Turning Artificial Intelligence off

[kraen]

Hello!

Me again. I would like to turn off any and every artificial intelligence. I know there is a keyboard shortcut in test mode, but that one works only partially, as the AI keeps merging armies if you swap to their faction and divide them.

Is there a way for AI to stop doing that? Is there a way to turn its on-strategic-map actions off completely?

Thanks a lot for advice in advance.

[Welder2]

kraen, there is no way to influence this, only "magic" helps out. This solution prohibits AI factions from merging armies if the AI is turned off in debugging mode (the "h" or "i" keys allow you to on/off the AI in debuging mode) or always after the end of the turn:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It describes how to prohibit AI factions from merging armies after completing a turn. Works for the Steam version. I recommend saving the original .exe file of the game somewhere beforehand.

1. Download and install a hex editor, for example HxD.

2. Open in the editor the .exe file of the game, usually this Medieval_TW.exe in the folder Total War Medieval 1 Gold.

a) If you want to prohibit the merge forever :

Go to offset 001FCE51 in the table, Menu Search->Go to or press Ctrl+G, enter 001FCE51 and press 'OK'. After that, the cursor will move to the required field. There are value of E8. Replace them with B8.

b) If you want to prohibit AI factions from merging armies when AI is turned off in debug mode :

Go to offset 001FCE52. There are values of 3A E1 02. Replace them with 9A 67 18.

Go to offset 003835F0. Select the whole line filled with zeros and replace it with this line :

F6 05 92 D4 7C 00 01 74 05 E8 92 79 EA FF C3 90

3. Save the modified file, now it can be run.

[kraen]

Thank You very much, this solution is more than enough and it works.

I'd like to ask few more things. As you can guess from all the edits You helped me with, my intention is to create sort of roleplaying scenario where I (human players) control everything. It is almost done by now. To make last few finishing touches, I'd need three more things. First is tied to the army splitting / merging. When you split an army, it usually produces number of disloyal generals. They follow up with a rebellion and prompts. My first question is: Is there a way to lessen / disable the impact of general's loyalty? (alternatively disabling civil wars, or just give everyone really high loyalty by default)

Second, is it possible to disable spawning of new Princesses?

My third and least important question is more complicated. I'd like armies to be able to enter other factions territory without declaration of war. I think I have came up with sufficient solution by creating a figure that looks like an army, but behaves like an agent, but if you could think of something better, please, let me know. Just to explain, the armies won't be engaging in true in-game fight, the fighting in my scenario is resolved in Dungeons and Dragons style. For me, the important aspect would be that units with various coats of arms could be in one province, to show that allies rally together.

Also, I'd love to have the strategic map font, it would make map edits so much easier. But I think that is lost to time.

Thank You very much for Your time once again.

EDIT: I would once again like to emphasise how grateful I am for Your advice. Until now, I was simulating how Medieval / Shogun 1 works in various paint programs, and thanks to Your advice, I can actually automate almost everything via doing it in actual Medieval. You cannnot even imagine how much Your help means for me after the years of paint.net.

[Welder2]

As you can guess from all the edits You helped me with, my intention is to create sort of roleplaying scenario where I (human players) control everything.

No, I didn't guess. )=
I have never played desktop or computer versions of D&D. I have only read a couple of articles about this game system and therefore I have a very vague idea about it. If you can specify some game as an example, then perhaps everything has become more understandable.

Is there a way to lessen / disable the impact of general's loyalty? (alternatively disabling civil wars, or just give everyone really high loyalty by default)

The loyalty of generals influences the possibility of a civil war/the choice of sides in it, and the chance/cost of bribing armies. Another possibility of a civil war is when the faction Leader dies and the faction has no heirs, but there are 2 or more generals of royal blood. Solution how to disable both variants for all factions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It describes how to prohibit both possibilities of civil war for all factions - due to the low loyalty of the generals and after the death of the faction Leader when there are no heirs, but there are 2 or more generals of royal blood. Of course, you can use both possibilities at the same time. Works for the Steam version. I recommend saving the original .exe file of the game somewhere beforehand.

