XAI for Candelarius' Grand Unit Addon

[Queen Annes Revenge]

Xeryx's release of XAI 2.20D+ allows me the opportunity to bring this magnificent AI to fellow users of this mod!

Guys, this AI is seriously the BEST. It should give even seasoned M2TW players a great challenge. It will consolidate its armies into large stacks, and attack you very aggressively. Also, I believe this AI has the most sensible diplomacy.

All the credit goes to Xeryx for the AI, Candelarius for his outstanding Grand Unit Add-on Mod, and of course Unspoken Knight for giving us Retrofit. I only threw the files together. Please give feedback about the AI in this thread: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=147477

Battle AI is included as well.

Instructions: Extract all files except descr_strat.txt to your M2tw\mods\retrofit\data directory. Descr_strat.txt goes in M2tw\mods\retrofit\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign.
I have included backup files for your convenience.

This should work with plain old retrofit, but I haven't tried it and cannot guarantee it.

Enjoy!

I have posted a new version with Random Attack's faction standings fix and Xeryx's new and improved Battle AI.

[RandomAttack]

Thanks for the files! I'm trying it out now.

Q: In the faction_standing.txt file there are entries for factions that don't exist-- Abbasids, etc. For another mod I imagine... Is it safe to assume these "extra" entries will just be ignored for the Grand Unit Add On?

[Queen Annes Revenge]

Thanks for the files! I'm trying it out now.

Q: In the faction_standing.txt file there are entries for factions that don't exist-- Abbasids, etc. For another mod I imagine... Is it safe to assume these "extra" entries will just be ignored for the Grand Unit Add On?

Good catch, thanks! From my tests though it appears that this has no real effect... I guess they are ignored like you say.

[RandomAttack]

Per Xeryx it SHOULDN'T cause any problems-- he just recommends being aware of it just in case. I haven't encountered any problems yet

[xeryx]

BOO!! You should really be testing it thoroughly, before posting it!! I will help you with balancing.

[RandomAttack]

Oops! That's what I get for carrying on two conversations at the same time. Turn 100 and no "anomalies" yet (again, just CAI). Honestly wasn't concerned about balancing at this point-- just that it woudn't crash, lock up or go totally bonkers due to "extra" entries.

[RandomAttack]

Been away for awhile, but finally edited/modified the descr_faction_standing.txt file to eliminate all the "extra" faction references (Kiev, Syria, etc.). So now it exactly matches the factions in descr_strat as the "mod implementation" instructions said.

I ran thru 4 campaigns just to turn 30 as Byz on H/M (under AI control). I was surprised to find that is does in fact seem to make a difference! I'm not making any definitive claims from just 4 trials, but in all 4 the AI expanded more rapidly, was more aggressive, etc., than before I changed the file. It was quite noticeable. Realize this is quite subjective, but all parties seemed about 25% more "ornery". Went to war with each other quite early. Rarely passed up a juicy target of opportunity. It's not that the "unmodified" file doesn't work, just seems to "mellow" everyone a bit for whatever reason.

So much for "intuition"-- I need to just follow the damn instructions! ALL of them...

[Queen Annes Revenge]

That was my fault, I should have changed this... but thank you for delving into this RA! Awesome job. Would you mind posting the faction_standings file?

[xeryx]

QAR: How is the mod going? I just did a MAJOR update to the BAI..you will like it very much!!

[RandomAttack]

QAR: Here it is. All I did was remove entries for factions that were "N/A". Be interesting to see if you notice the same (or any) results.

[Queen Annes Revenge]

Everything looks good, hopefully soon I will find time to give the new stuff a shot! Real life gets in the way. And... well... rock concerts get in the way too.

I have uploaded a new version with RA's faction file and the new BAI. I decided to do this without prior testing because you have of course tested the BAI yourself, and I don't really see how the changes could make things worse. Thank you both very much!!

