WIP 1.2 CAI Overhaul

[Dresden]

The goal of this overhaul for 1.2 will be to improve Campaign AI (CAI) behavior in terms of decisions and aggressiveness when at war. Also, improving the CAI when it is a larger empire will be a core goal as well.

Edit - this overhaul has now been added to the main mod


Campaign AI Overhaul
- Custom Occupation Priorities based on faction/culture: Rome: Most likely to occupy, Greek: Default settings, a bit of everything but occupy still important, Barbarian: More likely to sack/raze than other cultures, East/Successor/Carthage: More likely to vassal than other cultures.
- Increased total budget used by all AI depending on war/peace etc
- Changed various settings for AI negotiation tactics
- Assigned more factions our major factions task manager settings.
- Changed most factions to have a slightly larger focus on economic buildings.
- Decreased AI chances for asking for confederation/vassal, increased chance of breaking vassal.
- Lowered positive diplomacy values for cultural relationship between hellenic/eastern, raised back up some previously changed to be too low.
- Lowered impact of money a bit on diplomacy.
- Changed various strategic personality components.
- Altered some AI technology path decisions.
- Changed various AI personality reliability settings.
- Increased AI task manager importance/use (hopefully - will see how this variable works)
- Increased military aggressiveness policies for all AI personalities.
- Customized AI budget allocations based on personality (naval, military, basic)
- Altered various CAI basic settings.
- Increased AI likelihood to accept Peace in certain situations.
- Small boost to AI upkeep/cost reduction for units.
- Added scripted imperium-based income bonus for AI at levels 4+

Other changes (Player and AI)
- Increased army cap by 2 at higher imperium levels.
- Increased navy cap by 1 at higher imperium levels.

[Stilldead]

Have I told you how much I love the effort you guys put into this by the way?

[Morgan]

Already, I have noticed a difference. Playing as Rome, I have taken half of Carthage's territory and were refusing peace but with this they were requesting peace within a few turns. I'm also seeing AI Empires being more effective in their wars. So far, it's all looking very good.

[Jackar17]

By the way, have you tried this overhaul yet along with your deep affection to the effort they have made? I think I am going to use it today and see, because yesterday (playing as Pompey on and on, on hard) I met a legio of Octavius composed nearly of only heavy legionary about 12 units in the stuck, they looked a little bit like composed by the soulless machine Happily they attacked Ariminium where a had a nice little legio + good and experienced general and town guard and they lost kicking my ass of course (I can hardly sit today) so also loving the effort which DeI 1.2 is, I will try this as soon as I can

[Stilldead]

By the way, have you tried this overhaul yet along with your deep affection to the effort they have made? I think I am going to use it today and see, because yesterday (playing as Pompey on and on, on hard) I met a legio of Octavius composed nearly of only heavy legionary about 12 units in the stuck, they looked a little bit like composed by the soulless machine Happily they attacked Ariminium where a had a nice little legio + good and experienced general and town guard and they lost kicking my ass of course (I can hardly sit today) so also loving the effort which DeI 1.2 is, I will try this as soon as I can

Damn yes I have tried it, but to be clear I would still show some respect even if I hadn't . Glad youre enjoying the campaign, but I personally have never fully played a Augustus campaign game as I prefer the normal one - so I can't discuss the AI behaviour there.
Regards,

[Jackar17]

Damn yes I have tried it, but to be clear I would still show some respect even if I hadn't . Glad youre enjoying the campaign, but I personally have never fully played a Augustus campaign game as I prefer the normal one - so I can't discuss the AI behaviour there.
Regards,

I think AI behavior maybe the same. As the modders say AI often declares war not even being properly prepared for war, I just saw it yesterday, I took a few towns and then, all of the sudden, they appeared with two armies composed of the same one type unit - the heaviest legionary cohorts - it seems that AI has a lot of money, as some would say cheat money respect, yes you are right, playing DeI 1.2 I feel like a child again positive reaction

[Maetharin]

Maybe AI agressiveness could also be increased by increasing recruitment points?
F.e. Giving additional + recruitment points for each lvl of barracks buildngs?
They would then have an easier time to be agressive, as they aren't as pressed to either send small armies or loose territories.

