XAI V3.4 for Pro Deo Et Rege Very Soon!

[xeryx]

Thank you Miikll..I will test the cavalry, feel free to post your results in the XAI thread.

[xeryx]

Initial testing of the Cavalry, was good, for the charge penetration. I will look at it more tomorrow!!

[Argent Usher]

Short question:

what is the trigger of the "you are not my king" + "rebel" traits. Is there a opposed trigger to del the traits except the death of the king.


THX A.U.

[SigniferOne]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I do not know if most of you are aware at how great Naimad's factions standings file really is. Naimad is the Sith Lord of that file, and that file coupled with the XCAI, is what makes the campaigns great.

Today is a day of great importance, because we are getting very close to having the hardest parts done for the XCAI V3.2. This is the full XAI.

I am going to take a little time to explain the great importance of Naimad's file. This file is what controls all faction, and global standings. When you do anything in the campaign map, Niamad's and only Niamd's file is calculating faction and global standings.

With the vanilla file, it had primarily changes for relations between papal and Catholics. There was very little for orthodox and Islamic factions. Compared to vanilla Naimad's file is 6x more in depth and cover all primary religions (it is 3x more indepth since the the last PDER release)!! It covers all the possible relations, events that effect them for all religions, not just Catholics. It is very in depth, and accurate. Instead of vanilla's just worrying about the Catholics. Not to mention Vanilla had many, many issues!! If you have not played Darth Ages, then you would not know this. This is why I am explaining it, for the new people. I am the PR man, Naimad is just too quiet..LOL

Now, the second most important section, is the individual faction relations normalization (lifetime relationships).
This section is what creates your historical accuracy. It continually monitors, relations between factions. If you want France to always lean towards hating England, then this is where you put those rules. It also works for allies. Naimad has expanded it and has it covered for every faction. it doesn't have to be super detailed, but is definitely needed for lifetime alliances and enemies.

Now when you combine the CAI and FS file that is the true XAI. NO HYPE GUYS. What you get is the most indepth campaign AI to date. We have fixed even more bugs, and everything is working 100% A major leap forward. XAI is so far 100% error free. We have also figured out many more "hidden secrets". We will do very thorough testing of the new vassalage system as well, I have high hopes for it. I know we are going to have to find a way to infuse money into the vassal. I think they give all money to the protectorate, according to Dave Scarface's findings.

The Desc_strat file, only covers the starting relations when the game first starts.

I have completed the conversion of this really awesome file for PDER.
Testing of the CAI will now commence. XAI V3.2 is now 75%

With the XAI team working on this, there will also be an update for Darth Ages 8.1.
So make sure you guys rep Naimad too, because he has been working on that file for a very long time. No other mods will have the complete diplomacy and complex faction relations, that the XAI does. Many think it's all Hype..we'll see! many more mods incorporating XAI in the near future guys.

Wow that's very neat, especially the localized normalization approach which continually tweaks the two factions' relations a certain way for the lifetime of their existence (e.g. France vs. England). Just the whole project here is great, good job.

[xeryx]

Any luck on getting the suicidal archers fixed?

[xeryx]

I am now working on the new Battle group defense section. This should give much more defining for the AI to use many different tactics for defense. I am working on this, because everything is pretty much on hold with the campaign AI. I have not been receiving the feedback, needed due to lack of testers. I can really only do so much here, I have 2 weeks left before the 30th deadline. I will be testing this week, I hope you all will be too. I realize I am going fast and am probably expecting too much, however I would like to have more time for me to do other things as well. I also would like to get a good solid release out to the community so that conversions can start as soon as possible. I have no plans on doing this mod a year from now, I will have moved on to another game by then. I do however want to leave a solid gold mark on this community, and the game.

@MiiKll, You have been doing very well, and I would like to see more feedback on the board if you can..I know you have lots of ideas to share. I did some testing of the Cavalry charges tonight, and I think it is pretty darn good, the units that should hold their own do defensively!! So, I think we will go with what you have done for the cavalry!

@Niamad, I realize you are buzy, however, I really need your help. All we really need is this last two weeks to bust this out.

Between the three of us, I know we can pretty much get this thing working. Yes, I have done the majority of the work, and that is no big deal. I am at the point now, that I require you guys to help, with both feedback and coding. So, if we can get some times scheduled to work on things that would be great. Then, I know when I can do my house hunting. If we loose momentum now, then we will never finish this.

Please realize, I am very grateful for all the help!!

With the lack of beta testers, I see no choice but to make this an open beta. What do you guys think or should we just delay release until November.

[Thorn]

I will be free this weekend, just tell me what do you want to test, i'm about to end my campaign testing so i will be able to test BAI and diplomacy faster.

[xeryx]

I will have at least one of my kids this weekend, so my time will be more limited. I will be around though. The big thing we need to get a handle on is making sure all diplomacy items work. Such as cardinal votes, and all that. I want to verify the diplomacy workings, and Factions standings triggers, work for the human. I am pretty sure they are working for the AI.

[xeryx]

After further testing the really heavy cavalry is too strong, because of their charge rating. So I need to change the mass a bit. What would a good value be? a 3 instead of a 4

[xeryx]

I think that I am getting frustrated..but I may have come up with an idea that may simplify and fix skirmishers.

Miikil, guncavalry is used in pder for the cavalry gunners. Is that how it is in kgcm? If so you may want to change it.

[Thorn]

Skirmishers are bugged.. they fire too slow, so dont worry too much about them..

[xeryx]

Miikll thank you so much for your help last night!! It really helped me see the issues. I did an initial test at lunch an skirmishers looked better than before, but I will need more testing to see if they are fixed. I think I can find a way to use the an average range bias with all missile units, to eliminate the need for minimum stopping ranges.

