Better CAI "PiterAI" (smarter opponents) EB 2.4a

[charlieh]

Hello there Piter, I appreciate your work on this. I am considering trying out your submod, but could I ask a couple of small questions first.

Firstly, do I need to delete the map.rwm before starting a new campaign, or, is it ok just to start a new campaign for the changes to take effect?

Secondly, does the AI recruit mercenaries on all campaign difficulty settings?

Many thanks.

[Piterx93]

Hello there Piter, I appreciate your work on this. I am considering trying out your submod, but could I ask a couple of small questions first. Firstly, do I need to delete the map.rwm before starting a new campaign, or, is it ok just to start a new campaign for the changes to take effect? Secondly, does the AI recruit mercenaries on all campaign difficulty settings? Many thanks.

Hello Charlieh. Yes, it's good to delete map.rwm You don't need to start a new campaign. In some mods old saves will be working. I don't know how does it look here. If it doesn't crash then you can play.

[Pooploop]

So, can the people who use this submod say that the endless war-peace cycle of this mod has been fixed? Are there any plans of an update regarding this submod very soon? Because if my first question has a "yes" answer and my second has a "no", then I might consider scrapping my 40 turn campaign in favor of starting a new one with the submod applied. I'll first purge myself of all the bad feelings regarding a wasted campaign with original 2.4a ai, but as long as there are no large glaring problems with this submod, then I consider it necessary to complete the eb2 experience. You can make the most historical and aesthetically pleasing mod (which eb2 is already) but if your opponents are dumb-dumbs in what is primarily a strategy/tactics game, it kinda undermines the whole experience. If this submod does exactly what it advertises, let's petition the eb2 dev team to make it part of the standard mod already so nobody ever experiences what I have in quitting mid-campaign to *shudders* "start-over" (oh all those wasted hours).

[bob124]

I have another report after playing a few more games, the war-peace-war cycle is still there but is better than the previous version. What seems to be happening is the AI will declare war on their turn and besiege a city, then once I end my turn somehow peace is declared and then war is immediately declared again before I get to my next turn. So once my next turn starts I see the diplomatic report showing war being declared by two countries who just declared it the turn before. At some point in this cycle something changes to end it for a bit and allow the war to go on long enough for a city or two to be taken but I can't tell why as it doesn't seem consistent. So the AI can progress now a little bit but it's still being seriously hampered by peace being declared over and over when it's trying to conquer someone.

Posting this here in hopes Piter can make a few more improvements, if this issue can be resolved this will be far and away my favorite CAI for Medieval 2, and I've tried quite a few. Thanks for all your work Piter!

[Piterx93]

You can download it again from the first page. I've changed the files on my google drive.
The war-peace-war cycle should be much more unlikely than before.

Thank you for positive feedback.

[Pooploop]

Ohhhh bob124, you are a hero! Eagerly awaiting the day that Piterx93 ai's apparently "one" (which is a great achievement already compared to all other m2tw custom ai's) problem gets resolved. Still in the process of removing all nostalgia and feelings of investment of my soon (once Piterx93 stabilizes his submod) to be scrapped 40+ turn original eb2.4a campaign....

P.S. Piter I have no idea HOW to mod ai or even the principles on which it works...but is it possible to temporarily disable the ability to request or accept peace offers for the ai? Like ai faction blockades a port, or attacks a settlement, starts a war (or the reverse in which they get attacked either by player or another ai faction) then said ai faction gets a ban on accepting or proposing ceasefires for a random amount of time? Anything from at least 1 year (4 turns) to 20 (80 turns) at the extreme? So let's say...egypt and seleukia are at it again (both are ai factions), with seleukia initiating. The moment the Grey Blob attacks one settlement, grey gets -100 malus (or whatever influences the ai to do or not do a diplomatic action) to ceasefires in general for 30 turns while yellow gets the same for...45 turns? So grey will have their diplomats proposing ceasefire far earlier than yellow....in other words the ai of grey gets its "reasoning" back far earlier than yellow. Now how to deal with the problem of multiple factions declaring war on one....but then this is just me rambling. Quite excited to see your ai working without any glaring bugs.

