Help with campaign AI

**Nerves of Tin** · July 31, 2009, 01:46 PM

Hello,

I'd first like to say that this is an extremely well-done and enjoyable mod, so kudos to whoever worked on it! That being said, I'm having an issue the campaign AI that perhaps one of you can help me with. I've noticed that compared to Vanilla and Europa Barbarorum (the other mod I'm using) the AI seems to be seems to be relatively inactive on the campaign map. That is to say is to say they'll rapidly conquer up to a certain point then stop and sit around, all the while massing thousands upon thousands of troops within their territories, until I invade. What's worse is that when the AI is controlling the Romans they won't do anything at all in Italy, they'll just sit back and let the Gauls completely eradicate them from the North and the Carthiginians from the South to the extent that usually within 10-20 turns the Romans are completely destroyed. Is there any way that I can:

a) spur the other factions to build vast empires
b) force the Romans to get off their asses and start conquering?

The SPQR script dialog usually shows up right when I load a campaign and I always turn it on, but it never seems to pop up again when I load a saved game. I thought that worth mentioning, but I don't think it's the issue because this problem persists even when it's a fresh campaign that hasn't been loaded from a save file.

Any insight you can provide would be appreciated,

thanks.

**Hesus de bodemloze** · July 31, 2009, 02:46 PM

The script is n' t automatic like EB so you will need to activate it every time you load a game. The factions use the super power fix witch means thy will stick to there territory and not expand (at least most of them do) this is to prevent that you will need to fight a faction that is to powerful. It happened in the past with the greeks conquering germania macedonia and a whole lot of other cities, this made the game kinda boring.

**Nerves of Tin** · July 31, 2009, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by Hesus de bodemloze

The script is n' t automatic like EB so you will need to activate it every time you load a game. The factions use the super power fix witch means thy will stick to there territory and not expand (at least most of them do) this is to prevent that you will need to fight a faction that is to powerful. It happened in the past with the greeks conquering germania macedonia and a whole lot of other cities, this made the game kinda boring.

1. How do I active the script once I've loaded a game? The only time it pops up is when I first load a campaign.
2. As I stated before, Rome seems to lack AI completely even when I'm certain the script is on.
3. You really think a lack of superstates makes the game more interesting? I think it makes it too easy to be honest, once I reach a certain critical mass I'm able to easily steamroll everyone else on the planet because no one else can field enough troops to stop me. In Vanilla I might actually find an enemy to match 150 turns in.

Originally Posted by Ejergard

And this mod is only designed for playing as the Romans, so if you play any other faction, the Romans are usually killed by its neighbors within a few years.

So they're completely lacking AI? Even when I actively help the Romans remove the Carthaginian and Gauls from Italy, they still won't expand.

**Hesus de bodemloze** · July 31, 2009, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by Nerves of Tin

1. How do I active the script once I've loaded a game? The only time it pops up is when I first load a campaign.
2. As I stated before, Rome seems to lack AI completely even when I'm certain the script is on.
3. You really think a lack of superstates makes the game more interesting? I think it makes it too easy to be honest, once I reach a certain critical mass I'm able to easily steamroll everyone else on the planet because no one else can field enough troops to stop me. In Vanilla I might actually find an enemy to match 150 turns in.

You need to play this game as the Romans as it is designed for them and balanced out.

Hello,

To activate the Garrison Script you must Click the ESC key on you Keyboard when you just started your campaign. Then you need to click on the Question Mark Icon (?) shown in the Picture. Then you must click on the Show Me How button, shown in the picture under the advisor. This will then activate the Garrison script, you can then exit out of the advisor and continue your game.

You MUST do this Everytime you LOAD a SAVED GAME. This script will run throughout your game while you play, until you EXIT your campaign game. Then when you Start your campaign Again you need to do this ONCE before you play. Its really easy and once you get the hang of it and REMEMBER to do it, there will be no problems.

You DO NOT want to start a game with the Garrison script and then not use it later, the same is true with starting a game without the script then activating it later in your campaign. You should play ONE or the OTHER, NOT BOTH.

Also Saved games, you should RELOAD a Saved game many Turns back like if you lost a battle and then reload the saved game to play it again, As this MAY cause Issues with the garrison script in your campaign. Of course this ONLY applies if you use the Garrison script.

Over all the Garrison script adds a Garrison ANYTIME the Player gets next to or Sieges a Town of the AI. It is best to be careful when getting close to a city because you can have them spawn a garrison and not siege, which is giving them an army, although a low quality one. This is to reflect the Town defending itself when an invader comes to attack their homes, Since the AI is unable to leave a nice garrison, The garrison script will correct this. This makes Sieges in the game more FUN and more of a Challenge.