[xeryx]

Thank you Signifier One, many just have no idea of the level of work we have poured into these files. BTW sorry I didn't see you posted, or i would have responded sooner.

As I mentioned in the School of minds thread, we have put javelins in their own class. This is for now, and may not be a permanent solution. The reason we did this, there is no attribute that is specific to a javelin unit, that we know of.

We spend alot of time on skirmishers, and really only made minimal progress. I'm sure that we will go back to it though in the next phase of development of the BAI. It is functional, it's just not how I want infantry-Javelin units to perform.

While I was in the EDU, we have changed most impetuous behavior. Mainly because it affects flanking too much. The AI needs to be able to flank to be effective, and be tough.

We have also Darthed the Calvary mass to get better penetration from cavalry. I really think there needs to be a reworking in the mass of units as well. They just don't get through. However that is above and beyond the scope of this project. Unless there is a volunteer?
You will really like the cavalry!!

CAI is in beta and we may just have to release this as an open beta, unless I can get some dedicated volunteers to closed beta. I will work on the CAI over the next 2 weeks. Hopefully all goes well.

Well the Vassalage rules for war are a go..and they may be the only way to get a vassal, with the way the game is made. The Campaign is WAAAAAAYYY more action pacted. There is some really good things happening here!!

[xeryx]

After playing a few good battles, I am pretty much satisfied with this release of the XBAI. BTW Since condo isn't around right now..He had some pretty good ideas, although his files were bugged, and going forward with what we know know..I think some more changes are on the way for the XBAI..once the CAI is done and balanced.

[xeryx]

Wow Naimad, this faction standing file is working awesome!! Super job..the campaign is working well so far. I also had a wartime vassalage come up. Cost might need to be adjusted..but we will see when I actually beat them down. Vassalage may only be able to be a wartime occurrence.

This is the fricken best mod ever!! I have had so much excitement on the campaign map. I think an increase to the penalty for attacking the pope is needed. Although I can't blame sicily the pope kept blockading thier port.

BTW The NAVAL invasion and port Blockading is perfect!! Other than the pope Witch (yes wrong spelling) has a different ai. I think I will turn all of his naval invasions off.

I am at war with the moors and they are blockading me, just as they should, because they are not strong enough to attach yet.

Recommunication needs to be watched. The excommunicated factions did not get recommunicated. Until Sicily killed the Pope, in thier land invasion, But Spain was their to save the day!!

Also since changing the BAI troop strength in the alalyser, the AI is using much better stacks to take settlements.

[xeryx]

XAI, is again the first to fix more issues that were to have been deemed unfixable.

1) The use of the Fortified defenses, now works correctly. The AI will use forts to blockade passes and roads. it will also disband them when needed, units no longer get stuck in that defense, or in the forts.

2) The use of ships now works as it was suppose to. We have refined the use of ships to another level. The Ai will still uses them to protect it's borders. it also uses them for transporting of troops when needed, and now only blockades when there is a war or they are going to start one!! Gone are the days of port blockade wars.

Here are screen shots to prove it. Take a look at the Forts in the pictures.
They clearly indicate occupation of forts on previous turns and then when not needed they are now unoccupied, and then disapear.

[xeryx]

Update well sicily definity didn't want to stop attacking the Pope, so some improvements there are a must. But it was super fun!! With my one crusade group I managed to keep fighting the filthy swine, and ended up killing thier king and all their aires!! LOL Now they are a leader les state of a bunch of rebels, and I called another crusade against them. Now that was a blast!! Long live the Pope!

BTW I really liked the fact my relations didn't go down much while in the Popes teritory helping him! Also the Joint atack is working great!!

I will be out of town for at least two days this week. It is imperative Miikll that you post your findings with the KGCM mod here, so Naimad can work on some rules, I will not have time more than likely.

But I am really impressed, I feel like it is all finally coming together. Most fixes need to be applied this coming weekend, I hope you guysa are ready for one last cramming weekend.

xeryx

[Jekyll]

Hi

I don't get this but I must be alone as everyone else appears to be getting great results in their battles, but for me its no change at all sadly

I'd be the first to admit that I am a slow player and am still trying to take rebel settlements, but during all the taking of settlements I play the enemy just stand there taking all the punishment I can throw at them, not once have they sallied out to meet me head on or flanked me.

A brief case in point:

All battles the enemy sends two lets say Highlanders to stand to one side of the gate and as my troops move nearer they just stand there, I don't take so many missile units into battle like I used to, so therefore I move the troops I have to the gate and into the enemy who are still standing there and only begin to fight when my units attack.

The only thing I have seen is their archers came forward slightly and start firing from in the center of the settlement, but other than that the units I am fighting stay there fighting back until they are all but beaten, the enemy just send the odd unit to come forward to fight but that is it, again victory every time for me......it just has me thinking that the game is not reading the right files and it becomes like the vanilla AI, and yet your files are in the right place, I get asked if I want to overwrite the old files with yours, but as I say the game does'nt seem to want to oblige and reverts to the poor vanilla AI

Please don't get me wrong.......I am NOT knocking the mod you guys are making, but for me something is seriously wrong, but I can't think what :hmmm:

Am I indeed alone with this experience?

Jekyll

[xeryx]

Think IO FILES FIRST.....

[Phil Stanbridge]

A-ha yes! Make sure you are using the edited batch file when you run the mod otherwise you'll be using the vanilla AI.

Let's not forget too, the AI don't always sally forth as such - sometimes they can sense impending doom and protect the square. This normally happens if you outnumber them greatly. What would you do in their shoes?