Lettuce face the truth: sieges are embarrassing for everyone involved. They are embarrassing for me, they are embarrassing for the AI, and they are especially for CA. I can't fix the AI, but I did make a mod that I hope will at least improve the experience.
I replaced the free ladders with free battering rams. I've noticed that the AI seems to be a bit more competent with rams than other siege equipment (although it does bug on some maps a bit), and this will also help avoid some of the torch burning silliness.
I also think the length of time it takes to get the equipment necessary to have your own epic siege is ridiculous. Also, by the time you have enough stuff, most of your army are dead. So, I've increased the amount of siege equipment built each turn (still limited to one type built). Higher siege equipment levels have more built as well. Additionally, the technology requirements for rams and towers have been removed; these just pointlessly made an obstacle to fun sieges.
Here are the changes I've made:
-Free ladders replaced with 4 free rams, for player and AI.
-Number of siege equipment items built per turn is doubled. So instead of 2 towers, you get 4.
-Higher level equipment also gives you more of it. So if your army is upgraded to medium siege equipment, you get 6 towers instead of 4, and if you upgrade to heavy you get 8.
-All equipment has more hp and higher ignition threshold, so it doesn't die as easily.
-Tech requirement for rams and towers eliminated.
-Attrition for besieging reduced to 5%/turn, and attrition for being besieged reduced to 10%.
-Galleys removed. They were stupid and useless anyway.
These changes are meant to make city assaults more enjoyable for the player, and avoid some of the embarassment of watching the AI trip over itself using ladders.
IMPORTANT: The way I have done this mod makes makes both types of ladders, the tall ones and short ones, available at all cities. Make sure to choose the 15m ones if you are attacking a "civilized" city with tall walls, and choose the short ones if you are attacking a barbarian city with short walls.
DON'T LET THIS BE YOU:
(actually they land safely, but still best to be avoided I think).
I haven't extensively tested this mod yet, so please let me know if it doesn't work as intended. It should be compatible with most other mods since few modders mess with the stuff I changed, I'm using it with Radious myself.
There is one inherent problem I know of: the AI is free to choose the wrong type of ladders. I don't think this will be impactful for two reasons:
1. AI never builds siege equipment on its own.
2. AI can't use ladders correctly even if they are the right size.
Other modders may appreciate the clever way I swapped the rams for ladders, or they may roll their eyes because they know a better way of doing it. If you do know a better way of changing/removing the free equipment and setting which can be selected at different city types please let me know; the battlefield_siege_vehicles table actually doesn't restrict you from building the wrong equipment for the campaign.
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ct...slaSiege2.pack
To install, paste it into your Rome 2 data folder and activate in mod manager. I'll make a workshop version once I'm sure its working correctly.
Important Update: I found out that the foolish AI will actually become idle if it is given more than one ram after it has broken down the gate. I have fixed this by giving the AI only one free ram instead of 4 (player still gets 4).
edit: By request I went ahead and uploaded it to the workshop, here's the link for that:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=202059582