sound quite negative in this reply. That wasn't my intention. I just love this game, but at the same time I want every faction to be fun to play, and then the balance of the game comes to mind.

[Orb]

The Baktrians are way overpowered?
And you're playing as the Romani, yes?

I haven't seen much of the expansion variants in 0.8, mainly because I'm only on my second real campaign (the first was more of a taster, then I found out the Dacians were getting a few more units for 0.81 so I dropped it) but EB has a lot more variety of results than vanilla (Check out the KH AAR in the gameplay guides section for some really interesting situations). It may look like one of them is destined to become a superpower but really any faction can do well).

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Parthians still have a major change to undergo. A huge one. Nomads will be stronger in 0.81, but we have more units of theirs to work on, and eventually we will be tweaking them to the point that they do give Baktria a lot more trouble.

[QwertyMIDX]

It is relevant to note that the Baktrian Kingdom was very large, very wealthy, and very powerful at its hieght. Controlling not only the heartland of Bactria, but all of what is modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Western Indian. It is a more a lack of textual sources than anything that keeps bakria from being remebered as a mighty empire.

[Brightblade]

This does happen, sometimes, but in the case of Carthage, when I switched to BI 1.6 they started using all kinds of Liby Phoenician infantry, even some african pikemen and elephants. do not underestimate the BI.exe...

[L.C.Cinna]

In my current Romani campaign the Carthaginians are really tough. Their armies in Spain are a hell to fight. I can only win if I use my best general. All others will get chased off the field no matter how good my troops are. Last turn they attacked Gader where I had a good garrison with an army of

General faction leader with 100something horse, 8 Iberian heavy assault troops, 4 heavy African pikemen, 2 African pikemen, 3 heavy Spearmen, 1 Iberian heavy cav, 1 militia.

Impossible to defend no matter what you try. They kill everything in their way.
They have 2 more fullstacks in Iberia which are a bit weaker but still something close to this. I really have to use my best general and run around inspiring my troops otherwise those Carthies slaughter them. So I'd say AI recruitment seems very good in my current campaign.

[Schatten]

In my current Romani campaign the Carthaginians are really tough. Their armies in Spain are a hell to fight. I can only win if I use my best general. All others will get chased off the field no matter how good my troops are. Last turn they attacked Gader where I had a good garrison with an army of

General faction leader with 100something horse, 8 Iberian heavy assault troops, 4 heavy African pikemen, 2 African pikemen, 3 heavy Spearmen, 1 Iberian heavy cav, 1 militia.

Impossible to defend no matter what you try. They kill everything in their way.
They have 2 more fullstacks in Iberia which are a bit weaker but still something close to this. I really have to use my best general and run around inspiring my troops otherwise those Carthies slaughter them. So I'd say AI recruitment seems very good in my current campaign.

BI.exe or normal 1.5?
And if Ai has a City with good Barracks so its build good Troops...but if they conquer a City so only few times Ai has build good Barracks, much ofter they stay at basic level and build mass of Militias.