About the Campaign AI

[Siddyus]

Is there anyway to make it a little more challenging? I am currently playing at VH/M and even though I gave the egyptians about 1000000 denarii they still wont build anything!

[dvk901]

I know many people are 'disturbed' by the fact that at times certain factions don't seem to be 'doing anything' in their campaigns...and try to 'influence' them by providing money. However, the fact is that some factions, due to their location and diplomatic stance with others, or the whim of the AI, just aren't going to do anything. This is often regarded as a 'fault' in RTW, and diplomacy is criticized because of it, but I think it simply adds to the variability of campaigns.

In our tests of RS2, I see some factions prosper in one campaign, and whither in others. They have the same income in every campaign, but for some reason....diplomacy, loss of key battles, economically poor decisions, or whatever....they either expand, remain neutral or lethargic, or just die. I don't see this as a 'fault', just a 'difference' between campaigns.

[Wolfshead]

What sometimes helps for me is the following: I played as the Ptolemaics and I wanted to have Parthia at my borders. In nearly every campaign I play, Parthia doesn't do anything. So what I did was forcing the Seleucid Empire to give me a lot of their cities (forced diplomacy). After that I handed those cities to Parthia. After a while Parthia started to expand and attacking the Seleucid Empire and after further expands they attacked me as well. I did the same thing with the Romans, giving them some cities in the Levant. So this does seem to work, giving the faction a push in the right direction by giving them some cities.

[SimpleCourage47]

All the factions in my campaigns are aggressive, no faction really sits there and takes it slow save may be the Germans, as they do quite abit, but only the Germans everyone else (mainly Dacia, Gaul, Macedon,Pergamum,Parthia) go for gold and just keep getting bigger never really stagnating, currently playing 1.6a on H/Vh.

[Durakkon]

One of my biggest problems with vanilla was that late in the game, when the AI begins recruiting units that are actually worth fighting, most factions have been destroyed and the map is often split between 3 super factions. I love how in RS even late in the game while the AI is stagnant in expanding they continue to recruit and fortify their empire.

For example playing as the Romans in vanilla, after conquering Gaul+Iberian Peninsula+Greece I would always look forward to my invasion of the east, yet was almost always disappointed to find one or two factions had absorbed everything. In RS under similar circumstances I find many nations survive longer, making the invasion much more fun. It makes the game far more dynamic and interesting when more nations survive, where as with one or two super factions the tedium of fighting stack after stack of the same army really sets in quick.

[saxdude]

well you wont have to worry about that, believe me

[Themis]

You mean instead of 1 or 2 superfactions we get to fight a whole bunch of them?

[Titus Maximius Thongus]

the AI in RS for me was always very aggressive. The Gauls were constantly making forays into N-Italy and when I did push forward with my reformed legions they met me with heavy resistance every step of the way (even massing combined armies to make a horde of 10000 to meet the 2nd Augusta in battle). Even after I broke their initial resistance, they scattered and were constantly harrasing my supply lines or settlements I'd already captured.

Meanwhile, the Macedonians and the Greeks were just as aggressive. Btwn the 2 of them they had 20 stacks that formed a human wall down the length of Greece. Had to send ships to drop legions in behind enemy lines to weaken their front to allow me to push forward.

So yea, very satisfied with RS AI.

[Siddyus]

Hmm, I see. I guess its random then. In some campaigns the AI becomes aggressive and in others they are not. I wish the "real" factions in my current campaign were as aggressive as the rebels. They even attack my full stack armies with small stacks in hope to at least decrease my numbers.

I am planning to give some of the stagnant factions more units. Will that hopefully increase their aggressiveness?

Oh btw, im curious. Are there any other important scripts in the export_advice notepad besides the forced diplomacy that I am not aware of? I kinda messed with the advice txt and added some scripts of my own(my vain hopes of a challenging gameplay).