For Sandbox players- Faction Handicap?

[devide-et-impera]

Usually I like letting things play out, but sometimes I find myself purposely supporting a particular faction just so I can fight them late in the game when all the techs and units are in play. There are times when an old fashioned great game with a single rival faction throughout a campaign is very tempting. So how about this: what if there was an option to give particular factions handicaps to make them more powerful in the campaign. Say you start a new campaign as...Poland and you want a challenging Northern War sort of campaign but want to keep Sweden in play and make it a major rival throughout the game, with foreign colonies and such. To do this, just give Sweden a handicap before you begin your game.

Because it's optional, I think it would be an okay idea for both the Sandboxer and the player who wants to let things play out at random. Like I said, I'm a little bit of both. Historical rivalries are great to relive Britain vs. France, Prussia vs. Poland, Sweden vs. Russia, Spain vs. Netherlands etc.

[Pikemen]

If you want a worthy rival, why would you give them a handicap? It means to disadvantage them.

I also have found there is no real need for this. Usually, A giant AI empire will arise, in my game now there are 2, the Russians and Martha's.

If you really want a AI rival of your choosing, just send money and techs to the desired nation.


Cheers,
Pikemen

[Sir Winston Churchill]

If you want a worthy rival, why would you give them a handicap? It means to disadvantage them.

I also have found there is no real need for this. Usually, A giant AI empire will arise, in my game now there are 2, the Russians and Martha's.

If you really want a AI rival of your choosing, just send money and techs to the desired nation.


Cheers,
Pikemen

Well that's because sometimes sometimes you don't want to duke it out with the Marathas as Prussia, you'd rather fight France, Austria, or Russia for more... realism. Unforunatley the AI is so darned STUPID that barely every happens, so you give them a handicap when they've already got an intelligence handicap so you can half-fulfill your dreams.

[TehPear]

Just edit the startpos.esf with the ESFEditor, give the AI nations you desire a lot money(I'd also say give yourself some money to build up as they'll spend it on many units having several full stacks of armies)

[devide-et-impera]

If you want a worthy rival, why would you give them a handicap? It means to disadvantage them.

I also have found there is no real need for this. Usually, A giant AI empire will arise, in my game now there are 2, the Russians and Martha's.

If you really want a AI rival of your choosing, just send money and techs to the desired nation.


Cheers,
Pikemen

I've tried sending $$$ and tech quite a bit but it has surprisingly little or no effect on their performance. I'm not talking about taking the fun out of the game, I only feel like planning out the conflict sometimes. I can still lose. In Age of Empires III, the player handicap was a neat addition. I know a giant rival does arise. But in my games, it's ALWAYS Spain. It was fun taking them down a couple of times, but I think the nations are really unbalanced. Nations like France should be the powerhouse sometimes. In the Nine Years' War, it took the combined forces of Germany, UP, England, Spain, Savoy, Sweden, and Portugal to fight them. Russia sometimes shows some power, but ever since the last patch, it always loses lots of territory to Sweden which it never gets back.