[Piterx93]

Ohhhh bob124, you are a hero! Eagerly awaiting the day that Piterx93 ai's apparently "one" (which is a great achievement already compared to all other m2tw custom ai's) problem gets resolved. Still in the process of removing all nostalgia and feelings of investment of my soon (once Piterx93 stabilizes his submod) to be scrapped 40+ turn original eb2.4a campaign....

P.S. Piter I have no idea HOW to mod ai or even the principles on which it works...but is it possible to temporarily disable the ability to request or accept peace offers for the ai? Like ai faction blockades a port, or attacks a settlement, starts a war (or the reverse in which they get attacked either by player or another ai faction) then said ai faction gets a ban on accepting or proposing ceasefires for a random amount of time? Anything from at least 1 year (4 turns) to 20 (80 turns) at the extreme? So let's say...egypt and seleukia are at it again (both are ai factions), with seleukia initiating. The moment the Grey Blob attacks one settlement, grey gets -100 malus (or whatever influences the ai to do or not do a diplomatic action) to ceasefires in general for 30 turns while yellow gets the same for...45 turns? So grey will have their diplomats proposing ceasefire far earlier than yellow....in other words the ai of grey gets its "reasoning" back far earlier than yellow. Now how to deal with the problem of multiple factions declaring war on one....but then this is just me rambling. Quite excited to see your ai working without any glaring bugs.

No, I can't set it but I think it shouldn't be a big issue after the newest changes. It might sometimes happen but a player that didn't read about it might not notice it.

Some people say that it is possible but when I checked their solutions I couldn't confirm their point of view. In my opinion there is a bug in AI and this command doesn't work. (There is a command that allow to set number of turns after ceasefires but it doesn't work. I tried to use it many times.)


Thank you for your appreciation.

[Pooploop]

Oh, that's good! Would you say that the current version of your submod will be the "latest" for a month or so at least? No new updates coming in a day or three? 'Cause if this is the "stable and final in the nearest future" version of your submod, I'm ready to start my complete 2.4a eb2 experience. Will be playing Makedonia all the way till like 1 AD or more (the end of the era) if possible. Conquering the known world and all that are the end-goals. Having to restart in the middle of that 'cause this (and I don't exaggerate) crucial submod gets an innovative update will kill my joy of eb2 in general till like the dev team releases 2.5 eb2 (which might come 2 years or more from now). I've played with the original ai for 40+ turns and can concur how abysmally passive more than two-thirds of the factions are except for the top dogs (arche seleukia, rome, carthage, egypt). The rebel stacks and settlements are actually more threatening than a fully designed "nation", it's kinda sad. So cheers in the hopes I can embark on a full (and i mean full) length campaign with your ai till the end.

[Piterx93]

Oh, that's good! Would you say that the current version of your submod will be the "latest" for a month or so at least? No new updates coming in a day or three? 'Cause if this is the "stable and final in the nearest future" version of your submod, I'm ready to start my complete 2.4a eb2 experience. Will be playing Makedonia all the way till like 1 AD or more (the end of the era) if possible. Conquering the known world and all that are the end-goals. Having to restart in the middle of that 'cause this (and I don't exaggerate) crucial submod gets an innovative update will kill my joy of eb2 in general till like the dev team releases 2.5 eb2 (which might come 2 years or more from now). I've played with the original ai for 40+ turns and can concur how abysmally passive more than two-thirds of the factions are except for the top dogs (arche seleukia, rome, carthage, egypt). The rebel stacks and settlements are actually more threatening than a fully designed "nation", it's kinda sad. So cheers in the hopes I can embark on a full (and i mean full) length campaign with your ai till the end.

