AI siege tower bug when defending huge cities

When you play a defensive siege in a minor/large city model, the AI has the option of using rams, ladders, and siege towers (and even artillery if they are smart or have the resources to wheel lithobolos/onagers to the siege and knock down your walls).

However, I noticed a problem with the huge city. While things usually play out smoothly, with the AI using rams and multiple siege towers, sometimes the AI loses all its rams to fire and then must rely solely on the siege towers it has built. The fewer the siege towers the worse the problem gets when all the infantry units rush to that one option for scaling the walls. It's unbearable when there's only one siege tower, as the game slows to a virtual halt and the AI gets flustered, the banners start to glitch out, and the units get stuck. Frame rates drop to an intolerable degree, turning a siege that should last less than 45 minutes into one that's well over an hour, sometimes two hours!

This might not be a problem for everyone, as I'm playing on a rather crap HP Pavilion laptop with a "graphics HD family card" (although I have done "independent research" in fixing memory issues as suggested in the main download thread, so that's not the issue). Still, it is very problematic. The only way to really avoid it is to either auto-resolve OR have the wherewithal to place Oxybeles/Scorpion artillery pieces inside your city before the siege, to knock down the enemy siege towers from behind the walls and evade the possibility of everything glitching out. Again, it doesn't happen during every siege, but it happens often enough to be a major nuisance.

Do you guys have any other solutions or ideas about how to resolve this?

Originally Posted by Roma_Victrix

However, I noticed a problem with the huge city. While things usually play out smoothly, with the AI using rams and multiple siege towers, sometimes the AI loses all its rams to fire

How does this happen? They lose the rams to arrow/javelin fire or the boiling oil from gate houses? If the latter is the case you could probably edit the descr_projectile.txt to weaken the 'oil'. Another solution would be to edit the settlement files in the IWTE and remove the boiling oil effect there.
I have no idea why the game starts to bug out like you describe though, might be indeed tied to your old laptop^^

Originally Posted by xHolyCrusader

How does this happen? They lose the rams to arrow/javelin fire or the boiling oil from gate houses? If the latter is the case you could probably edit the descr_projectile.txt to weaken the 'oil'. Another solution would be to edit the settlement files in the IWTE and remove the boiling oil effect there.
I have no idea why the game starts to bug out like you describe though, might be indeed tied to your old laptop^^

Glad you asked! The burning of rams are caused by boiling oil from gate houses. Ostensibly it could also happen from fiery artillery bolts shot by the Oxybeles or Scorpion, but I've only ever destroyed siege towers with artillery, not rams. I don't want to get rid of boiling oil altogether (since it was used historically), so perhaps just weakening it might work.

I'd also be interested to know if anyone else has had similar problems. Again, this doesn't happen during every siege, but it almost always happens when the stupid AI brings only one siege tower to the fight and, inevitably, all the infantry units rush towards it when they can no longer use the ram.