How much of a cash boost to AI?

[Kye]

Im playing on H/H with Byg's grim reality mod.

How much does the AI get in bonuses? Playing as the Byzantines, the Scilians are being a pain in the arse and are taking my islands.

They have the biggest economy in the game but mostly own coastal cities with extensive trade. Will blockading all of their ports hurt them at all? Or are the bonuses that great that its not worth doing?

Kye.

[Tan Zhi Han]

Not enough. The game has a rich get richer and poor get poorer tendency. It is for all intensive purposes capitalism. Bahahaha. Ouch, I just hurt my US patriotism.

[GeneralG]

In my games the AI always seems to be bankrupt during the first 20 turns.

[bɑne]

In my games the AI always seems to be bankrupt during the first 20 turns.

Bankrupt = they are spending all their cash. Thats nothing to worry about.

[GeneralG]

Bankrupt = they are spending all their cash. Thats nothing to worry about.

[bɑne]

Seems I have to make it clearer Mr.
The common term bankrupt refers to the inability to satisfy the demands of the creditors.
The AI spends all of their income, leaving nothing in the coffers (it has no reserves) but
isn't bankrupt because it still is able to pay the everyday expenses like recruiting, building and upkeep.
The ingame term is missleading as it only checks the amount thats in the reserves.

[napoleonic]

^ and how would that explain the increase in upkeep as they keep recruiting more troops?

say turn 1 they have 5000 income, 3000 expenditure then they get 2000 bonus; assume their reserve is 4000, right?
then they spend all of their money to build and recruit, thus at turn 2, they have 5000 income, 3000+4000 expenditure, 2000 bonus and X AMOUNT of increased upkeep.... based on these calculation, their reserve would be gradually smaller and smaller each turns

so in the end, at certain point, they would have no more reserve and since I assume AI money bonus is not in an increased size based on upkeep, how would you explain this issue?

upkeep issue is very important since the AI could always have 2 or more times the number of units compared to the human when they have certain number of provinces. an AI with reduced provinces to it's last which is a castle, could still produce 2-3 stacks of armies, human cannot do that.

[bɑne]

^ and how would that explain the increase in upkeep as they keep recruiting more troops?

Thats what I was refering to with "no reserves". If the US spends all possibly available funds for the army expansion and upkeep can you call them bankrupt? Its not a clever move but the term is missleading nonetheless.

say turn 1 they have 5000 income, 3000 expenditure then they get 2000 bonus; assume their reserve is 4000, right?
then they spend all of their money to build and recruit, thus at turn 2, they have 5000 income, 3000+4000 expenditure, 2000 bonus and X AMOUNT of increased upkeep.... based on these calculation, their reserve would be gradually smaller and smaller each turns

so in the end, at certain point, they would have no more reserve and since I assume AI money bonus is not in an increased size based on upkeep, how would you explain this issue?

I'm guessing your hinting at them recruting a mass of cheap unit with higher upkeep then recruitment costs and driving themselves into the ground. If so this is answered below.

upkeep issue is very important since the AI could always have 2 or more times the number of units compared to the human when they have certain number of provinces. an AI with reduced provinces to it's last which is a castle, could still produce 2-3 stacks of armies, human cannot do that.

The AI has a larger kings purse then the player so with a ai kings purse of say (example!) 5000 to compared to a purse of 10 for the player they naturally can support more units even if they have only one settlement left (in comparison to a player that has only one left).

Now regarding my point about the "bankrupt" statement and why I find it missleading:
If the upkeep of the army eats up all of the AIs income they aren't bankrupt as it balances out to zero.
If the upkeep exceeds the AI income the campaign script prevents them from going into the red.
Then keep in mind that while the AI possibly stalls, its settlements also grow. Momentary stagnation isn't bankrupt - as soon as the AI either grows, wins new territories or loses battles it will free up funds to recruit or retrain or rebuilt.

Then there is my impression (I've had "very poor" or below late game factions buy settlements from me for 25k) that wealth measurements appear to be relative and not absolute (any input on that is welcome as I never was bored enough to study it). Meaning that with 20 factions that have 20 million the 1 faction that has 20.000 would register as "bankrupt" or the other way round - thats why I'm against taking the term bankrupt to seriously.

Im playing on H/H with Byg's grim reality mod.

How much does the AI get in bonuses? Playing as the Byzantines, the Scilians are being a pain in the arse and are taking my islands.

They have the biggest economy in the game but mostly own coastal cities with extensive trade. Will blockading all of their ports hurt them at all? Or are the bonuses that great that its not worth doing?

Kye.

Don't forget that with BGR you have expenses (like the Nobles) the AI doesn't have so aside from AI bonuses you are playing with a handicap.

[napoleonic]

If the upkeep exceeds the AI income the campaign script prevents them from going into the red.

curious, what script is that and how does it works?

[bɑne]

curious, what script is that and how does it works?

If the AI treasury is negative the AI receives just enough money to roughly bring it back to zero - if it still works like I remember it.
Btw I just played early era M/M and the AI money development seemed fine during the first 20 turns.

[Kye]

So in a nutshell, blockading is pointless?

Its not to bad if it is. Its a small price to pay for a great game/mod to be challenging.

[GeneralG]

If the AI treasury is negative the AI receives just enough money to roughly bring it back to zero - if it still works like I remember it.
Btw I just played early era M/M and the AI money development seemed fine during the first 20 turns.

So will the AI ever build up large reserves of cash or will they just keep on spending?

[Byg]

Im playing on H/H with Byg's grim reality mod.

How much does the AI get in bonuses? Playing as the Byzantines, the Scilians are being a pain in the arse and are taking my islands.

They have the biggest economy in the game but mostly own coastal cities with extensive trade. Will blockading all of their ports hurt them at all? Or are the bonuses that great that its not worth doing?

Kye.

As you are playing with BGR you would probably still get quite a challenge by removing all the ai economy bonuses, perhaps just leaving it with the vanilla purse. Just to make certain you could move up to VH/VH at the same time. You should then be able to affect the ai with blockades.

I wouldn't suggest anyone who is already used to VH try this though.

[Kye]

Would you be able to point me in the direction of the file and what I will need to delete?

Ive been enjoying your mod so much I wrote a small review regarding SS 6.3 and BGR, check your inbox

Kye.

[Byg]

Thanks.
I'm afraid I don't have 6.3 yet to check because I'm moddding BGRV for the RRRC Compilation. Generally there would be sections granting the ai money in the custom_script and campaign_script, but I would not recommend doing this if you aren't familiar with the code.