Ultimate AI - Feedback and Discussion *Old*

[GrandViZ]

Ultimate AI Mod
You won't find any better strategic AI than this!
Version 1.1

Author: Mesut aka GrandViZ

The Ultimate AI Mod is a complete redesign of the Vanilla AI, providing a more challenging and diplomatically active AI opponent.

Well, all the improvements that were promised for the previous version are now real!
Thank you all for our valuable feedback and sorry for the buggy version 1.0.

Download - you no longer need any other archives!
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...do=file&id=971

Installation
See installation instructions on how to use the Ultimate AI.

Features
- Separate AI profiles for Papal States, Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims, Mongols (Timurids), Aztecs, and Neutrals
- AI backstabbing to alliances reduced to a reasonable minimum
- AI factions organize in lasting power blocks
- AI decision making evaluates global reputation, faction standing, situation of alliances, religion etc.
- AI invasion and defense parameter have been redesigned for best results
- AI attacks rebel settlements in the beginning with high priority
- AI concentrates its forces before attacking and attacks with bigger stacks
- AI defends settlements with more units
- Papal States will behave reasonable (for best results do not ally the Papal States)
- No alliances between islamic and christian factions, however human player can ally whoever he wants!
- Only limited alliances between catholics and orthodox factions
- Special relationship between the Pope and Italian states (Venice, Milan, Sicily) - Pope will ask for help when attacked
- Rebels will attack if they have the opportunity
- Balanced reputation system for more realistic results

- Balanced diplomacy system, so it feels more real
- AI will bargain more

- Increased movement rates for all units
- Balanced income for all factions
- Tweaked victory conditions

Other Mods using a version of Ultimate AI
Age of Darkness by RTR Fan
Deus lo Vult (DLV) by repman
Divided Kingdoms by Ronin
Extended BigMap by Spurius
Lands to Conquer 2.0 (LTC) by Lusted
Rise of Kings by Kushan
Road to Jerusalem by Rammstein
SPQR Style Medieval Mod by Angel & others
The Long Road by Ely Soto aka tornnight
Winning Combo Mod by Valkirah

Please also note, that not all mods use the latest version of the Ultimate AI. However this is the only one, that will have my support.

Changelog v1.1 *NEW*
- Added all the files into one single archive, installation with vanilla version should be very easy now
- Fixed passive crusades / jihads
- Fixed defenders leaving the siege
- Reduced war-madness without touching the help allies code too much (it still works, but has more restrictive preconditions)
- Enabled naval landings for further factions to improve AI performance
- Tweaked several files due to feedback from the community - thank you all!

Changelog v1.0
- Made improvements to every aspect of the mod!
- Streamlined invasion and defense AI
- Got rid off most senseless forced invasions
- AI concentrates more on few conflicts and doesn't go mad with the whole world!
- Added some new triggers in faction_standing.txt´
- Fixed a bug that would prevent the AI from attacking when at war
- Tweaked the diplomacy changes from last version even further
- Introduced a money script for AI (reasonable values) and rebalanced Kings Purse accordingly to give the human player the best experience (Challenging)
- Tweaked victory conditions
- Deleted the Aging mod from AltarisGreyhawk due to some issues in his script

Changelog v0.9
- This one is solely a diplomacy update (descr_diplomacy.xml), but its worth the effort!
- Increased the odds for ceasefire offers made by the human player (credits to DrJambo for the nice discussion).
- The AI will now make a lot more counterproposals in negotiations.
- Decreased the value of alliances, trade agreements, map information to reduce the possibility of exploits by the human player.

Changelog v0.8
- The default papal_faction AI is now quite passive. For best results don't ally the papal states.
- The papal_faction_passive profile has been deleted from the code - there is no need for it anymore!
- Made several changes to the invasion code
- Started to balance the descr_faction_standing.txt and descr_diplomacy.xml files, e.g. I got rid off artificial reputation normalisation and modified some event effects.
- Declaring war on a faction will now affect the standing to its allies as well (reduced effect of -0.2)!
- Added separate Aztec AI profile

Changelog v0.7
- Made alliances slightly better in regard to backstabbing
- Remade and optimized the defense code
- Remade the "help allies" code
- Increased the value of an human ceasefire proposal
- Balanced once more the modifiers for faction and global standing
- Made a new common profile for mongols and timurids (ai_label is mongols)
- Increased the income by 30% in my custom descr_strat.txt against v0.6 (decrease the income of the faction you want to play for a more challenging game)
- Changed the campaign to be 1tpy and included AltarisGreyhawke's aging mod
- The AI label papal_faction_passive seems to have a conflict with the hardcode, causing the game to hang, when you conquer the Papal States. Therefore I turned back to the active variant, until the issue can be fixed. The ai_label papal_faction_passive will still work, but I will not give support for it right now.