1. Download and install a hex editor, for example HxD.

2. Open in the editor the .exe file of the game, usually this Medieval_TW.exe in the folder Total War Medieval 1 Gold.

3.

a) Turn off the civil war due to low loyalty:

Go to offset 001FDE39 in the table, Menu Search->Go to or press Ctrl+G, enter 001FDE39 and press 'OK'. After that, the cursor will move to the required field. There are value of E8. Replace them with B8.

b) Turn off the civil war due to the division of the throne by the generals of royal blood when there are no ordinary princes-heirs:

Go to offset 00169753. There are value of 74. Replace them with EB.

4. Save the modified file, now it can be run.

Second, is it possible to disable spawning of new Princesses?

1st option is to give all factions the pagan culture, factions with this culture cannot spawn princesses. But this is an inconvenient limitation.
The 2nd possibility is to remove from the stats of the princess unit the names of all factions to which this unit is available, replacing them with "NO_FACTION". This will disable the "normal" spawn of princesses, but there is also the random addition of children for the new faction Leader in succession, civil war, and faction emerging. For factions with a pagan culture or having the declared name "FN_ALMOHAD", "FN_EGYPTIAN", "FN_GOLDEN_HORDE" or "FN_TURKISH", adding Princesses is not possible, but for everyone else - yes (of course, except for "FN_PAPIST" and rebels). Accessibility checks are not performed and this is a clear bug. Solution to ensure new faction Leaders never get princesses added:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It describes how to prohibit the addition of princesses for a new faction Leader after succession, choosing the side of the rebels in the civil war and the emerge of a faction when random children are added to the Leader. Works for the Steam version. I recommend saving the original .exe file of the game somewhere beforehand.

1. Download and install a hex editor, for example HxD.

2. Open in the editor the .exe file of the game, usually this Medieval_TW.exe in the folder Total War Medieval 1 Gold.

3. Go to offset 0001C6CD in the table, Menu Search->Go to or press Ctrl+G, enter 0001C6CD and press 'OK'. After that, the cursor will move to the required field. There are value of 85. Replace them with 89.

4. Save the modified file, now it can be run.

If you want to get rid of the princesses that a faction receives at the start of the campaign, then you need to remove the MakeUnit:: for princesses and AddHeir:: lines in the campaign file (after the faction name 0 for princesses and 1 for princes).

I'd like armies to be able to enter other factions territory without declaration of war. I think I have came up with sufficient solution by creating a figure that looks like an army, but behaves like an agent, but if you could think of something better, please, let me know. Just to explain, the armies won't be engaging in true in-game fight, the fighting in my scenario is resolved in Dungeons and Dragons style. For me, the important aspect would be that units with various coats of arms could be in one province, to show that allies rally together.

A full-fledged introduction of such a mechanism would require a huge number of edits, this is a big and difficult work. But as far as I understand, you don't need it. Need to have a clear idea of how it will work. For example, the armies will gather in one province and what will happen next? How will attacks and battles take place ? Will the AI always be passive ?

Also, I'd love to have the strategic map font, it would make map edits so much easier.

If we are talking about putting the names of provinces on the texture of the strategic map, then I do not know what font was used there, I have never done this. But there is always the possibility to draw the inscriptions manually.)=

I would once again like to emphasise how grateful I am for Your advice. Until now, I was simulating how Medieval / Shogun 1 works in various paint programs, and thanks to Your advice, I can actually automate almost everything via doing it in actual Medieval. You cannnot even imagine how much Your help means for me after the years of paint.net.

It looks like you're a big fan of your hobby.)= But why paint.net, maybe you needed something like Unreal Engine? Do you want to make a multiplayer game on the same computer or something like that?

[kraen]

Thank you very much for your response. I will test the princesses and loyalty changes tomorrow, its gonna be great.

