Great mod but I would love a " Simply Better CAI" somehow.

[Yerevan]

Firstly I must say this is a great mod. It does what it says, it simply works, no placebo here. When I decided to try mods with Attila I felt completely lost so I was wuite happy to recognize your name from old S2 times, among all those unknown modders name !

Now I find that somehow, the aggressiveness of the AI prevent it from develloping its empire properly. On the contrary this tendency to rush the attack against the player hinders its ability to settle the base for a powerfull nation. It makes a difficult and intense early game, but a boring and easy mid-game. Whatever the difficulty you chose before.

I will give you an exemple that comes from my Danish campaign. After having attacked and looted the south-east of england my army went back in its drakars and went to the North to take Bamburgh from its Nortumbrian hands. I was helped by the fact that the Picts attacked Dumbar on the other side of Northumbria.It made perfect distraction. I occupied Bamburgh and went to loot some Pictish settlements south oof it. And another settklement from a nation I forgot the name.
But pressure from Picts and other angry nations forced me to get back behind Bamburgh walls (I was happy I kept it under my control) with my wagons full of the gold I had taken from them. I spent more than two years behind Bambugh's wall, under permanent siege. From the Picts, then the other guysn, then the rebels, then Mercia... And over and over. Defeating waves after waves. It was just like the whole england wanted to get rid of me, like a bactery hunted by the island's immunitery system.
I can accept that, it's not breaking immersion since it makes sense on a historical and cultural level. After all, I'm an horrible and frightning looter and above all a damned pagan ! Old ennemies while still at war would just focus on attacking me. To the point that Mercia arrived in everybody's back and had no problem taking their territories while they were at war with me. Until then everything was ok.

But then... Northumbria who still holded one minor settlement and the walled septentrional city of Rhynie, had slowly rebuilt itself a force. Actually, not completely. They could have waited a bit more and build a second stack. This one stack they had rebuilt started to march south. It was more than one turn after I had defeated by last besieger and while I had recieved reinforcement from the ferocious and loyal Ragnar. At this point it was foolish to throw their unique stack over me. They could have simply walked south west to take back the settlement of Dumbar which was left undefended by their old Mercian ennemy, especially since I had just crushed two huge stacks of them. But no, instead, the player obsessed AI just chose to throw its precious unseasonned army againts my walls, defended by twice their number of veteran troops. WTF ?

This is where I believe your mod could have a version with a less aggressive AI. Because we know what agressive means in Attila total war ; it just mean "player obsessed" and that is something the vanilla AI could already do. The problem is still the same. Of course it makes the early game much more difficult. But at the moment you have beaten all those enraged AI nations, while still develloping your land. then you just face undevelloped ravaged AI nations. And once again you will have a boring easy as cake mid-game (I don't even speak of late-game I usually don('t go so far and got bored before).

I can only imagine what would happen if the AI would think first of developing itself and would act logically, as a self preserving entity, instead of grind itself trying to prematurely grind the player. They will try anyway, ,even if it's a bit better this CAI can't live knowing the player still breath.

[Junaidi83 de Bodemloze]

But no, instead, the player obsessed AI just chose to throw its precious unseasonned army againts my walls, defended by twice their number of veteran troops. WTF ?

There are many variable regarding this problem, if the AI still trying to wrestle a city from you despite againt the odds :
1.They just follow core mechanic task logic, to recapture their lost territorry
2.For somehow AI calculation gone wrong which is happens sometimes

They could have simply walked south west to take back the settlement of Dumbar which was left undefended by their old Mercian ennemy, especially since I had just crushed two huge stacks of them

True the logic do dictates it, but again, we realy need to understand what variable actually that made AI do like that, still however its also good news as well, meaning sometimes you still can get easy siege battle, usually you only fight a siege where human player always in losing side, i think a change of situation is good for variation ^^

There is also benefit, old army drain the upkeep, and AI clearly will never disband its healthy stack, thus its will prevented AI to recruit newer more advanced unit because maximum upkeep limit, with army loss its provide AI plenty opputunity to raise new professional army.

This is where I believe your mod could have a version with a less aggressive AI. Because we know what agressive means in Attila total war ; it just mean "player obsessed" and that is something the vanilla AI could already do.

There is no player obsessed here, since i do made sure disable the "obsessed variable" however if player feel gangbang on the campaign, its because the AI simply able to outmaneuver human player via diplomacy, for example they do able to use join war in diplomacy and coerce another AI faction to attack you as well, some AI simply declare war to you, to get good standing among other AI, other just want exploit situation.

The problem is still the same. Of course it makes the early game much more difficult. But at the moment you have beaten all those enraged AI nations, while still develloping your land. then you just face undevelloped ravaged AI nations.

Its realy not possible logically, have a warring AI with developed in mind, first developing itself cost more money one can imagine, for example give it AI 10.000 gold , its may able to afford 1 nice full army stack, and provide good simulation, but if it pour into building the AI logically will not have army to spent for entertaint the human player.

Normal to Harder version usually city development is not a big problem, since they got help from bonus for example 5 x able to reseach faster then human, enable AI to reach full slot technology on the middle game probably before turn 60 ensuring they can build whatever they want and enable all goody stuff from tech for AI benefit.
They also got massive cost reduction from building stuff, ensuring they can unlock and build the highest city , farm, or barrack.

