Where is the game going?

**Hooahguy** · 05-31-2009, 16:35

didnt realize the up in costs also affected the AI. i think CA needs to implement soemthing which the EB team put in place: every faction thats controlled by the AI gets a huge monetary bonus every turn. it works for EB, and i am usually fighting huge AI armies. what they lack in skill they make up in number.

**Fisherking** · 05-31-2009, 17:22

I don’t actually favor AI cheats to beat the player. The AI generalship needs to be better at almost every level of play. It could use more cash so perhaps removing administrative costs for the AI factions, up to a certain level would be best, (say around 15 to 20 regions). The MC might prove the exception as they seem to have little trouble raising armies and cash.

The random DoWs should stop and go back to the diplomacy model we started with. Once at war however, the Campaign AI needs to be more aggressive and not sit and wait to be attacked.

Each AI faction should have some kind of self preservations built in. Refusing offers until eliminated for most factions is unreasonable. There should of course be exceptions, and mad rulers who can surprise you without the whole game conspiring to disrupt your campaign.

I don’t think anyone would complain if blocked ports resulted in a marked percentage drop in trade rather than its complete secession. At the same time AI factions should place a priority on keeping its own ports free of blockade. I think this has been used as a cheep trick to deprive the player of revenue rather than the AI’s inability to cope with the enemy.

It may not prove as challenging is some respects, but it doesn’t make the AI look so foolish and incompetent, which is a major problem for a lot of people.

**Dayve** · 05-31-2009, 18:02

Can't give the AI financial bonuses, it would be impossible to get started. It's difficult as it is, with the AI being programmed to destroy the player at all cost and not accept peace ever, but you can handle it because once you destroy their army they can't make another for a while... but neither can you, you're as bankrupt as they are for quite a while.

If they got bonuses then they could just pump out army after army while you are a sitting duck.

**Hooahguy** · 05-31-2009, 22:09

the system that the EB team puts in place is very good. they dont get a huge bonus, only enough to make sure they dont go under in debt.
i think its a bit late to make major changes to the AI, so i think this is the next best thing.

**Dayve** · 05-31-2009, 23:48

The EB system was horrid, but necessary, and there were no alternatives.

The AI throws 4 full stack armies of good and/or decent troops at you every single turn because they get tens of thousands in aid from a script every turn, resulting in a very boring game once you get 50 or 60 turns in.

I can't say this enough... the series may be called Total War, but with everything else that has been implemented, like diplomacy, the option to strangle your opponents economically, sabotage, isolation, everything, is proof that these games aren't meant to be just about constant warfare and huge battles being fought every single turn.

Don't know about anybody else, but if i have to fight a battle every turn, i abandon a campaign very quickly.

**Megas Methuselah** · 06-01-2009, 00:00

Originally Posted by Dayve

The EB system was horrid, but necessary, and there were no alternatives.

The AI throws 4 full stack armies of good and/or decent troops at you every single turn because they get tens of thousands in aid from a script every turn, resulting in a very boring game once you get 50 or 60 turns in.

I can't say this enough... the series may be called Total War, but with everything else that has been implemented, like diplomacy, the option to strangle your opponents economically, sabotage, isolation, everything, is proof that these games aren't meant to be just about constant warfare and huge battles being fought every single turn.

Don't know about anybody else, but if i have to fight a battle every turn, i abandon a campaign very quickly.

Yeah, that hit it dead-on.

**Owen Glyndwr** · 06-01-2009, 05:34

As much as many people would hate to hear it. I think that if I had to choose between the real-time battles, and an actually realistic working and complex political system in which the AI behaved sanely and logically, I'd go with the politics. Sure fighting massive battles is just plain awesome, but battles that have no meaning, to me, are completely arbitrary and boring.

**GFX707** · 05-31-2009, 18:01

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

didnt realize the up in costs also affected the AI. i think CA needs to implement soemthing which the EB team put in place: every faction thats controlled by the AI gets a huge monetary bonus every turn.

What's the point in playing a game if all the other players don't have to follow the rules? It's CA's system, if they can't code the AI to work within that system why does the player get punished?