Scripting questions

[mcantu]

I too strongly dislike 4tpy. I believe it severely unbalances AI behavior and results in the Black Death and Grey Death and the endless AI superstacks (even with the money/merc mods), that we are all familiar with

[bovi]

How exactly can you attribute an inbalance in AI behaviour to the fact that there are 4 seasons?

[mcantu]

They have double the opportunity to expand and add troops while movement rates are the same as they were for 2tpy.

In my current Getai campaign (VH/M), the Selucids already have all of Asia Minor and its only 246

[bovi]

They do exactly the same stuff in a given number of turns whether those turns represent half or a fourth as many years. The stacks have nothing to do with that part of the script, they come from the assistance given to the AI.

[mcantu]

But the AI now has twice as many turns in which to act. It could be that the AI is behaving as if it still has half any turns in which move/attack/recruit. Increased build times help but recruitment is still 1 turn for most units.

Its been along time since I played a 2tpy mod and I cant remember if the endless stacks and the Black/Gray Deaths were problems there too. Those things do seem to happen in most of the 4tpy mods I've played.

It just doesnt seem realistic for a faction to steamroll through all the of the Middle East and Asia Minor in 34 years (136 turns) and drain all of its cities population to under 1000 to build up its stacks.

What are the commands that affect IA growth and behavior (Fortified Ceasar, etc)?

[primipilus]

First of all thank you everybody for the comprehensive answers.

Then, let me agree with MCantu about the problems created by the 4tpy script, that allows to make the conquest of great extensions of land in very few years (from 25 to 35). That really doesn't seem historical, while with the 2tpy system everithing is far more realistic.
Please explain me also what black and grey Death are.

Last but not least let me ask two more questions!
1) Does the elimination of the 4tpy script affect the functions of the mod or will it run without problems?
2) Does the activation of the script prevent the slave armies to move from the cities where they are statione once the original named characters present in the descr_strat.txt are dead?

Thanx again!

[bovi]

There's no need for us to come to a consensus on the effects of having 4tpy, so I'm dropping that discussion.

The grey death is the Arche Seleukeia, who tend to dominate in 0.81a games and create lots and lots of armies against their human neighbour. I assume the black death must be Makedonia as their color is black, but they by no means always dominate (usually getting wiped pretty early in my experience), so I'm not sure what he's getting at.

Elimination of the 4tpy will be problematic. As Bozos said, parts of our traits system relies on it.

Free armies require a general to stay put in their settlements. When they die, the garrison will start wandering around no matter if you have the script activated or not.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

But the AI now has twice as many turns in which to act. It could be that the AI is behaving as if it still has half any turns in which move/attack/recruit. Increased build times help but recruitment is still 1 turn for most units.

Its been along time since I played a 2tpy mod and I cant remember if the endless stacks and the Black/Gray Deaths were problems there too. Those things do seem to happen in most of the 4tpy mods I've played.

It just doesnt seem realistic for a faction to steamroll through all the of the Middle East and Asia Minor in 34 years (136 turns) and drain all of its cities population to under 1000 to build up its stacks.

What are the commands that affect IA growth and behavior (Fortified Ceasar, etc)?

The strength of the AI is not related to the 4tpy. It is just a coincidence that most mods that use 4tpy also like to strengthen the AI. If you removed the 4tpy, you would have the same steamrolling over the middle east in 68 years (136 turns) and 1000 population. The only real thing that 4tpy does is makes the year counter slow down.

It is more realistic to have 4 turns per year, since it doesn't take 20 years to march an army from Italy to Asia.

First of all thank you everybody for the comprehensive answers.

Then, let me agree with MCantu about the problems created by the 4tpy script, that allows to make the conquest of great extensions of land in very few years (from 25 to 35). That really doesn't seem historical, while with the 2tpy system everithing is far more realistic.
Please explain me also what black and grey Death are.

Last but not least let me ask two more questions!
1) Does the elimination of the 4tpy script affect the functions of the mod or will it run without problems?
2) Does the activation of the script prevent the slave armies to move from the cities where they are statione once the original named characters present in the descr_strat.txt are dead?

Thanx again!

1) Yes, problems!
2) Those are done through traits and not by the script. But not activating the script causes much bigger problems than that. See my previous post.