Changelog v0.6
- Changed income and starting denari in my custom descr_strat.txt to better reflect the economical power of factions at that time in history or for balance reasons (see .xls file)
- Changed global AI profiles of venice, turks, portugal, hungary, papal states
- Added a new alternative AI profile papal_faction_passive for those of you, who prefer a passive papal states, to use it change the ai_label accordingly

Changelog v0.5
- Added new AI profiles for orthodox and islamic factions (you have to change the ai_labels in descr_strat! see Installation)
- Added special stuff for the Pope
- Added Invasion entry for rebel factions
- Tweaked and optimzed alliance buildup, more realism
- Added code to prevent islamic - christian alliances, in the long run there will be more religious wars!
- Fixed a CTD issue in the invasion code
- Added a slightly modified descr_campaign_db.xml

Changelog v0.4
- Fixed (hopefully) the CTDs in version 0.3
- Less alliance crossing
- Increased the odds fors religious wars a little
- Balanced faction standing more in direction of vanilla settings

Changelog v0.3
- AI goes for alliances right from the beginning, so human player gets competition
- Toned down alliances a little, however there will be no senseless backstabbing
- Alliances will be more stable
- Improved invasion code against rebel faction in times of war
- Papal states and catholics use their own profile to achieve more religios animosities
- Papal states won't ally muslim or orthodox nations
- Papal states won't go to war with other catholics when not attacked (they will defend of course)
- Protectors will try more to keep peace with their Protectorates

Changelog v0.21
- fixed a nasty bug that would cause M2TW to crash

Changelog v0.2
- Redone the whole concept from scratch!
- AI takes now reputation and standing into account when making decisions!
- All factions act with the same baserules with exceptions for catholics and the pope!
- Next step will be to add religious animosities!

[Kscott]

Sounds very intresting, though from your pic it shows the AI at war with eachother alot. Is the AI going to war with multiple nations at once desirabel?

[Siddyus]

Cool, im gonna download it and try it out.

[GrandViZ]

Well the AI fights in larger alliances and these were very stable in my tests. No one-to-one bashing. If it needs finetuning it will be done.

Regards
GrandViZ

[Siddyus]

BTW is it compatible to most mods like the Bigmap with LTC fix?

[GrandViZ]

It should be. When overwriting the LTC files simply leave out the file descr_character.txt for BIGMap movement rates.

Regards
GrandViZ

[Siddyus]

Ah! Thanks for the reply. *salutes*

[thomonkey]

does scotland expand?

[hammi]

Excellent, more variety and competition in AI will just mean better mods to choose from.

Downloaded, took a look at the file and things seem very nice. Now to test it.

[hyp3o]

On line 344 you are missing the faction attitude parameter

<decision_entry>
<!--
If we're not at war and it is very early in the game,
then >>> do not invade (however force invade is possible)
-->
<max_entry stance="Neutral" turn_number="12"/>
<faction_attitude invade_priority="0"/>
</decision_entry>

I think this is what you wanted to add

[GrandViZ]

No the line is right!

What I want is:

<faction_attitude invade="invade_none" can_force_invade="true"/>

Both are true by default, therefore no faction_attitude-tag is needed. Your change would have exactly the same effect, as

<faction_attitude invade_priority="0"/>

is also true by default.

Regards
GrandViZ

Edit: I added some new screens, to give you a better impression of the possibilities.

[Garnier]

I like the sound of your features very much!
I trust they live up their name, unlike CA's promises usually do.

Its bed-time now, but tomorrow I will be testing this. The best parts are the AI multination attacks, the attacking with bigger stacks and concentrating before attacking, and the bigger garrisons.

Will this mod work well with 2 years per turn? (my prefered setting), I like to get to later tech faster.

[GrandViZ]

it will

The features will live up step by step. Balancing has to be done. I just started. Hope you will enjoy it.

Regards
GrandViZ

[hyp3o]

No the line is right!

What I want is:

<faction_attitude invade="invade_none" and can_force_invade="true"/>

Both are true by default, therefore no faction_attitude-tag is needed.

Regards
GrandViZ

My mistake

[Siddyus]

Extract the files from the archive into your "Medieval 2/Data" folder and start Medieval 2 with the option "--io.file_first". That's it.

Am I gonna put that into the target line in my "Shortcut to Launch_BigMap"?



Edit: I see, thanks. BTW, Ive already installed your mod when I took that screen. When I visited this thread again I noticed the shortcut extension which I missed and I thought it was really needed. Anyway, my apologies. *bows*

[GrandViZ]

To use it with BigMap forget about the shortcut extension.

Simply copy the files from the Archive into your

../Medieval 2/BigMap/Data

folder. That should do it.

Regards
GrandViZ

[Kscott]

I added some new screens, to give you a better impression of the possibilities.

Wow, those screen shots are amazing mate. Im going to have to test this now

[italiano]

Very nice looking (custom) file. I was working on one myself but decided to simplify the vanilla file and build on it.

Thanks for the tip in the 'ideas' thread about stance= allied<neutral<war. Would've thought it was the other way around?!?

Edited to add, how does your mod test without "invade="invade_none" with alliances etc? I've felt it is probally unnecessary but haven't playtested enough to see if it had any effect. Also what do you think of pts_alliance? I saw that you added it in your file when allied, I assumed it meant how much do you want to become allies with the target, but you think it effects how much you want to stay allies with the target?

How about the invasion types, start and buildup in particular? Start means preparation but what exactly is that? Producing troops? Is buildup moving forces into position?

As far as I know we haven't had definitions released from CA so I wouldn't mind hearing opinions from other modders.

[repman]

Would be nice to get some cooperation/discussions between you AI guys and not a competition as in the AI formation section

repman

[GrandViZ]

Interesting questions, that I've asked myself a lot, too. However most of them can only be answered by CA. Until then I can only trust my knowledge, intuition with concepts and testing, testing, testing.

To test individual concepts make a dummy AI, that does absolutely nothing but to use default values. Than set parameters one by one, and test their effects. That is exactly what I do, and still keep doing - it is a lot of testing!

how does your mod test without "invade="invade_none" with alliances

I don't know if I get you right, but this is a default option. I mostly use the can_force_invade="false" parameter (="true" is default), which overrides CA's hardcoded stuff - hopefully.

Regards
GrandViZ