Experimental Campaign AI

uriak

I'm making a mod incorporating parts of Celtik AI tweaks. It is still a work in progress but i'm making it public to gather feedback on the AI behaviour

The steamwork link

Current features :

Unit priority changes. Higher value units are worth less than in the vanilla game, same for chariots and artillery in general
Tweaked CAI budget priorities
Modified Ai building synergies, for the old world factions, the new factions are quite good.

uriak

Updated this with changes to building construction values (IE how much they have priority) to old world factions

uriak

Latest results are not too bad, I've updated further changes to Bretonnia mainly, it seems it's the most suffering culture.

Alaric83

Really looking forward for you to remove the antiplayer function. It is, to me, the most immersion breaking thing in the game. Feels to videogame-y.

And if the mod improves the building order, then it's even better! Thanks for doing the work CeltiK has done on TWW1 :-)

Maybe, as CeltiK did in his campaign AI mod, add some racial affinity between Empire provinces, so they don't slaughter each other as a bunch of savage orks ?

Keep up the great work, and thanks !

uriak

Hey thanks, I didn't want to focus on AI relationship at the start but I agree about the anti player, I'm gonna check how it was done.

So far I've mostly focused on the building order of the OW factions, seems they have done a good work on the new ones however. I've revised the unit values too but it remains to be seen how this works. Testing in ME is quite long since the turns are slower.

They have revised the diplomatic relationships in ME, I prefer to test before tweaking them. In my last campaign the empire does fine



Bretonnia seems the weaker major player so far, I'm at their bedside

Alaric83

To be fair I didnt' try Mortal Empires yet. Still have some Vortex campaigning to do, and waiting for the Foundation part. If the Empires does fine now, then that's great :-)
Your campaign map looks great btw! Almost perfect faction balance

Thank you so much for looking at that anti-player function that exists at higher difficulty for all AI function. It is just so fun-stealing.

And all right, I completely understand that you don't want to include relationships change in this mod. But maybe (pretty please), if you already know how to, you could make another one to remove the "age of peace" major relationships debuff that only the player suffers after the Chaos Invasion is defeated.

It was so in the first game, and I believe it still is the case in ME (afaik). Technically, you already have won the game by then most of the time, but still. I'm kinda allergic to everything that only affects the player as a matter of diplomacy. :-)

uriak

i've uploaded a version with values similar to the advanced AI mod, the anti player trait still exists but the most powerful values are scaled down, especial for the anti player destroyer kind (chaos, actually)

I'm tweaking the NW unit values to see what happends, and I'm gonna run another ME test to see the balance.
I may include climate interactions similar to the Full climate overhaul mod, but since this one does exist I'm not touching this so far.

In the end, if I have to keep this mod alive because Celtik next one is too long to come I should probably split the building and recruitement part vs the behaviour.

uriak

After a few tests, I'm starting to be quite ahppy at least with the old world part. I'm curious wether there is any feedback about the AI now?

thesniperdevil

Good job with this I saw the mod in the workshop and am following it!

Not sure if this is in the scope of what you will do but two things I have noted that woiuld be good to remove:

1. in turn 1 von carsteins ALWAYS declare war on stirland and take the moot. It would be nice to vary this up a bit.
2. Likewise Bretonnia ALWAYS goes for MArienburg now - would also be good to shake it up here too.
3. the random "declare war because...shut uppppp" that happens mid game from far away factions.

uriak

I could look for the first two items but it would require scripting (or editing the startpos). I think. the issue is that it would be difficult to keep this compatible with other mods easily.

I've reduced a bit the anti player actions from the anti player factions. But I haven't tested this part, I'm playing in neutral mode with a hidden beastmen lord

I've managed to make bretonnia and GS much more competitive though.

uriak

I've got a number of debugging mods in my workshop for those who want to check what is happening with campaign mods. They remove the fog of war and allow to see the content of cities and partially the armies.

I've not updated the CAI mod for the maintime, I'd want to get more feedback before going on.

uriak

just realized that the climate overhaul mod I was using had set bretonnia desert to unsuitable. It may be loreful but screw over the crusaders, I'm gonna change it and incorporate parts of the climate preferences in this one.

Alaric83

Thanks for your great work ! Once Fondation Update is released and I start my first ME campaign I’ll be sure to do so with your mod.
And yes, good idea for Bretonnians. I mean they are crusaders, they must be fully equipped to handle the harsh desert climate

uriak

Thanks. I'm not sure whether all of this will be folded in Celtik next AI mod or if it will have its own life after ward like MINOS vs celtik (they share a base )

I think I would like to go for maximum balance between AI, and fairplay and a bit of immersion rather than maximum challenge for the player. This means making GS able to settle in more areas, trying to break hegemonies or at least making them more diverse and in the long run maybe scripting new events to spice things up.

uriak

Updated with some climate preferences. I gave up using the climate overhaul mod and added my own tweaks.
bretonnians still can use deserts, greenskins can appreciate temperate, savage greenskins have a different climate preference.

uriak

removed climate region changes. I made the greenskin more "looty" rather than keep the default occupation policy.



Here's a sample of my latest test, turn 50

uriak

Fixed the typo that deactivated climates.

uriak

Currently testing with new climate parameters. I've set up all the "early" policies to the same as the normal, since faction stay in early mode without chaos interventions.

Made both VC and dwarfs "cautious" as in unlikely to settle in unsuitable climate. Makes a lot of sense for dwarfs whose objective should stay to retake their lands, and to curb the power of vampires. The main vampires in this game try to take the empire and not venture everywhere. Ideally I should split the main vampires and desert + jungle factions...

uriak

SO do you think there are large issues remaining or could this be released as "not experimental" ? I would like to this before the next update kicks in, ideally.

uriak

i'm looking into changing maybe the cultural aversion/affinity, do you think this has a place in such a mod? I mean I've noticed that skaven/DE/BM are almost friendly, and even if it's to create an "axil of evil" it doesn't sit well with what we know about them.

Your opinion?

uriak

Latest screens, turn 80. I'm trying to make GS and skaven more aggressive.