Factions priorities in descr_strat.txt

**JMRC** · 06-01-2007, 12:21

Hi.

I've been looking at the descr_strat.txt file and checked the factions' priorities and there were some that I could not agree:

- Saka Rauka (balanced, smith): I think it should change to (bureaucrat, genghis) because they should be more concerned about taxable income than growth; and biased towards missile cavalry and light cavalry.

- Saba (balanced, henry): I think it should change to (comfort, henry) because they should not be concerned about making walls and should go for farming.

- Ptolemaioi (religious, caesar): I think it should change to (religious, napoleon) because they are more biased towards a mix of light and heavy infantry instead of just heavy infantry.

- Arche Seleukeia (balanced, stalin): I think it should change to (fortified, stalin) because they should be more concerned about making walls, defenses and law, since they are surrounded by all sides with powerful enemies.

- Aedui (religious, napoleon): I think it should change to (religious, smith) because I don't think they are biased towards mix of light and heavy infantry, plus light cavalry. I believe they take a more level approach when recruiting units.

- Sweboz (balanced, mao): I think it should change to (religious, mao) because they give much importance to loyalty and use more farming than taxes and trade.

- Koinon Hellenon (balanced, smith): I think it should change to (balanced, napoleon) because they are biased towards a mix of light and heavy infantry, plus light cavalry.

- Baktria (trade, smith): I think it should change to (trader, napoleon) because they are biased towards a mix of light and heavy infantry, plus light cavalry.

- Sauromatae (balanced, smith): I think it should change to (bureaucrat, henry) because they are not much inclined towards making roads and prefer income than growth. Also, they are biased towards heavy and light cavalry, plus missile infantry.

- Lusotannan (fortified, mao): I think it should change to (craftsman, mao) because they use weapon upgrades and mines instead of growth and loyalty.

**Redmeth** · 06-01-2007, 20:15

I didn't know this stuff existed, also the victory conditions stuff is very very interesting.
Great finds!

**Thaatu** · 06-03-2007, 07:30

Hmm... I'll try these. I hope I don't screw anything up.

**JMRC** · 06-03-2007, 09:18

Originally Posted by Thaatu

Hmm... I'll try these. I hope I don't screw anything up.

Make a backup of descr_strat.txt and don't worry. And don't forget to delete map.rwm file in the EB\Data\world\maps\base directory before starting a new campaign with these changes in DS.

**Wolfman** · 06-04-2007, 06:10

Is this save game compatible

**JMRC** · 06-04-2007, 10:04

Originally Posted by Wolfman25

Is this save game compatible

I'm affraid not. The descr_strat.txt is loaded when you start a new campaign, so any changes in the middle of a campaign won't affect it.

**Eminos** · 06-05-2007, 00:41

Hi.

I've also tested this in conjunction with my work on the background script, and have used it for a couple of months now. The differences in faction behavior compared to the original descr_strat file were not so prominent in my little tests. Maybe I could see small things like even more Horse archers for the step factions, after changing both Sauromatae and Saka to exactly what you suggested for Saka, i.e. bureaucrat genghis. For Sweboz I don't think I can say that I saw more heavy infantry in their stacks than before. Ok, it still says it will be a mix of heavy and light infantry with the change I made, but I was hoping for more heavy troops than before. Their armies look as far as I can tell more or less exactly as they used to. The change I made for them was from balanced mao to balanced napoleon.
I hope I'm wrong and that you find that these things can make for quite dramatic changes. I haven't had time to experiment with this further since all of my time now goes to another little project that I hope I can get positive results from. Would be really nice to know if you can find a very good "setup".

The information below is taken from a post by Therother. It was when I saw that I started experimenting with these things.

These control a set of AI production personalities, which contribute a bias towards building and training (but not retraining or repairing). This bias is fairly small compared to game-generated factors such as "the enemy is attacking me with lots of cavalry, build me some spearmen". Explaining the weighting system which drives the production AI in full is beyond the scope of this document as it would take several days to write.

So in short, the building construction personalities are these: (ranked highest to lowest - therother)

balanced - biases towards growth, taxable income, trade level bonuses (roads), walls and xp bonus buildings

religious - biases towards growth, loyalty, taxable income, farming, walls and law

trader - biases towards growth, trade level, trade base, weapon upgrades, games, races and xp bonus buildings

comfort - biases towards growth, farming, games, races, xp bonus and happiness

bureaucrat - biases towards taxable income, growth, pop health, trade, walls, improved bodyguards and law

craftsman - biases towards walls, races, taxable income, weapon upgrades, xp bonuses, mines, health and growth

sailor - biases towards sea trade, taxable income, walls, growth, trade

fortified - biases towards walls, taxable income, growth, loyalty, defenses, bodyguards and law

These biases are towards building properties, rather than buildings themselves. The game does not know what a "Blacksmith" is, for example, it only knows that it is a building which provides a weapon upgrade, and hence a Craftsman AI would be more likely to build it than another AI personality type.

These are then combined with a troop production personality, as follows:

smith - exactly level

mao - biased towards mass troops, light infantry

genghis - biased towards missile cavalry and light cavalry

stalin - biased towards heavy infantry, mass troops and artillery

napoleon - biased towards a mix of light and heavy infantry, light cavalry

henry - biased towards heavy and light cavalry, missile infantry

Caesar - biased towards heavy infantry, light cavalry, siege artillery

The same system as for the buildings applies. Troop category and class are combined at the time the unit database is loaded to give a unit production type, and the likelihood of the AI choosing to produce a given unit type which can be produced is then modified by the unit type weighting. There is also a random element in the choosing of which building or troop type to produce next, so the effect of the bias is a statistical thing. Another factor that is applied over the top which may obscure the bias is a tendency towards producing troop mixtures (according to what is already in the garrison) and a weighting according to unit strength.

The two sets of types can be freely combined; for example, although Fortified Caesar does not appear in the list of options currently used by the vanilla RTW game, it is a valid combination.

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