I can only imagine what would happen if the AI would think first of developing itself and would act logically, as a self preserving entity, instead of grind itself trying to prematurely grind the player. They will try anyway, ,even if it's a bit better this CAI can't live knowing the player still breath.

Usually if player left unchecked its will be player that grind AI to dust , and normally player is tough opponent bastard that even can won insanely desperate siege battle 1: 3 ratio.The purpouse of city developing itself was to have better quality army and money enough to recruit more army, all was to serve single purpouse to have bigger odd during battle againt its opponent, so if AI rushing early its was because they see the gap in auto resolve and decide this is the oppurtunity to win the battle, can you argue againt the ultimate logic "To have bigger odd againt its opponent".

Now I find that somehow, the aggressiveness of the AI prevent it from develloping its empire properly. On the contrary this tendency to rush the attack against the player hinders its ability to settle the base for a powerfull nation. It makes a difficult and intense early game, but a boring and easy mid-game. Whatever the difficulty you chose before.

In order to settle the base for powerfull nation, one need to have and hold lots of territorry and its simply cant be done without war, some faction win some lost , other able to developed succesly because their region simply not touch by cruelty of war, the rest may not so lucky, its was natural, you simply cant expect all AI region developed its building to the brim, unless you combined it with Radious , with steady income its do possible to have all building upgrade to max.

Frankly Age of Charlemagne DLC still require lots of patch, the AI simply not much better then original Grand campaign, in term of shrewness, still i am pretty confident you cant have easy mid boring game, since its certainly almost not possible at all with the fact that AI have ways more advanced then human both financial and war preparation.

And finally this is only a mod not Creative Assembly patch, created by single person without proper tool and knowledge on how CAI actually should working in the beginning, I know some of you guys expect more and more , but some stuff require real knowledge about how AI will work, there is also many question regarding CAI variable left on ? mark even for myself. Only true C.A CAI developer planner should know how its will work inside the game itself since they hold all the knowledge which they keep lock in secret ( i am pretty sure there is no guide book on how to modify CAI released officially by Creative Assembly to help modder modify their AI core Engine)

But pressure from Picts and other angry nations forced me to get back behind Bamburgh walls (I was happy I kept it under my control) with my wagons full of the gold I had taken from them. I spent more than two years behind Bambugh's wall, under permanent siege. From the Picts, then the other guysn, then the rebels, then Mercia... And over and over. Defeating waves after waves. It was just like the whole england wanted to get rid of me, like a bactery hunted by the island's immunitery system.

Hahaaha sure its was intense experience as hell.

I can accept that, it's not breaking immersion since it makes sense on a historical and cultural level. After all, I'm an horrible and frightning looter and above all a damned pagan ! Old ennemies while still at war would just focus on attacking me. To the point that Mercia arrived in everybody's back and had no problem taking their territories while they were at war with me. Until then everything was ok.

Its seem the Mercia AI was oppurtunist as well, gaining something at the expense of someone

Firstly I must say this is a great mod. It does what it says, it simply works, no placebo here. When I decided to try mods with Attila I felt completely lost so I was wuite happy to recognize your name from old S2 times, among all those unknown modders name !

Thanks again, the mod itself totally revamped most AI personality and logic and replaced with custom made one.

[Yerevan]

Thanx so much for the explanations. Now I can see better what kind of problems and dilemnas you face when making the mod. Impressive work, this kind of mod are so rare !

But it's too much agressivity for me. When I turned the mod off I realised how big the diplomatic malus against my faction were. At the moment they were off I was able to sign those alliance with old friendly factions and the AI factions began to war between each other instead of just warring with me.

I turned the mod off because the situation I described in my OP where an AI faction prefers to attack me and loose a battle instead opf attacking an easiest target of another AI faction (which they hate as much as me anyway) happened 2 more times. The third time I just thought : 'man, that is so unfair!".Lol.
I can appreciate difficulty but passed a certain level, when I have to fight too many battles per turn it feels unrealistic, and it breaks immersion for me. I also start to be angry after the AI and I use good old exploits to make sure I win the battles.
This is exactly what I hated in the grand-campaign.

But this is me, I'm sure the many players who can appreciate extreme difficulty will love this mod.

[Dragun]

I love to play total war games as a commanding simulator, where war and diplomacy are both important factors. However, a challenging War enemy is the most important for me, and the vanilla CAI just break so much immersion by ignoring all his surrounding opponents, crossing the whole map, making his only 1 province totally vulnerable ONLY to attack the player. In the early game it feels "hard", but it is the only moment that the AI offers any challenge, because he desperately wasted all his resources to go against me, instead of developing his economy and expanding his territory. Junaldi's AI is pretty nice for the early game brawl, but after the first 20 turns overcome, the AI is crushed by the player's army. I wish that the AI tried to expand his economy and territory against not only the player, but by devouring the weak factions around them.

The mod is great for what it promises to do, and the creator deserves a lot of recognition for his great work. I just wish that we had a more diplomatic version with a more expansionist AI(Like in Shogun 2, where the clans tries to first gain dominance in their region, and then expand toward the player).