Of course you can find ways around the garrison by attacking early etc, but that DEFEATS the point of USING the script in the first place. lol If you want an easier game, play without the script.

The script does n' t activate the Romans to do any thing. The script makes last one year for 4 turns, so hit 4 times end turn and one year passes. It also activates the garrison script witch spawns an army in the city that you are sieging.

It is boring to fight one super power faction trust me on this one. But you will need to fight hard with every faction as thy will build up massive armies. I remember when i took a look at pontus it had made like 15 full stack armies that i had to fight when i would invade there lands. So there will be more than a challenge.

**Raglan** · July 31, 2009, 03:15 PM

1. How do I active the script once I've loaded a game? The only time it pops up is when I first load a campaign.

first thing you should do upon loading the game is press escape and then click on the show me how button, this activates the script. As Hesus said, you need to do this every time

2. As I stated before, Rome seems to lack AI completely even when I'm certain the script is on.

the mod is designed to be played as Rome, and as such is balanced to make the game difficult when playing Rome. This balancing means that Rome usually gets destroyed really quite quickly

3. You really think a lack of superstates makes the game more interesting? I think it makes it too easy to be honest, once I reach a certain critical mass I'm able to easily steamroll everyone else on the planet because no one else can field enough troops to stop me. In Vanilla I might actually find an enemy to match 150 turns in.

hmm, how many terns have you played? and do you play without cheating? i only ask because we have very few people moaning that the game is to easy, it's true that mostly you'll be expanding, but the AI is certainly capable of giving you BIG suprises. I personnally like this since in vanilla and many other mods you end up only fighting an few factions, whereas with the superfaction fix its not a long boring process of fighting the same battles time after time before finally capturing the other half of the map

So they're completely lacking AI? Even when I actively help the Romans remove the Carthaginian and Gauls from Italy, they still won't expand.

No as stated in the 2nd point the AI (with a couple of exceptions) is deliberatly designed this way

**Nerves of Tin** · July 31, 2009, 03:26 PM

Hesus de bodemloze - Difference of opinion I guess. I absolutely love going head to head with the superpowers in vanilla and never really had much trouble bulldozing factions in this after having established my own superpower status. I do like that it's a lot harder to get started, though.

LordRaglan - I've played through about 6 full SPQR campaigns, maybe 4 of which were as the Romans and only 1 of those 6 was with cheats, so I realize there are factions that can push back even without vast territorial holdings, but I think it would be nice if there was some sort of checkbox (perhaps on the installer?) that would allow you to enable or disable the superpowers fix, though I can understand that this might cause balance issues. Regardless, I'm imagining how fun it would be to be fighting a super power in a mod like this where the recruitment time is 0 turns. As for the deliberately designing the Romans to timid, I'm not sure if I understand your logic on this one. I can understand having Carthage and Gaul squeezing in on them right away so that it's hard for a human player to get started, but why nerf the campaign AI when a computer is controlling them? How does this affect the human player's experience as Rome?

**S u l l a** · August 01, 2009, 01:10 PM

If you have played 6 full campaigns, at what year did you get the civil war?

**Ejergard** · July 31, 2009, 02:51 PM

And this mod is only designed for playing as the Romans, so if you play any other faction, the Romans are usually killed by its neighbors within a few years.

**Knight of Heaven** · August 03, 2009, 01:01 PM

I dont belive you Nerves of Tin

lol

Still what you say is very strange. This mod is intended to play only with Romans thats why they are more timid in comparison to other factions.It is meant to be hard for the human player. You can also play with other faction, but you will find it too easy, and halow. And what you talking about?, in campaing with romans, the bigger your empire is the harder it gets, becouse means more borders, more constant atacks, of certan factions. Also if you playing with cheats, and without the script aparently, then certanly you are very luck that your campaings arent buged. didnt you had the All events and time bug? Didnt the Senate declare war on you before time? Didnt strange things happen? its a very stable mod, but this issues are kowned to couse problems.

And you comparing SPQR with Europa Barbarum , wich is for me the 2 best mods out there. allthough i hv more fun with SPQR, becouse i find EB very unstable. Anyway you must keep in mind they aiming diferent goals, and the gameplay experience is totaly diferent For me SPQR is best for gameplay,and the dificulty,realism of the battles. EB is best for diversity,and historicly more acurate. You decide what you seek.