Re: Bran's Empire Campaign AI
You mentioned the changes to trade and diplomacy in the new version. I think you've allowed trade ports to have more trade routes (as well as allowing fishing ports to trade), is that right? The difference in my income is significant. Presumably AI factions benefit from a similar increase in income, which (as you said) should help poorer nations. That sounds good - in the vanilla game, the minor factions seem to inevitably fall (with rare exceptions). So far, it seems to me that AI factions are making more diplomatic offers (and more reasonable offers) to the player, as well as being more likely to accept offers, which I like. Your new version makes diplomacy a lot more satisfying. I haven't played for long enough to see the effects of your revised naval priorities, but they sound good - especially the increased tendency to defend and attack ports, since (with more trade going on) ports will be even more important.
Last night, I was reading David McCullough's book 1776: America and Britain at War. McCullough wrote about a powerful British fleet which arrived at New York and landed a large army; General Washington's soldiers fought hard, but were forced to retreat. This morning, I loaded up the new version of your Campaign AI and started a new game as the US. In 1704, Britain declared war. One British army, starting from Philadelphia, made a determined attack on Albany. An American militia army just managed to hold them off. After the battle, my troops were in sufficiently good shape to advance and liberate Philadelphia. Then, unexpectedly, a powerful British fleet arrived at New York and landed a large army (exactly the British strategy that I was reading about last night!). This British army marched on Boston. Here, both armies had a mix of infantry and cannon. My demi-cannon got lucky hits against their artillery. My infantry, on the reverse slope of a ridge (following the well-known tactic used by Wellington at Waterloo), remained unhurt by enemy artillery fire as my cannon hit the advancing enemy. I won - but only because I got lucky. (edit) if you're wondering why I'm including those details, the point is that - with your mod - I'm thinking much more about battle tactics and campaign strategy, which is good.)
What particularly impresses me about your mod is that, both on the battle map and the campaign map, playing against the AI feels so much more like playing against a human opponent. While I've seen the British land troops in America before with vanilla AI, I would not expect a landing so early or so well-executed. I was surprised and impressed by the prompt and decisive landing by the enemy in New York and their determined attack on Boston with a strong army. I was especially impressed that the Campaign AI did this in 1704, so early in the campaign - this seems exactly the kind of bold move which a human opponent would have made.
(edit) Ottoman Empire turns seemed to be taking longer than usual in the 1710s. Could this be a side-effect of the extra money for factions which comes from the extra trade routes -which might be causing them to recruit more units, possibly triggering the well-known 'Ottoman turn bug'? Alternatively, maybe I'm just unlucky and the Ottoman Empire happen to gave got some units stuck in the usual crossing point in this campaign? I'm still enjoying the campaign a lot 
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Last edited by Alwyn; June 28, 2014 at 04:11 PM.
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Re did naval priorities for fleets so they protect ports more with bigger fleets but balanced with attacking enemy ports too. Added trade to fishing fleets and major fishery buildings so there will still be some trade for poor nations too. Post one.
Play naval battles on normal difficulty-anything higher and your navies will be sunk. Land battles very hard difficulty.
