Always Win Autoresolve
TL;DR: Autoresolve is now always* won by the player. Can be enabled and disabled without any save game issues. No other changes.
*Technically it is still possible for the AI to win, but it should be extremely difficult unless you are specifically trying (very hard) to make it happen.
Do you want a hyper lightweight mod that makes you always win autoresolve? I was looking for one and could not seem to find anything, so I made it myself. This is my second (published) Total War mod, if you are interested my other mod is a much more subtle autoresolve mod aimed at reducing the number of player units that get totally wiped out in an autoresolve victory.
Less Lethal Autoresolve: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2974916675
I would like to acknowledge user ‘wodwd’ whose lightweight ‘increase autoresolve point’ set of mods gave me the idea to try this out, and ultimately made it a very quick mod for me to make.
increase autoresolve point: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790146102
How it works: A set of variables that go into autoresolve are modified. These variables are direct weights on the autoresolve power of units when the player is involved. This mod changes the variables from the default value of 0 (i.e. no weighting) to 100 (Very Big Number), causing comically unbalanced scaling in favor of the player and resulting the in player virtually always winning regardless of the base fight balance. The variables changed are the exact same ones changed by ‘wodwd’ in his mods, though his modified values are much lower resulting in much more subtle effects.
Images:
1. Test battle with AWA, before hitting the auto.
2. Test battle with AWA, after the auto.
3. AWA variables, these are the entirety of what this mod changes.
FAQ
Q: Is this mod compatible with X?
A: I believe this mod is compatible with any version of the game and any other mod that doesn’t change the stated variables. In the case that another mod does change those variables, which one takes affect depends on the author’s table name within their mod – I believe in most cases my mod will take priority, but this should be fairly easy to test in-game. As a special and specific note, SFO does change these same variables, but the table names are such that my mod’s values supersede the SFO values (regardless of load order) – So this mod is compatible with and works normally with SFO.
Q: Does it work in multiplayer?
A: Yes* – I intend to test this soon(tm) and update this page to reflect confirmation… But there is no reason it should not. Except that I just said that it should and the universe has a sense of irony.
Q: Is the mod save-game compatible?
A: Yes, I expressly made this as something I could enable on load only if there was an autoresolve that I very much wanted to win as an autoresolve, and then load up again with it disabled to continue normally.
Q: How exactly does the autoresolve work?
A: I wish I knew. These variables, based on the names and apparent impact, simply weight the players base ‘total autoresolve power’ – But exactly how that power is calculated in the first place is relatively convoluted and black-box. To quote a famous developer, "It just works."
Q: How is this mod different from X mod which changes autoresolve?
A: This mod changes ONLY the variables shown. The only goal is to make the player always win. This mod is intended to be hyper lightweight, something that affects only exactly what it’s there for and can be added and removed as desired.
Q: How are player casualties affected?
A: In the somewhat limited testing I’ve done the player’s units will take some damage in very uneven fights, but no damage at all in ‘relatively close’ fights. It’s probably possible to lose a unit in an extremely uneven fight, but I think it would be quite difficult.
Q: Why did you make such an obviously cheaty mod?
A: My friends and I have had a couple of our co-op campaigns ended early due to chronic issues with very large (unit count) battles in multiplayer. In short, the AI will amass 2-3 full stacks and force a fight with the main forces (often a siege) of one of the players, where autoresolve gives the win to the AI with very low casualties on their side – Effectively handing them several settlements over the next few turns. The players can play the battle out and consistently win the fight (albeit with casualties), but then the multiplayer locks up or crashes either during or when exiting the battle, even on a reload of the fight. This mod is something I wanted to try to mitigate this problem for us – It’s clunky, but we can now switch on this mod and load up a quicksave of such a situation after we’ve beaten the fight but lost the multiplayer session and tell the AI to ♥♥♥♥ right off, then save and reload once again without the mod to resume our campaign.