It would also be more historical, the more barracks I have the more soldiers I can house and train

[Maegfaer]

This makes a difference for sure. I enabled it in my Rome campaign at Imperium V, and in the next turn one big faction declared war on me and a current enemy offered peace and money.

It was a bit shocking to see some of my existing vassals becoming less trustworthy (from reliable to unreliable and from loyal to reliable), but I suppose it will make the campaign more exciting when getting backstabbed at some point.

One thing that bothers me about faction aggressiveness/trustworthiness is that they seem to be fixed throughout the game. Would it be possible to make them dependent on the personality traits of the current faction leader? Could make it worthwhile to assassinate or kill in combat the current king of a faction, in the hope that the heir will have a personality that complements your plans...

[Kolaris8472]

I'm slightly worried that the personality changes along with the lowered diplomatic value of money have removed Diplomacy as an option for some factions.

As Makedon I used to easily create a northern barrier on the first turn because (illogically) most of the Daco-Thracian tribes were quite peaceful and trustworthy. Other Hellenic factions could be persuaded to overcome their aversion to me with large sums of money. Neither seems to be an option anymore.

I'm not saying this is a problem yet, it's possible that once I have some common enemies diplomatic options will open up. But usually with no non-aggression pacts I've found that you'll end up at war with all your neighbors.

Still, Makedon was by far the easiest 1-province faction I'd attempted so more difficulty in their case is probably a good thing.

[FlashHeart07]

We have not lowered the diplomatic value of gold. We have lowered the amount of gold you can obtain through diplomatic agreements, so that has nothing to do with it.

[Dresden]

Actually Flash I did decrease how much gold matters in this CAI overhaul Maybe I overdid it a bit - the idea was to make actual diplomatic decisions that fit the situation matter more than dumping a ton of gold on top of it. I still want gold to be able to be useful, though.

[FlashHeart07]

Actually Flash I did decrease how much gold matters in this CAI overhaul Maybe I overdid it a bit - the idea was to make actual diplomatic decisions that fit the situation matter more than dumping a ton of gold on top of it. I still want gold to be able to be useful, though.

i wash my hands of this madness

Seems that you might have overdone it then.

[Maegfaer]

I didn't think gold was overpowered in diplomacy before this update. Some of the previously mentioned vassals were actually liberated allies that only had one region and were surrounded by mutual enemies. I managed to bribe two such factions with 25K-35K gold + trade agreement (which they highly desired) to become my satapry. That seemed like a fair deal to me, 30K or so is the difference between life and death for a small faction.

[Dresden]

Right, but my point is that you can force diplomatic actions with a ton of gold that normally wouldn't be something the faction would (or maybe should) consider. This is most always a player advantage.

Like I said - I probably overdid it This is a WIP test to see how changes to the CAI on fundamental levels will go.

[SacredBoltgun]

Finally you can have Peace. And on the other hand the AI attacks aggressively. Im enjoying the changes so far!

[Dresden]

So far its sounding fairly positive overall so that is good. I am glad I finally have had time to do CAI work for 1.2.

My main goals here are:
- More aggressive AI when at war.
- Diplomacy is rational but difficult, not too passive but no crazy war declarations for no reason.
- Larger empires build armies, defend, etc.

[MaxonZ]

Played 20 turns. I had: 4 declare war from AI, 3 peace treaty, couple of interest attacks and several diplomatic propositions. And there no large empires yet.

[Jake Armitage]

Used this on a previous started 40 turns campaign with pergamon.
For sure, diplomacy has moved much for many factions, not only for me.
In few turns i've seen a couple declaring wars each others, and also a peace proposition for me.
To say more, i've also reloaded savegames and have seen different AI diplomacy decisions.
That could be a good issue for diversifying one campaign from the next.
Sounds good,
Good work.

[RollingWave]

used this in my Saka campaign half way through, the faction I was beating the crap out of but refusing the take peace treaty suddenly took a peace treaty, nice.

[SacredBoltgun]

I often like to heavily roleplay(?) dunno if that the correct terms for a tw campaign but this helps soooo much. Again thanks Lord Dresden(and of course the entire DEI Team!)