To explain a little better what I am aiming for, it is basically a game where human player controls all factions. The main reason for it is so that several human players can play together, and the AI can be controlled by them too in a fair, and at the same time somewhat historically accurate way.

Boring background:
When I was young, me and my cousin spent ungodly hours playing Shogun: Total War, the first game. It absolutely took over our lifes, and so every time we'd travel somewhere where there would be no access to computer, we'd draw various maps on paper and play poor man's version of the game with pencil, rubber, and whole stack of papers with family trees, names of rulers, heirs, and battles decided by dicerolls.
Over time, the series has lost its charm. The in my opinion superior province design was replaced by what the Total War games do currently. It might be just nostalgia, but there is something beautiful about the first 2 Total War games.
I am to recreate similar experience we had on paper as kids, but in M:TW. It is far more convenient, as the game automates everything we had to write manually with pencil and scrub off with a rubber. It might sound weird, but I asure you, its great fun! I just wish I could add more than 31 factions, and 125 or so provinces, but it will do.

Battles:
The battles I did not really decide on yet. Either I'll just automatically resolve them with the AI being passive (except decision if it retreats or fights, as it works currently in the version I run now), or alternatively, it is going to be decided by series of dicerolls and modifiers (like, every unit will have a dice roll + set value, as an example, D3 + 1 (roll of 3 sided dice, final number gets +1), higher number wins). In that case, I'd be manually deleting on-map units destroyed in "combat" rather than engaging in traditional M:TW combat. Battles will never need any editing or improvements, because its either autocombat, which is already in game, or a dice.

Last point are the armies in one province:
One of the largest limitations, alongside the amount of factions and provinces is that allies can hardly help one another in M:TW. If your ally does not have border with your enemy, they can do little to nothing, and that does not correspond with reality. Many battles were fought by several rulers on each side heading their armies. Imagine how great it would look if you could have lets say, Aragonese and Spanish units with their tiny coats of arms on their shields standing in the same province against Almohads.
I am hoping to create a piece that will represent "expeditionary" forces, and make them able to enter territories of other factions without declaring war and triggering combat. The easy solution is to make them work exactly like lets say Assassin / Priest / Emissary, just with appearance of the army piece. It would be nice representation of ally's aid in combat. Of course, they could not actually participate in actual M:TW combat if I'd use this half-assed solution, but I could think of a way to make it work anyway, for example, for each expeditionary unit, enemy would lose one of their units before the battle, etcetra.

Of course, ideal solution would be if the game would give you a choice to enter peacefully when you drop your army on other faction's territory, but I guessed that would be either too difficult, or plain impossible. AI will always be passive in what I am creating bar the decision to fight / retreat when battle is triggered (this is a must), and I will never do any in-person battles (auto combat only). At present time, when you drop your army piece on territory of neutral faction, the game gives You a prompt if you really want to declare war. Ideally, I'd like the game to give you either option to declare war, or enter peacefully. Of course, this option would not be possible in case you're at war with the owner of the province.
Another way would be that when you receive the prompt about war, and you'd choose "No", the army would automatically enter peacefully (as in, move to the region without triggering battle).

EDIT 29/7: Actually, now that I think of it, Crusade has similar function. Maybe it could be copied in some way.

I understand though that this might be impossible. What happens when faction has units in territories of other faction and they enter war? Will the combat occur, like when rebellion occurs? How would one program that? Its but s distant dream now.

About the paint.net: I am really inexperienced when it comes to editing anything. Even adding new provinces took me almost forever, just to learn that the game is already on its cap and I cannot add more. Sorting bugged ruler names took me several days after adding all the new factions. The new provinces I have created, I have used existing letters from the existing map, and it looks decent. I wish I'd have the ability to edit the .exe file like You do, or to program entire new thing that would do exactly what I'd like, but that is absolutely outside of my field of expertise. Miles away, in fact.

That is why I thank You once again for helping me. =)

[Welder2]

I am to recreate similar experience we had on paper as kids, but in M:TW.

