A.I

[QuintusSertorius]

I note the use of a lot of .xml files rather than .txt; is there a specific program we can use to convert them to and from .xml that won't ruin them?

[Aleksander the Average]

just edit them in xml format.

[Razor]

Just edit them using Notepad. You don't need a different program in order to edit them.

[Atilla]

If the ai doesn't lose its general early on it would make up for a tough fight. Only if someone could program the general to sit back for the majority of the fight....

[QuintusSertorius]

Talking of AI, does the campaign AI still struggle with having provinces separated by water, or otherwise distant from each other?

I can imagine Makedonia is a bit more focused and coherent no longer having Mytilene (since it's no longer a province at all) and thus being concentrated on the mainland of Greece. But Koinon Hellenon still has Rhodos, and Epeiros still has Taras. Not to mention Kart-Hadast being spread all over the place, and the Ptolemaioi having Kypros.

Is the M2TW AI better at handling that without going inactive as it sometimes did in RTW?

[Kull]

I note the use of a lot of .xml files rather than .txt; is there a specific program we can use to convert them to and from .xml that won't ruin them?

Use Notepad++ for this. Do NOT use Notepad. One of the nice features of our system is we include a script that will take your xml changes and stick them directly in the .bin files. If you screw up and do something that would cripple the game, the script will fail and will post an error log, which may be used to track down the error. I suppose it's still possible to plug bad data into the .bin file, but this solves the 99% of the problems which are based on improper formatting.

There's a different program for integrating new units into modeldb, but it too is pretty simple to use. All these (and more) are the creations of EB2 team member, Tellos Athenaios.

[Kull]

Talking of AI, does the campaign AI still struggle with having provinces separated by water, or otherwise distant from each other?

I can imagine Makedonia is a bit more focused and coherent no longer having Mytilene (since it's no longer a province at all) and thus being concentrated on the mainland of Greece. But Koinon Hellenon still has Rhodos, and Epeiros still has Taras. Not to mention Kart-Hadast being spread all over the place, and the Ptolemaioi having Kypros.

Is the M2TW AI better at handling that without going inactive as it sometimes did in RTW?

Slightly better. Island invasions do happen, but they aren't common (or well run). We literally spent zero time working on this as there were far bigger fish to fry. To the extent that something can be done, it would be nice if an EB2 fan with modding skills could look into this and perhaps come up with the file changes needed to stimulate activity. If it's done in a way that doesn't bork other aspects of the game, we would probably include it in the base mod. Otherwise the team will look at this eventually, but it's still nowhere near the top of the list.

[QuintusSertorius]

Slightly better. Island invasions do happen, but they aren't common (or well run). We literally spent zero time working on this as there were far bigger fish to fry. To the extent that something can be done, it would be nice if an EB2 fan with modding skills could look into this and perhaps come up with the file changes needed to stimulate activity. If it's done in a way that doesn't bork other aspects of the game, we would probably include it in the base mod. Otherwise the team will look at this eventually, but it's still nowhere near the top of the list.

I can absolutely understand you've got a lot of other, more fundamental things, ahead of it in the list of priorities. I was more curious from the perspective of the base AI in M2TW, before you guys had done anything with it, whether it was better than RTW in this respect.

Good to hear its on the list of things to be addressed eventually. Perhaps the beta playtesting will illuminate whether or not there's an issue to fix.

[Total_Wallyer]

Island invasions happen all the time in Stainless Steel, can you not just use their script?

[Kull]

Island invasions happen all the time in Stainless Steel, can you not just use their script?

Don't know. Is it a discrete part of the code? Or does it involve loading their system wholesale (and overriding big chunks of ours)? How many files have to change? Does it require changes to the map? Again, and I quote:

To the extent that something can be done, it would be nice if an EB2 fan with modding skills could look into this and perhaps come up with the file changes needed to stimulate activity. If it's done in a way that doesn't bork other aspects of the game, we would probably include it in the base mod.