Should I buy considering the bad Ai?

[Insigna]

I was thinking of buying MTW2 and Kingdoms but since I only play single player and want a challenging and at least somewhat fair AI to play against. But the thoughts on this site seem to be that the MTW2 AI is the worst Total War AI yet. What do you guys think?

[iplaytw]

-To be instagibbed-

[Mikhal]

As for the AI I think it's better than RTW, but still pretty poor.

[part_time_player]

First of all make sure you get the latest patch. Then go find yourself one of the many great MODS out there and download it. Lands to Conquer Gold (requires Kingdoms), Stainless Steel and Deus Lo Vult seem to be some of the most popular mods for improving the grand campaign without dramatically altering the game. Like many others, I found the vanilla game ok but ultimately quite annoying, LTC Gold though has turned all that around for me.

See this thread for some more glowing praise;
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=164953

And quote;
"LTC pretty much perfects M2TW!"

Mods are pretty straight forward to download and install if you've not done one before so there's nothing to fear!

[Quintus.JC]

XXXXX

It's him isn't it?

I'd still buy it, the AI might not have being improved, but Medieval II Gold is still worth it.

[Galain_Ironhide]

Yes this game is definately worth buying, bugs and all. The mods you can download for this game finish it off just nicely.

[rvg]

M2TW is pretty. That's about the only good thing I can say about it.

[Subedei]

M2TW/ kingdoms ain´t that bad, yet do i enjoy it more with the mods. I am playing Broken Crescent at the moment, and it is a lot of fun.

[Sheogorath]

To be honest, for all we moan about the AI, it really isnt THAT horrible. A bit bare-bones, but certainly functional.
And really, you cant help but laugh when it does something insanely stupid. Although it can get a bit frustrating when five factions declare war on you at once :p

[Insigna]

Firstly, yes this game is definately worth buying, bugs and all. The mods you can download for this game finish it off just nicely.

Secondly, I apologise to you, Insigna, for the fact that you to have to read immature, unprovoked comments from a certain member who has harrassed the .org much too long. You know who you are, enough is enough. I have nothing against you my friend (as we have once spoken in pm long before this) but it is now time to move on.

Thanks for the info. I don't know if they were deleted or what, but what comments were rude? Was it the "To be instagibbed" comment. I havent lurked on these forums for a long time, since back in 2005 so perhaps I'm just out of the loop.

[Askthepizzaguy]

wow...

that factionheir-is-ugly guy really needs to get a life. And that's coming from a pathetic dweeb like me.



In all seriousness, reported/instagibbed.

From your friendly neighborhood deathgod, slash "assistant five times fast" moderator.

[Martok]

All right folks. The troll has been dealt with, so we can all move along now.


My opinion of the game's AI is admittedly not very high, but it is noticeably better than in RTW. (Not that that's saying much, of course. )

I think my biggest issue is that the computer is just as inept at handling diplomacy as it has throughout most of the series -- it gets rather old seeing some flea-bit kingdom backstab my 30-province empire.

[Mikhal]

I think my biggest issue is that the computer is just as inept at handling diplomacy as it has throughout most of the series -- it gets rather old seeing some flea-bit kingdom backstab my 30-province empire.

Considering what's going on in Georgia right now, it isn't that unrealistic after all

[FactionHeir]

Well, that's part of M2TW too: Allies that don't support you when you go to war besides some diplomatic bickering

[Fookison]

To be honest, for all we moan about the AI, it really isnt THAT horrible. A bit bare-bones, but certainly functional.
And really, you cant help but laugh when it does something insanely stupid. Although it can get a bit frustrating when five factions declare war on you at once :p

I agree with this post. RTW and M2TW are games I keep going back too and definitely Kingdoms has provided many enjoyable hours of game playing. Looking forward to Empire TW. I just take the games for what they are and have fun!! If you want something very intense, then try EU3 - In Nominee from Paradox Games.

[Peasant Phill]

The title just says what I was thinking.

I've been playing MTW VI for years now and I'm quite acomplished in playing the game (if I may say so myself). I really enjoy being put to the test tactically as well as strategically. Recently my PC died and I bought a new one that unfortunatly refuses to run MTW.
This seems to be a right time to also get me an 'upgrade' of my favorite game. Although I haven't been much on this part of the .Org I still heard the horror stories of how dumbed down M2TW is in comparison with STW and MTW.
Is M2TW (together with an expansionpack and patches) worth buying for someone who really enjoyed the original MTW and puts graphics under gameplay and challenge when chosing a game.
Are there mods who raises the level of AI up to somewhere near MTW? I know at least Martok and Factionheir know the level I mean.