You may be the biggest fan of this game in the world.)= Do you want to play with your cousin again like in the good old days ? Or gather friends ?)=

I just wish I could add more than 31 factions, and 125 or so provinces, but it will do.

Adding the 32nd (or 31st, if you count from 0) faction was not so difficult, but adding more than this number runs into huge difficulties. It takes a lot of effort and time. There is a great chance of missing something and getting some obvious or hidden mistakes in the end. In a word, it's hardly worth it.

I think it is possible to increase the number of provinces and seas, the restrictions are related to the number of colors for lukmap. As you know, there are 2 colors used for each province - one to designate its territory, the other to designate borders. In reality, there is a place for 256 provinces + seas. In the new version, you can make sure that a different color is not used for the borders of provinces and thus free up a number of colors for new provinces. Borders in this case could be marked in some other way. For example, the border would be considered the 2 extreme lines of the territory of the province. It is clear that it is impossible to do without "surgical" measures. I'll try to see what I can do about it.

Actually, now that I think of it, Crusade has similar function. Maybe it could be copied in some way.

Yes, Crusade and Jihad are most suitable for your purpose, but of course only after some "processing". I think I am able to turn them into "Expedition" by removing unnecessary restrictions (for example, a Crusade requires the permission of the Pope, disintegration due to the loss of a base or the capture of a target by Catholics, limited choice of path, etc.). Jihad has fewer restrictions, so it looks preferable. Сan add these Expeditions to explore foreign lands, but ordinary armies will also remain in the game. It would be much more difficult to make an "Expedition" from an ordinary army. But, as usual, the devil is in the details.

1. Well, the Expedition can enter the provinces of neutral and allied factions without a war, or with a war of choice.

2. Suppose the expedition entered without a war and the Player made a move. Now the Expedition is "moored" in a foreign province.

a) What should be done now so that the Player can attack the province in which it is located with this Expedition ? Just throw a figurine at the province ?

b) Suppose that the owner of a province is an ally of the Expedition and a rebellion or emerge/reappearance of a faction has started in this province, or an army of another faction has attacked it, etc. Should the Expedition support the ally in battle ? And if both sides are allies for the Expedition, who should it support ? Does the attacking faction immediately become an enemy for the Expedition ? Where to retreat if the Expedition does not want to support an ally ?

c) Can the owner of the province attack the Expedition ? If there are several allied Expeditions in a province and the owner of the province attacks one of them, should the allies support them ? What if the Expedition is an ally of the owner of the province and the attacked Expedition ? Who should she support ?

d) Can an Expedition attack someone else's Expedition in the provinces ?

e) What will happen to the Expedition after its owner becomes an enemy of the owner of the province (for example, there will be an attack on another province) ? Will the expedition automatically attack the owner of the province ?

3. Can there be Expeditions of two warring factions in the province at the same time ?

There may be something else. It is better that it be as simple as possible. If you can think through everything in detail and imagine it, then I will most likely be able to do it. Of course, if one of us doesn't go crazy before)=

I wish I'd have the ability to edit the .exe file like You do, or to program entire new thing that would do exactly what I'd like, but that is absolutely outside of my field of expertise. Miles away, in fact.

Yes, this requires certain knowledge. I doubt that your goal is worth the torment and time that would have to be spent to get them.)=

[kraen]

You may be the biggest fan of this game in the world.)= Do you want to play with your cousin again like in the good old days ? Or gather friends ?)=

Actually, ideally both at the same time! We're gonna be at least 4 human players, and they pester me about my progress on making it happen, haha.

Adding the 32nd (or 31st, if you count from 0) faction was not so difficult, but adding more than this number runs into huge difficulties. It takes a lot of effort and time. There is a great chance of missing something and getting some obvious or hidden mistakes in the end. In a word, it's hardly worth it.

I agree, 31 is fine. Not ideal, but fine. Playable factions of course make the game more intricate, but whole lot can be achieved with the rebel faction. The developers itself intended them to represent the smaller factions, the only limitation is they cannot attach each other (one rebel area is automatically allied to all others). It would be great to have more, but with the current amount of provinces, 31 is enough.