I've only decreased the chance of offering ceasefire by AI to each other. If there will be feedback that it is not enough I'll decrease it more. You don't need to update the AI then. I think the issue is resolved and you can play the game. Especially that folks above said that it was much better after first changes.

The issue existed because on the one hand AI had a command to ask for a ceasefire and it made a proper offer to do it and then the next fraction calculated that it wants to conquer this previous fraction even though they made the ceasefire before. So I randomize frequency of these offers made by AI to each other. I think it's a very simple solution and now you can play without losing immersion.

[bob124]

Tested another game with the updated file, wow! It's fantastic, the war/peace cycle is very much fixed and the AI really shines now. There may be an occasional time when a war/peace issue happens but it's not enough to be noticeable. Thanks so much Piter!

Since I was closely watching AI sieges I did notice a couple things that could be improved if it's possible: While the AI usually brings a large enough army to a siege to have a decent chance of taking it, there are times where it will bring something like half the units that the city's garrison has, which of course makes it an automatic loss for the attacker. Sometimes (though not always) the attacker will bring another army along as reinforcements which would give them a good chance but the reinforcement army will stand one tile away from the city, keeping it out of the assault on the city so the attacker gets crushed.

So there's two things that could be improved: the AI more consistently bringing enough units in its initial army to have a chance at taking the city, or if it has reinforcements, making sure that army places itself close enough to the city to aid in the assault.

[Pooploop]

I too would like to know if bob124's observation will be addressed. Willing to wait a bit longer for a more complete version of your ai (man, let's get the eb2 devs to make it the standard ai already, hahaha!!!).

[Piterx93]

I know it. I have no idea how to make it better at this point. I think it works much better than other AIs.

[bob124]

I know it. I have no idea how to make it better at this point. I think it works much better than other AIs.

No worries then, didn't realize you were already aware. Thanks for this mod, it is IMO the best one available for Med 2. It really shows just how little effort CA puts into their AI.

[Piterx93]

No worries then, didn't realize you were already aware. Thanks for this mod, it is IMO the best one available for Med 2. It really shows just how little effort CA puts into their AI.

Good to hear. Thank you.

[bob124]

Quick question, can I use this AI in other Med 2 mods? I'm thinking Divide and Conquer (Lord of the Rings mod). Or is it only compatible with EB?

[Piterx93]

Quick question, can I use this AI in other Med 2 mods? I'm thinking Divide and Conquer (Lord of the Rings mod). Or is it only compatible with EB?

Here you are:

https://forum.totalwar.org.pl/showth...d-Conquer-v5-0




Yes, you can use it with any mod but you need to change ai_label in descr_strat for every fraction.
It has to be the same as in my descr_campaign_ai_db <faction_ai_label name=".

You should only change descr_campaign_ai_db to avoid crashes.

[welshy91]

I'm not sure if it's vanilla EBII AI or because of the mod but Rome is pathetically weak. I'm currently playing Macedon and keeping an eye on Rome and they are struggling to take Rhegio (it's turn 80)
They are constantly battling massive rebel forces and haven't advanced much. I was hoping for a final boss war against Rome once I dealt with the east but it seems Carthage will be the challenge instead.

[Piterx93]

I'm not sure if it's vanilla EBII AI or because of the mod but Rome is pathetically weak. I'm currently playing Macedon and keeping an eye on Rome and they are struggling to take Rhegio (it's turn 80)
They are constantly battling massive rebel forces and haven't advanced much. I was hoping for a final boss war against Rome once I dealt with the east but it seems Carthage will be the challenge instead.

What do you mean? Don't you use my AI?

The balance can be changed after installation of the CAI.

[Piterx93]

I've added new version. AI should be a bit more passive. Some people complained about the amount of attacks.

[Piterx93]

I've added new version. AI should be a bit more passive. Some people complained about the amount of attacks.

I've fixed it again. There was a mistake before. AI should be a bit more passive. Some people complained about the amount of attacks.