[PBI]

The sad fact is, if you're used to MTW AI you're likely to be sorely disappointed by the AI in M2TW, at least in vanilla. While the AI isn't quite as bad as it is sometimes made out to be, it is still pretty deficient compared to MTW. TBF, most (though not all) of the more infuriating glitches such as passive AI have been eliminated by the patches, but it is still not exactly stellar. It is prone to occasional fits of madness, i.e. besieging your capital with a single unit of peasants, declaring war on you right after signing an alliance etc. However, more annoyingly, it is extremely bad at managing its economy and teching up, resulting in enemy armies usually consisting of large numbers of rubbish troops. It also struggles to expand and to keep any kind of offensive momentum when it has the upper hand; I often see vanilla factions go to war, and spend the next 50 years skirmishing along their border even though one could easily crush the other.

Most of the mods improve the AI to some extent; the two I play are Stainless Steel and Broken Crescent, both of which are a significant step up in challenge from vanilla. To some extent though, this is achieved by artificially helping the AI through free troops and cash, so it's hard to say exactly how much the AI is improved. The Broken Crescent factions do seem to be substantially better at expanding and mounting a decent offensive than the vanilla ones.

In all, I'd say M2TW is worth getting for the very fine mods which have been made for it, (it sounds to me like you might enjoy SS, which feels a bit more like MTW than vanilla does), but I wouldn't spend too long on vanilla.

[oz_wwjd]

Doesn't Kingdoms have somewhat questionable copy-right protection software on the cd,that installs itself without your knowledge,or consent for that matter? That's the only thing that's stopped me from buying it,as usually I frown upon programs installing themselves on my computer without my consent,as I've had issues in the past with spyware...

[FactionHeir]

Yes it does install SecuROM.

[TheLastPrivate]

Yes we all moan and cry about it (including me), but considering some other games of this genre it isn't half bad.

[Old Geezer]

If'n ya don't like the AI why not play Hot Seat and play each faction in rotation? Ain't dat possible? Just take a nap in between turns so you don't remember what you was doin.

[kublikhan3]

Defiently pick up the game. It's been out awhile so you can pick it up on the cheap. You can get the original for only $14 at amazon: Original
or original + expantion for $30: Gold

The AI does suck in vanilla, but don't let that stop you from picking up a great game. You can put a few additional rules on yourself to make it more challenging, or download one of the mods.

[Motep]

In case you have missed te point of this topic so far, Mods make the AI much better. Or at least, more challenging.

[KingKnudthebloodthirsty]

the tw series is about battles basically. the campaign has horrible and weird ai. in this other thread started by mine, some1 said that as egypt, he allied with the pope and the next turn he called a crusade on him, even though the pope didnt join and they were allies. and the ai isnt aggresive. after taking some rebel lands right across the border they stop and quit expansioning .wat makes tw fun is the battles, not really the campaign. if u like pure campaign and managing an empire, try europa universalis 3 and the Civlization series. and im also thinking might be good, but i dont have the game. im planning to get it in february should ETW be rate M for mature. im not allowed to buy M games. oh, i saw on these screenshots on mobygames that in the IG screenshots the interface is Spanish. do they have an english version or thats it?

[Bellum]

It'll suddenly become worth it around the same time EB2 comes out. :)

[Old Geezer]

Buy it. If you don't think it is worth it after you have tried Retrofit/Kingdoms e-mail me and I'll buy your copy from you.

[ArtistofWarfare]

At this point? I guess go ahead and buy it. If you're itching to play the game, the only thing that will scratch that itch is playing it. That's how TW goes.

By now, the community has a collaboration of fixes and workarounds for most major issues- and the absolute torture that the patching/config process could be in some cases.

You have about 4.5 months before Empire comes out. I would say pick it up and start playing it. At the worst, you are sick of it in a couple of months and you've just gotten closer to Empire's release date.

For the record- Of what I'm seeing out of Empire thus far, it's going to destroy all previous total war's...perhaps even MTW:VI (perhaps). I've never seen a strategy game (or really any game) look as good as it does this close to release. Factions like the French should kick ass and take names against even diehard TW players...at least initially.

[Bromley]

I've never seen a strategy game (or really any game) look as good as it does this close to release.

Poor choice of words given the criticism leveled at TW :) .

Peasant Phill. I've just bought MTWII vanilla and even patched it's no good for me. I think I'll get Kingdoms to see what the current mods are like. I'm not holding out much hope though as I think that the change from the STW/MTW province map introduces too many variables for the poor AI to cope with.

To be fair though, that's based on my RTW experience as I haven't played MTWII enough yet to say it's still the case. Bet it is though :) .

PTP Thanks for the post about LTC. I'll have a look at it tomorrow (and hope that it doesn't need Kingdoms).

[Mount Suribachi]

For all the whining, I've found Kingdoms to be the toughest of all the (un-modded) TW games. Maybe its because of the heavily scripted campaigns, but nevertheless my Turks/Crusades campaign is the first TW game I've ever played were victory wasn't assured after 10 turns and I've been playing since the day Shogun was released.