Something's wrong: campaign AI and dodgy battles in Rise of the Samurai

[frogbeastegg]

If you run Steam's integrity checker, it will always download a new copy of shogun2.dll. The file always has a different hash value, but it's functionally equivalent and the same size (a little under 24MB currently). This isn't due to corruption and may be a red herring as far as diagnosing a wonky installation with regard to the perceived AI issue.

Just sayin'

Curiouser and curiouser. I checked the size of my shogun2.dll to see if it's the same size as the one steam downloaded. It's 23.6MB. If I run the verification now I get a 23.6MB file downloaded. That's a clear match. But the file which fixed my problems was definitely reported as being 28MB. So either shogun2.dll has changed in size since, or it downloaded a different file, or it two files and lied about getting one, or it reported the size incorrectly. I'd love to know what happened; the difference to my game before and after that file is like night and day.

Shogun II: when you're not playing with its samurai, it's playing with your mind.

[Kurisu]

Curiouser and curiouser. I checked the size of my shogun2.dll to see if it's the same size as the one steam downloaded. It's 23.6MB. If I run the verification now I get a 23.6MB file downloaded. That's a clear match. But the file which fixed my problems was definitely reported as being 28MB. So either shogun2.dll has changed in size since, or it downloaded a different file, or it two files and lied about getting one, or it reported the size incorrectly. I'd love to know what happened; the difference to my game before and after that file is like night and day.

Shogun II: when you're not playing with its samurai, it's playing with your mind.

Heh, yes. Though that's Steam's doing here. Other games have the same issue when you verify them via that process. There's typically one file that it will replace every time with a new copy that has a different hash value (mathematical ID). I would speculate it's a DRM feature. In any case, the closing dialog box that says "All files verified" or whatever, doesn't take that particular mismatch into consideration, so it's inconsistent with the reported download size. Technically it's correct, since the file is legit, but it could be more verbose about what it's actually doing. You're forced to inspect the date stamps or checksums of the game files themselves to learn more.

I'm somewhat skeptical that the whole Steam verification thing has anything to do with suspect AI behavior. The reason for that is the way all Shogun's data is packed together in relatively large pack files. The contents are read and aggregated at game launch. The RotS content is mainly in patch9.pack (along with packs for movies, shaders etc). Then there's the main executable and the main dll file. If either of the latter were missing, corrupt or incorrect versions, I suspect you'd have much less subtle and specific issues (like instant crashing). Patch9.pack is nearly 1.4 GB, so if that was somehow compromised you'd be seeing a huge re-download.

I know you feel strongly about some sort of correlation, but perhaps it's just a coincidence. I still occasionally see much of the behavior you described in the OP both in RotS and in the S2 campaign. That includes armies running repeatedly back and forth between two points on the campaign map, seemingly bizarre decisions regarding attack opportunities, agents sitting around for years etc. I think that the game's AI is a complex beast (much more so than it's sometimes given credit) and it's simply prone to logical hiccups given rare circumstances. When it's good, it's great, but it certainly stands out when it isn't. Perhaps your first experience was simply a bad day for the AI. How many games did you play while it still seemed funky?

[frogbeastegg]

Perhaps your first experience was simply a bad day for the AI. How many games did you play while it still seemed funky?

With the bad AI I had 37 turns in one game, which at the speed I play is around 10 hours. I also restarted to make sure that I hadn't selected easy by accident, so that's another few hours. Both games used the same clan, the Kamakura Minamoto. I exited and reloaded the game several times. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of time to sink into the game those first two days.

With the good AI I have around 15 hours in a fresh Kamakura game, which is only about 45 turns as I've been spending a lot of time fighting battles. I also have maybe 4 hours in a second campaign with the Taira clan which gets the naginata bonuses. Most of that took place over a single week; I haven't had time to play in the last couple of weeks. The good AI is counted as beginning when I verified the cache and started another new game, as it was noticeably better within the first turns.

(I mention that I mostly played in long blocks as a matter of reference, because at one point RTW had a proven bug which caused the AI to break each time you reloaded. Anyone playing for several turns per session experienced an extremely passive AI.)

[Kurisu]

With the bad AI I had 37 turns in one game, which at the speed I play is around 10 hours. I also restarted to make sure that I hadn't selected easy by accident, so that's another few hours. Both games used the same clan, the Kamakura Minamoto. I exited and reloaded the game several times. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of time to sink into the game those first two days.

That would be odd then. Ah well, the important thing is you're enjoying it now. I had an OCD moment reading this thread and felt compelled to investigate