Is the AI Cheating in M2TW on VH?

[DukeKent]

Is it cheating by the AI that allows an AI faction the following?
Settings VH, VH, Turn 100, AI faction is Spain
1. The faction has only had one Fortress at Toledo and no cities for better than 10 turns. The Income is supposedly 1350 florins per turn.
2. The only port for that lone fortress has been blockaded for better than 10 turns.
3. This faction fields 2 armies. The first army consists of 2 Family Members (@250 each), 2 Feudal Knights (@250 each), 1 mailed Knight (@250), 5 dismounted Feudal Knights (@225 each), 1 javelinman (@100), 1 Almughvar (@150?), 2 peasants (@90 each), 2 Jinrettes (@150), Crossbowmen (@100), and a second army consisting of a family member (@250), 2 feudal knights (@250 each), 2 javelinmen (@100 each), 3 peasants (@ 90 each), and 1 catapult(@150 each)
Total upkeep of Army 1 ~= 3255
Total upkeep of Army 2 ~= 1370
Grand Army upkeep per turn ~= 4625

That is better that 3 times what a human player could afford per turn playing as Spain. Sounds like cheating by the AI to me. Whats your take on it. We all know that this is just a game so that's not even head down that road.

[nikolai1962]

The AI gets extra cash on VH.

[HoreTore]

Yup, they get a money boost on VH.

Btw, you forgot about the kings purse here, for spain, that's 2500 per turn.

[DukeKent]

Where is the King's purse shown at?

[General Zhukov]

I would hope it cheats on VH. Money plus lots of other advantages, to at least have a shot at being competitive with the player in the early stages. That said, usually the only way to get a really hard game in these empire sims is through modded campaigns with scripts designed for the purpose.

[RickooClan]

Where is the King's purse shown at?

Push " f " on your keyboard and it will show you the finance scroll which you can find the king's purse there.

btw, anyone know on VH how much extra money the AI got? And if all factions have the same amount?

[Shahed]

I don't know how much extra it gets but King's Purse is different for every faction.

[Lusted]

Kings Puse for Spain is 2500 per turn.

[Sentinel]

From the Descr_Strat file.

Kings Purse 500 denari ? (florins)
Slave.

Kings Purse 1500
France, HRE, Sicily, Scotland, Moors, Egypt and Papal States.

Kings Purse 2000
Milan, Turks, Denmark, Byzantium and Portugal.

Kings Purse 2500
England, Spain, Venice, Russia, Poland and Hungary.

Kings Purse 3000
Mongals and Timurids

Kings Purse 10000
Aztecs

Towards the end of my VH/VH England campaign I exiled the Pope to Ajacco. He was the only unit garrisoning the settlement and had no PO or financial trails/retinues.
I had a fleet blockading the port, 3 assassins destroying all his building, and 5 spies causing unrest.
Yet he still managed to keep the PO at 105. Had an income of over 2000 and support 4 full stacks on the mainland.

[Shahed]

The Aztecs seem to get it good !

[Sentinel]

The Aztecs don't seem to know what to do with it. Most of their units are 0 upkeep and they never build anything. By year 1490 all their cities had just a stone wall and a temple. Neither of which allows them to recruit any units.

[Lusted]

All Aztec units are recruitable from Stone Walls.

[Anti-TotalWar]

All Aztec units are recruitable from Stone Walls.

I never knew that ok thanks this will help me a lot...

[RickooClan]

All Aztec units are recruitable from Stone Walls.

lol, it sounds funny all units is trained from stonewall!

[gardibolt]

Do the Aztecs start accruing that 10,000 per turn from the beginning of the game, when the World is Round event occurs, or when you first contact them? If the former, they should have millions since they don't seem to build anything or generate any troops.

[alpaca]

1. In Rome the AI got 10k iirc, that's probably still the same
2. The Azzos are pretty much only half implemented. One of many features that couldn't be finished on time

[professorspatula]

Surely you can test how much extra income the AI gets by starting a VH campaign with any old faction, then choosing an AI faction to investigate. You prevent the faction you wish to test from being able to spend any money (remove their ability to recruit, construct buildings etc from export_descr_buildings.txt or whatever file M2TW uses). Could make all mercenaries x100 more expensive temporarily so it can't hire any either. Now if you already know the original treasury, the kings purse and the outgoings per turn of that faction, you could after say 10 turns, switch control to that faction. Whether through some hotseat command or another script (which in RTW was simple enough to make). You could then compare the treasury of the faction to what it should be after 10 turns. It's not an exact science of course, because taxes change, populations increase, family members come and go, but if the treasury is much larger than it would be without an income bonus, you could divide the difference by the number of turns the AI were in control to get some very rough guide to how much income might have been given. Or you could check every turn and so forth. Or come up with a better idea. Perhaps the income won't show up, and it's merely given in secret so the player is none the wiser.

Just a thought anyway.

[lars573]

2. The Azzos are pretty much only half implemented. One of many features that couldn't be finished on time

They were never mean't to be played so they needn't ever be finished.