[Demokritos]

Well, I've tried two campaigns with this XAI version of Candelarius' GUA now, once as the Danes and once as the Moors, and both have been a blast to play! With the difficulty settings on VH/VH, I have rarely, if ever, in all my sittings with the TW games and mods thereof, experienced a more interesting campaign or battles with more intensity and nerve (I may have to go back to the old MTW for that). No technical problem whatsoever encountered so far. So I must thank you - Xeryx, Queen Anne's Revenge and RandomAttack - a lot for your respective parts in this. I'll give Candelarius a major thanks for his major work in the special thread for this as soon as I've tried adding something to it. Anyway, lots of thanx again for the added fun with this mod, guys!

PS. One small thing on the down side which I noticed, but which I'm not sure is rooted in this mod or not (I've not tried GUA without the XAI), is that skirmishing units, at least the mounted variety, seem awfully slow and rather unwilling to keep their distance to the enemy closing in on them. Has Xeryx made any changes that could have such effect?

[Demokritos]

Edit: this was posted by mistake. Sorry. Can someone remove this post?

[Queen Annes Revenge]

I thank you Demokritos for the kind words.

One small thing on the down side which I noticed, but which I'm not sure is rooted in this mod or not (I've not tried GUA without the XAI), is that skirmishing units, at least the mounted variety, seem awfully slow and rather unwilling to keep their distance to the enemy closing in on them. Has Xeryx made any changes that could have such effect?

There is actually a discussion on improving the battle AI in the thread I have linked to in the first post. Try the new files he has released, and please post your feedback in that thread so Xeryx will see it.

[Demokritos]

There is actually a discussion on improving the battle AI in the thread I have linked to in the first post. Try the new files he has released, and please post your feedback in that thread so Xeryx will see it.

Oh, missed that link. Will do.

[xeryx]

QAR: PM me V2.21 is about complete, I need you to test it with this mod.

BTW Skirmishers have been a slight, PIA, I have them tweaked better now, update 5 for the BAI will fix that. they move a little too fast ATM, but they work. I need to refine them a bit more.

[Jinnigan]

i just installed this on a clean install of m2tw + kingdoms, and i'm running into weird battle AI issues

for example, in my siege playing as HRE and sieging magdeburg, my mailed knights refuse to enter cities. as in, if i give them orders to move anywhere inside a city, that order is simply cancelled. i can give them orders to go up to the door, but any orders to do anything INSIDE the city are simply cancelled.

also, , my spearmen killed an entire unit of mailed knights, taking maybe 20-30 losses, and then promptly routed right after the last horseman died. they were not near any other units -- all the rebels were on the walls. they definitely were not in a last stand state of morale, so i don't understand why this happened.

seriously, wtf m8?

[Queen Annes Revenge]

Hi Jinnigan, please refer to the link in the first post of this thread to give feedback about the AI itself. There is also a new version of the Battle AI you can find in the Darthmod forum.

also, , my spearmen killed an entire unit of mailed knights, taking maybe 20-30 losses, and then promptly routed right after the last horseman died. they were not near any other units -- all the rebels were on the walls. they definitely were not in a last stand state of morale, so i don't understand why this happened.

From your description of events, this isn't too far fetched. Take into account the negative factors on your spearmen's morale here: they have low base morale (if they are early spearmen, which I assume they are), they were by themselves, they were getting hailed by arrows from the troops on the walls, their general was presumably not nearby enough to be helping them fight. Units in this game tend to take rather large morale hits when they enter enemy cities too. Also, maybe you weren't leading the army with a general, or a good general?

Regarding the mailed knights. This is my fault; the download still contains the old pathfinding file that was found to not work as well. You can try the new version at the Darth forums or simply delete the descr_pathfinding.txt file found in the retrofit\data directory (the game will use the original one which works better). But I do recommend getting the new version.

Hope this helps.

[xeryx]

@ Jinnigan and QAR :This is actually a bug with different versions of pathfinding files. Please go into your data directory, and delete the descr_pathfinding.db (leave the.txt file intact)file. the start the game..it will regenerate when going into battle.

[jalen911]

Can not start a new campign !