Trying again

[Wilhelm von Nassau]

I only play BC and SS. Since SS 6 I was kinda addicted to it for a while. But those amazing Romans (especially the skins) from BC keep yelling at me to play them again.
Now there were a few flaws in BC I didn't like. After a while in my first BC campaigns (H/VH) the AI always turns up with endless amounts of stacks, which is ****ing annoying in my opinion. I like a good (huge) battle now and them, but it consumed to much time (and framerate.) Also I hate auto-resolve, because it just messes around. Also the recruitment system annoyed me a bit, I hardly couldn't recruit any units outside of Anatolia.

Can someone tell me if one of these features has been fixed or if I should just play on a lower difficulty level (concerning the stack-spam)

[locc2]

It is mostly "crap" units that they spam so it really just look bigger and more dangerous than it is. Though I think the next version, 1.1, they have reduced the stack-spam. So wait until then?

[Wilhelm von Nassau]

Well, then I guess I´ll wait till 1.1 before I start a new camaign.

[Miraj]

Well, then I guess I´ll wait till 1.1 before I start a new camaign.

Same here.

[Kip]

Did you ever play 1.05? A lot of the stack spamming was already reduced pretty considerably on patch 1.05. However, at this point, it might just be worth waiting for 1.1 to come out.

[SigniferOne]

What was the general reason for the stack-spamming? The AI always tries to recruit as much as possible given its current situation. Was it low upkeep cost, or egregious money scripts?/

[Miraj]

Couple of reasons:

- Money Script: The bigger factions get, the bigger their wallets got. Hence a sort of exponential increase of money and armies. This has been addressed and will be player tested.
- AI Boosting Trait: We included a a hidden AI-only trait which boosted the AI general's over all power. One thing I added - and now highly regret - is a squalor-reducing property of that trait. What that basically did was drop the key growth restraining factor of settlements and make AI cities mushroom much faster than human cities. This led to even more AI cash and hence more stacks.
- Recruitment costs: Combine the above 2 cash boosters with a generally so-so initial cost to recruit faction units and you get great purchasing power at bargain prices for the AI.
- Cheap and Fast Mercs: Mercs in BC 1.0 and 1.05 are simply far too cheap and far too plentiful. I set their regeneration rates and pools to be pretty high thinking it was a cool way to simulate the medieval focus on - especially in the east - mercenary heavy armies. Looked good on paper, but overpowers the player and the AI grabs them alot too.

So these 4 main factors combined together is - to the best of my analysis - what is causing the current stack spam. I don't believe upkeep costs figured into this much, it's a lot less important factor than i had originally imagined.

[Kennylz]

Sounds about right. As it is, I can insta-army at any minute via mercs, and a pretty potent army too. I try to avoid it.

[Taneda Santôka]

Sounds about right. As it is, I can insta-army at any minute via mercs, and a pretty potent army too. I try to avoid it.

Raising a quick huge merc army is good for me, but it should really make you sell your grandma and your favourite solid gold g-strings...

[Ryo]

only one thing!!!
miraj...ok for stack-spam but please,don't change the campaign AI...

Really love it!!!

[Kennylz]

Every time I look at your sig it looks like a very murdered caterpillar.

[Taneda Santôka]

It's actually a very murdered Japan ...