Seeking info on the -ai command line switch

[boofhead]

Can anyone help please - I can't find info anywhere, only a comment that it exists.

Anyone? :hmmm:

Thanx.

[makanyane]

What it does is run the campaign with AI playing all sides (you are not involved at all) but can watch. Battles are not played on battle map but are just auto-resolved as AI v AI factions normally do. Use is to test AI expansion / faction balance & possibly spot late stage CTD's (although apart from knowing you have one it's really hard to pin down timing etc. unless you happen to be watching at time).

To activate it, right click your desktop shortcut (or copy of shortcut so you have one of each), select properties and change target to read:
"x:\program files\activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -ai
i.e. whatever it was before plus 'space-ai' outside the quotes, you can also combine this with other commands for example:
"x:\program files\activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -ai -show_err -ne -nm

Start campaign from this shortcut, select faction and once campaign loads AI takes over - unfortunately you can't take control back later so you only get rough idea of whats going on.

[boofhead]

What it does is run the campaign with AI playing all sides (you are not involved at all) but can watch. Battles are not played on battle map but are just auto-resolved as AI v AI factions normally do. Use is to test AI expansion / faction balance & possibly spot late stage CTD's (although apart from knowing you have one it's really hard to pin down timing etc. unless you happen to be watching at time).

To activate it, right click your desktop shortcut (or copy of shortcut so you have one of each), select properties and change target to read:
"x:\program files\activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -ai
i.e. whatever it was before plus 'space-ai' outside the quotes, you can also combine this with other commands for example:
"x:\program files\activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -ai -show_err -ne -nm

Start campaign from this shortcut, select faction and once campaign loads AI takes over - unfortunately you can't take control back later so you only get rough idea of whats going on.

Thanx for the response - I got it going and like you said makanyane my plan was to see how the AI goes on the campaign map when I tweak it in various ways. Also I would like to run 2 full AI campaigns without any tweaking and compare differences in behaviour, i.e., just how different will the AI behaviour be in 2 different campaigns when exactly the same limits are placed on it. I would think it would try and do exactly the same thing both times but diverge only as a result of the rather unpredictable auto-resolved battles, but just want to test this out.

Problem is I use RTRPE with 4tpy script but due to immediate AI control I cannot activate it.

Hence I believe winter movement restrictions occur every 2 turns instead of every 4, so the results I am seeing do not truly represent the AI behaviour in the mod. There is less campaign map movement than under 4tpy.

Is there are way to activate a 'show-me-how' script while using the -ai command line switch? Or maybe I just have to use it in 2tpy mode to get a 'general feel' of AI behaviour?

Thanks again for your response!

[PatWest]

"x:\program files\activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -ai -show_err -ne -nm

Have you seen a list and description for all the command line entries.

[makanyane]

Originally posted by PatWest
Have you seen a list and description for all the command line entries.

I haven't (though I confess I haven't specifically gone looking for one). If there is such a thing and someone could provide directions to it that would be very useful. I've only picked up odds and ends across various threads.

To explain the example I gave, it is what I tend to put on all shortcuts (without -ai obviously):

-ne allows game, including ai turns and battles to run in background, if you alt-tab out to a program, text file etc. you've left open on your desktop,

-nm just cuts out all the start up movies so game loads quicker

-show_err is the really vital one that everybody should be using, as it gives (normally) useful error messages, when text editing has gone wrong or files are missing etc.