I think it is possible to increase the number of provinces and seas, the restrictions are related to the number of colors for lukmap. As you know, there are 2 colors used for each province - one to designate its territory, the other to designate borders. In reality, there is a place for 256 provinces + seas. In the new version, you can make sure that a different color is not used for the borders of provinces and thus free up a number of colors for new provinces. Borders in this case could be marked in some other way. For example, the border would be considered the 2 extreme lines of the territory of the province. It is clear that it is impossible to do without "surgical" measures. I'll try to see what I can do about it.

This would be very helpful. I understand the nuts and bolts of adding a region, I just don't know how to expand the colour table, so whenever I attempted it, I just got whole lot of errors. If the map could become more intricate, with more smaller areas, the entire strategy aspect would become significantly reliant on single big battle after which a war snowballs, another weakness of the original game. Also, even a few, like 10 extra slots, would make a huge difference. There are specific area on the map that run into problems for not having enough areas, namely southern italy (Naples), Greece (portrayed as just a single province), British Isles (If you decide to add Wales, Scotland, and Ireland as factions). The reason is that there are often wars waged in these areas, and it ends up being a struggle for a single area without many options of how to strike the enemy.

If you could in some way force the colour scale to have more colours than 256, it would be extremely easy for me to edit the map and add some details.

Yes, Crusade and Jihad are most suitable for your purpose, but of course only after some "processing". I think I am able to turn them into "Expedition" by removing unnecessary restrictions (for example, a Crusade requires the permission of the Pope, disintegration due to the loss of a base or the capture of a target by Catholics, limited choice of path, etc.). Jihad has fewer restrictions, so it looks preferable. Сan add these Expeditions to explore foreign lands, but ordinary armies will also remain in the game. It would be much more difficult to make an "Expedition" from an ordinary army. But, as usual, the devil is in the details.

Yes, I was worried about the Crusade and Jihad restrictions and mechanics, such as taking soldiers away from other armies in the province, restricted movement, and so on. It would have to behave like a normal army all but in the background for it to be worth it (including things like, you should be able to put soldiers into it, it should look like standard map piece instead of the big one, but that should not be that big of a hurdle).

1. Well, the Expedition can enter the provinces of neutral and allied factions without a war, or with a war of choice.

It could enter just ally's lands, neutrals are not that important, although the ability to enter neutral lands would not be useless, either. The solution of entering with an OPTION to enter a war state would be preferable, but the solution that this particular figure can never declare wars at all and just acts as a sort of a visual would be acceptable in case it would be easier to make reality.

2. Suppose the expedition entered without a war and the Player made a move. Now the Expedition is "moored" in a foreign province.

a) What should be done now so that the Player can attack the province in which it is located with this Expedition ? Just throw a figurine at the province ?

Tough question.

If I understand You correctly, there would be now a war state between the owner of the "expedition", and the owner of the province the expedition is in. I think in this case, there should be a battle for the province automatically next turn after the war starts (like when a rebellion occurs, rebels appear, and next turn there's combat), with the "expedition" owner being treated as the attacker, because he's the one in forgein province.

Alternatively, and this might be easier to do, the expedition would simply have to move back to friendly lands before performing any combat actions. This might be easier to make reality. Then, when moving into territories of an enemy faction, it would behave like normal army, and fight like it.

Alternatively, it could simply disappear. Player should be aware that in case he gets into a war with faction he sent expeditionary force into, the expeditionary force can easily get surrounded and destroyed. I think it makes sense, it could be easy to implement, and it adds a layer of consideration into the game. I like the potential for betrayals.

EDIT: I think I misunderstood your question, and yep, I think it should be just a figure throw. I don't see a downside of that, but if my reply does not make sense, please try and explain the situaton better to me.

b) Suppose that the owner of a province is an ally of the Expedition and a rebellion or emerge/reappearance of a faction has started in this province, or an army of another faction has attacked it, etc. Should the Expedition support the ally in battle ? And if both sides are allies for the Expedition, who should it support ? Does the attacking faction immediately become an enemy for the Expedition ? Where to retreat if the Expedition does not want to support an ally ?

