Roma Surrectum and Realism

[BigAsianHawaiian]

So I just got out of Grad school for International Relations and I wanted to just applaud the RS2 team for doing such a great job at structuring the dynamics of an international system. From what little I've played (Rome and Sparta Campaigns) , not only are you historically accurate but nations tend to act according to IR Realist Theory.

The basic assumptions are:

-States prioritize their security/survival.
-Because they care about their security they attempt to maximize their power. Greater power = greater security.
-The international system is in a state of anarchy. There is no top authority that will protect you from back stabbing. So states have to rely on themselves.

Based on these and other assumptions IR theorists try to explain the behavior of states. Seems this theory explains RS2 dynamics pretty well.

So a lot of people complain that in RS2 as soon as you share a border with one of the other states they attack, this is a pretty common thing throughout history according to Realist theory.

Anyways sorry to get all geeky about it, but the IR geek inside me has to applaud the team for getting it right.

[Frost, colonel]

The international system in this mod as far as I know belongs to the game creators - CA, not the mod.

[DUFFMAN]

The international system in this mod as far as I know belongs to the game creators - CA, not the mod.

Not true. Take for example the scripted armies that spawn for AI factions when they are threatened to get crushed. This could be interpreted as defending "national" security.

[Mutalisk]

The AI is subpar at best , any alliance you have with your neighbours(countries you share borders with) is bound to end bad and most of the time it ends bad for you , and starting an alliance yourself is almost impossible even if you have common allies and enemies and if you bribe your way into peace-alliance the ai will honor that for 4 turns or so than theyll use the money you gave them to send more armies to destroy you so if you want a reliable ally they must be the ones to offer you Alliance and the your enemies should be sandviched between you and your ally.

With all that said the devs have hit the limit on pretty much everything RTW engine has to offer so they cant be blamed for not making Diplomacy more sensible as they can only indirectly improve AI(like making scripts or lowering cavalry recruitment costs to make AI recruit cavalry more often).

Combat AI on the other hand sees much more improvement over Vanilla in the sense that it actually tries to use hammer and anvil tactics and surrounding tactics in Alexander.exe and Campaign AI retrains only in ALX.exe(?).But again Combat AI can only be altered indirectly by editing formations and making use of expansion EXEs(?).

So my point is the AI has seen very little improvement over vanilla and cant be expected to act logically - sensibly and this is due to the fact that RTW AI cant be altered directly.And the only thing that makes AI more challenging is they actually recruit more armies but they do that only because they can (0 turn recruitment).

[dvk901]

Indeed, although CA coded a lot of the action and reaction of nations, we've done our best to 'enhance' this every way we could. Another example would be the dynamic that allows nations to make a good deal of money in their home territories, even if they lose their extended regions. The purpose of this was to keep factions stronger, even if they are 'fading' somewhat in the face of opposition. We have actually seen factions 're-surge' after many devastating defeats and loss of regions they conquered. So AI nation behavior was very high on our list of priorities.

[torzsoktamas]

In my cimbri campaign,...my ally, Dacia,..gived me a proposal that I didn't even saw.I wanted to get map information from them with my diplomat(I also offered my map information).But they refused,..and in the same time gave me a proposal:They wanted me to attack the Boii Confederation,..but they would have gave me 1170 denarii.Strange!

But I refused as I don't want another war front.

[0bliviousCaboose]

On the allianceces. As rome the Free greeks and I have been stout allies for 30 years now. And we share borders, mainly Syracuse. I have come to their aid in Greece a lot, Just as they have helped me in battle. Right now, after I conquer the Spartans. I plan on giving them the provinces . To simulate, the liberation of Greece. And yes I role play in this and don't always do the most efficient way, but that is what makes it fun, right?

[AnthoniusII]

Who made RSII AI ?
AI behaves very realistic on the campaign and battle maps.
I always find my legions surrounded with no retreat option.
That's realistic...

[BigAsianHawaiian]

I was just saying I noticed a grand strategic difference. If you have an ally, no matte how long, and they sense a weak border somewhere, you can't trust them in RS2 which I felt was definately an improvement over past mods. Seems pretty representative of the period and also the International system when you take away nukes and nationalism.