Campaign AI Mod - It Begins!
-State Of the AI Address-
Well I'm going to be releasing a new version soon, probably within the next few days, but before I do I want to take a moment and talk about the mod just a little. I want to do this for a number of reasons, first and foremost is because of the upcoming versions changes. The changes edit the startpos.esf, which is troublesome because a lot of people use other startpos.esf mods for many different things. I spent all of today and yesterday searching for an alternative, but I have come up with none. So with that said, I can now tell you this: You may have to overwrite things, and lose some mods.
I'm not about to go and totally destroy everyones experience by releasing the Vanilla campaign with some updates, so I'm going to be unlocking all factions in it, at least the ones that are immediately playable. Don't expect America or any other emergent faction to make an appearance. I am debating whether or not to change the number of turns per year. While some people might enjoy the longer time scale, I believe many people like two turns per year, and don't want it changed, so its really up to you guys.
I also wanted to talk about my own experiences with my mod, how my campaigns have played out, how the AI works and why it does things. So I'm going to kick off by delivering some tips...if thats what you want to call them.
1.) It is easier to make alliances, and most AI will accept an Alliance if they are indifferent or higher, however the "give me money" alliance ultimatum still exists, and comes out every now and then. One thing to remember about Alliances though, just because you ally with one country, doesn't mean that he is allied with your enemy. The most common thing I see while watching my AI, is when I make a ton of alliances and end up having allies who go to war with eachother. Ultimately this mass number of alliances comes back to bite me in the ass, when all of Europe now hates me for abandoning them time and time again. So it is extremely important to find an ally that is localized to your area of interest, and stick with him. While it may be nice to see many different factions destroying a very aggressive faction, that same aid could turn into an all out power struggle over the territories. So the thing to remember here is, Alliances =/= Peace.
2.) Trade Agreements. Trade Agreements will be openly accepted by AI players, and may even be sustained if an AI nation considers you hostile in the future, however, just like alliances. It is coded within Empire that when trading with another countries enemies, the campaign will show an effect. You may even have war declared upon you for supplying a friends enemy with money for troops. So it is important to watch who you are trading with, and when.
3.) Religion. Don't sit there and believe that every country is open about religion. In all reality Empire is coded for religions to hate eachother. Especially the niches of Christianity. Relgious wars can and will be fought, it just want tell you that. If you believe that an AI has declared war on you for no reason, I suggest highlighting their name in the Diplomacy menu, and looking at the Religion multiplier, it probably had something to do with it. Although religious wars are less common than other wars, they do happen.
4.) Following with all of the above, don't just assume that you are being declared war on for no reason. I can guarantee that there is a more complex answer than "They are adjacent to me!". I've played at least two consecutive campaigns now with the new settings, and I can honestly say that each time there was a legitimate reason for the AI to declare war on me, and it had nothing to do with territorial expansion.
5.) Difficulty settings. I have to be honest here, Empire's handicaps for the higher difficulty levels turns every nation on the Campaign map into an imperialistic blood hound, out for nothing more than total annihilation of the player. As of yet I have not been able to disable these settings, and it is HIGHLY reccomended that you play your campaigns on Medium difficulty, where the mod is most noticeable. Hard, and Very Hard, turn the campaign into all out Total War, and Easy turns it into a passive campaign where bunny rabbits hop around the campaign map. So do me a favor, and before posting a comment about the new version, start a new campaign on medium and truly give it a test.
6.) Be Smart. I don't want to hear people complaining that treaties are not being honored because you played 300 turns and got delcared war on by an ally twice. That is simply an over exageration. If you tell me something similar, I will be forced to ignore your comment. 2 Alliance Breaks in over 135 years of the campaign is not a large amount. This rule also applies to other things. When reporting about wars, really look into their cause, don't just assume that the AI was bored and wanted to. The AI is a very complex group of factors, and proportions, that all add and subtract to make its decisions. I've coded it to be as peaceful as I can make it, without turning the AI into hippies.
7.) Last but not least, you must realize that this mod attempts to fix more than just Diplomacy. It attempts to fix the AI's aggressiveness in wars, so that instead of waiting for you to siege them, they actually ride out and attack you in open ground. It has attempted to fix Naval Invasions, whether it has or not is a different story. It has attempted to fix recruitment, forcing the AI to recruit more Infantry than ever before, and less artillery. It has attempted to make AI characters do things that a natural human player might do. So please do me a favor, and instead of just commenting on broken alliances, and trade agreements, talk to me about other stuff. Is the AI Combining stacks? Is the AI Aggressively meeting you in combat? Is the AI building more infantry? Is the AI conducting naval Invasions? Is the AI accepting Peace Treaties after a war but without annihilation? I need information to better improve the mod, so please, report on anything and everything, I am happy to read, happy to adjust, and happy to work for the better of the community for a more enjoyable game.
- Archi
-Links- Version 0.1 <-- Old version
http://www.filefront.com/14419705/Ar..._Mod_0.1.pack/
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Originally Posted by Xelathur
Thanks in advance 
