Quick question on drop-in battles

**bangell99** · May 14, 2011, 08:55 AM

When you play on harder difficulties, the AI gets its stats boosted. When you go into a drop-in battle, do the human player's units get their stats increased or are they put back to normal for that battle?

Thanks.

**DeMolay** · May 14, 2011, 09:08 AM

I don't know cause the few times i got a game where i was dropped in someone else's campaign , i was playing the first battle of a campaign when you are playing a small 4 units Rebel army with your general as light cavalry usually (basically a losing batte )

However , even though i didn't try yet , i suppose if you are dropped in later in one's campaign , you get the troops the AI had , so if they had XP , you get the XP i think

**Humble Warrior** · May 14, 2011, 09:13 AM

Sorry. This is a bit off-topic, but has anyone noticed you have click `No` to Drop-In battles EVERY TIME you start a Campaign? Last time I forgot and in my first battle the game automatically tried to shovel me into a drop-in battle. I didn`t even realise until it said something like, `Drop-In connection Failed`.

Haha! That`s cos I disconnect from Steam every time I start this game. Still annoying though.

**Neige** · May 14, 2011, 09:15 AM

Why would you disconnect from Steam after launching the game though?

**Humble Warrior** · May 14, 2011, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by Neige Noire

Why would you disconnect from Steam after launching the game though?

You need to read more of my posts on Steam, cos I ain`t explaining again. Or you can ask the many `fans` I have who hate me criticising Steam.

**SupAll** · May 14, 2011, 10:05 AM

AI doesn't get unit stat bonuses on harder difficulties. The Battle difficulty remains the same no matter what difficulty you choose for the campaign.

**bangell99** · May 14, 2011, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by SupAll

AI doesn't get unit stat bonuses on harder difficulties. The Battle difficulty remains the same no matter what difficulty you choose for the campaign.

Oh, is this true? Never mind my question, then.

**DeMolay** · May 14, 2011, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by bangell99

Oh, is this true? Never mind my question, then.

Wasn't your question about the troops that the AI sometimes has in harder difficulties , which are usually with a lot "XP chevrons" that were not obtained in battle ?

**JorisofHolland** · May 14, 2011, 10:55 AM

Really? IIRC you could change the battle-difficulty in the options menu once you've started your campaign. Also, you can disable Drop-In battles about the same way in an already started campaign.

**bangell99** · May 14, 2011, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by DeMolay

Wasn't your question about the troops that the AI sometimes has in harder difficulties , which are usually with a lot "XP chevrons" that were not obtained in battle ?

No, not quite. In previous TW games, harder difficulties gave the AI units better stats in battles to make them harder to beat. I thought this was the case with Shogun 2, but apparently not.

**SupAll** · May 15, 2011, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by JorisofHolland

Really? IIRC you could change the battle-difficulty in the options menu once you've started your campaign. Also, you can disable Drop-In battles about the same way in an already started campaign.

If you go to the preferences script, the entry that affects the Battle AI stats remains on normal. Likewise, so does the auto-resolve.

**JorisofHolland** · May 15, 2011, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by SupAll

If you go to the preferences script, the entry that affects the Battle AI stats remains on normal. Likewise, so does the auto-resolve.

I'm pretty sure I've changed the battle difficulty through the options menu, but I can't find the slider anymore.

**daniu** · May 15, 2011, 08:13 AM

Originally Posted by bangell99

Oh, is this true? Never mind my question, then.

No, it's not true. The AI does get stats boosts in higher battle difficulties. The battle difficulty doesn't "stay the same regardless of campaign difficulty", it gets changed along with it.
I don't know if the stats boni stay in drop-in battles though, I think they might.

**JorisofHolland** · May 15, 2011, 08:33 AM

I agree with you, I just found the 'Battle Difficulty Slider' under Options -> Game Settings. It changes when you change campaign difficulty.
Not sure what it's effects are, maybe SupAll is still right and the slider doesn't actually do anything.

**SupAll** · May 15, 2011, 09:13 AM

Originally Posted by JorisofHolland

I agree with you, I just found the 'Battle Difficulty Slider' under Options -> Game Settings. It changes when you change campaign difficulty.
Not sure what it's effects are, maybe SupAll is still right and the slider doesn't actually do anything.

I'm not saying it doesn't change anything. The AI itself is a lot more responsive on the higher difficulty levels, and far less likely to make mistakes (such as suicide generals). I'm saying it doesn't affect unit stats since the units are just as easy to rout on Legendary as they are on Normal. In previous TWs, the battle difficulty gave AI units higher morale to prevent them from being routed, often creating units that fought to the very last man. In S2TW, you don't have that. The AI suffers the same morale shocks, gets routed just as easily, and are susceptible to the same penalties as the player on the battlefield. Their stat bonus is from the campaign side, with their ability to research faster than the player, they can easily field armies with higher chevrons and therefore more morale.

And here are the entries in the preferences script:
battle_difficulty 0; # battle_difficulty <int>, Sets the handicap for battles. Positive gives advantage. -2 is vhard, -1 is hard, 0 normal, 1 easy #
autoresolve_difficulty 0; # autoresolve_difficulty <int>, Sets the handicap for battles that are autoresolved. Positive gives advantage. -2 is vhard, -1 is hard, 0 normal, 1 easy #
campaign_difficulty -2; # campaign_difficulty <int>, Sets the handicap for campaigns. Positive gives advantage. -2 is vhard, -1 is hard, 0 normal, 1 easy #

The battle and auto-resolve difficulties remain the same no matter what difficulty the campaign is. I'm certain the difficulty affects the AI's responsiveness.