The Expedition should be ally in battle if possible. The attacking faction should become an enemy of the expedition owner. In case of retreat (after defeat or when player chooses they cannot win the battle), the expedition should retreat back to its own province, and if that is not available, then to its ally's province. If that is not available, it should disappear like any regular army. I think this would be extremely neat!!!

c) Can the owner of the province attack the Expedition ? If there are several allied Expeditions in a province and the owner of the province attacks one of them, should the allies support them ? What if the Expedition is an ally of the owner of the province and the attacked Expedition ? Who should she support ?

I think the owner of the province should be able to attack provinces of the owner of the expedition. I don't think it woulld be easy, or maybe even possible, to be able to attack a map piece. The moment owner of the province expedition is in attacks a region of the owner of the expedition, the expedition either fights next turn, does not participate in any combat until it arrives back home, or simply disappears as I described above. All three solutions would be nice, I think all three make sense.

In case there are several expeditions and the owner of the province enters war state with one of them, the remaining expditions should support the owner of the province by default. This situation is very difficult to rule properly, as there are many aspects to it, but i think this solution is relatively clean, and should not be too complicated to implement. Giving people a choice of whose side they want to take in case of such combat might be difficult, but obviously is superior option.

Also, this problem would really happen only if a combat would be triggered. In case different solution is implemented (expedition at war with owner of the province simply disappears, or it has to return home before fighting), this issue does not arise.

d) Can an Expedition attack someone else's Expedition in the provinces ?

While that would be neat, I think it is not needed at all.

e) What will happen to the Expedition after its owner becomes an enemy of the owner of the province (for example, there will be an attack on another province) ? Will the expedition automatically attack the owner of the province ?

That is one of the three solutions to this I wrote above. Just to summarise, if expedition owner and region owner enter war state, I see three solutions that are equally goodand have their own advantages:
1) The expedition disappears (surrounded in enemy territory -> automatically destroyed)
2) The expedition fights as rebellion would
3) The expedition stays and does nothing until owner returns it back into one of their provinces

3. Can there be Expeditions of two warring factions in the province at the same time ?

I don't think this should be possible. In the ideal world, expeditions should be able to enter just lands of their allies (and of course, their own), and two warring factions cannot be allied to one at the same time, the owner would have to make a choice.

However, I don't think solution for this has to be properly implemented in the game, as human will control everything, and I can simply prohibit moving into the lands of non-ally in written rules to the scenario.

There may be something else. It is better that it be as simple as possible. If you can think through everything in detail and imagine it, then I will most likely be able to do it. Of course, if one of us doesn't go crazy before)=
Yes, this requires certain knowledge. I doubt that your goal is worth the torment and time that would have to be spent to get them.)=

You are exactly right, I'd like this figure to be as simple as possible to make it as easy to create as possible. Bar the basic rulings, everything that can be implemented by simply writting rules for the scenario itself (for example, you cannot move to the province of non-allies) does not have to really be implemented on the system side, the humans just won't be able to do it due to the rules.

If this would be possible, it would make the entire experience significantly better. If you'd have time to spare to actually make it happen, I'd appreciate it greatly and I could also compensate You somehow for the time and effort, as this would bring the experience extremely close to an ideal tabletop for me and whole lot of my friends.

The easier and simpler the behaviour of such figure is, the better. If making it disappear right when the state of war between the owner of the province and owner of the expedition visiting the province occurs is the simplest thing to do, then thats the way to go, since I think it makes sense and has great strategic potential. Massing armies this way is going to be a powerful tool, so it should come with downsides of posibly being betrayed and having your expeditionary force vanquished.

Thank You for taking Your time to reply. Also, if there's other way to contact You than these forums, it would likely be far more convenient. For example, Discord / Skype.