"Passive" AI’s made Active
OVERVIEW
I made this mod because I got frustrated when some minor powers would refuse to interact with me diplomatically no matter what I did. My positive reputation with them would go up and up and up, and they’d still refuse to sign a simple trade deal or non-aggression pact. It’s not that they were a threat to attack me – they just wouldn’t do anything.
When I looked into the game’s database, I found out that certain Dark Elf, Lizardman, and Skaven minor powers were defined as "passive" AI’s.
This mod "tricks" the game so that it thinks "passive" AI personalities should behave the same way as generic minor powers of their respective cultures.
This is an AI mod. Its most visible affect is on diplomacy, but it can also (for example) influence how the AI uses its armies.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN GAME
For example, the first screenshot is from the unmodified game. If you look at the description of the Deadwood Sentinels, you can see that their personality has the traits "minor power" and "passive", and you can see that although they are "friendly" to me, and although I am #1 in power and they are #67 in power, and although I am at war with their only enemy, they are barely willing to consider a non-aggression pact (although that would be hugely to their advantage), and certainly not willing to trade. I don’t think that this is good strategy on the part of the AI, nor is it fun game play.
The second screenshot is of the same situation (I reloaded the same save game) but with this mod active. You can see that the Deadwood Sentinels’ personality traits have changed to include "Supremacy" and "Underdog", and they would be happy to sign a non-aggression pact with a country that they are friendly with and which is vastly more powerful than them, and that they are also interested in a trade deal.
SUMMARY
The mod will work with save games, and you can stop using it at any time and the AI’s will return to vanilla behaviour.
The mod will make it a bit harder for the player, in that these minors will resist more actively if the player invades them. It also makes it a bit easier for the player, because these minors will cooperate with the player if they are friendly. I don’t expect the mod to make much difference to the overall balance of power, because these are all pretty minor factions. But it should make the game world seem more like an active, living place.
I haven’t created any new behaviours in this mod – the game already has default AI rules for generic minor Dark Elf, Lizardman, and Skaven factions, and this mod just tells the game to use those rules for the "passive" factions as well.
CONFLICTS: Jadawin’s "AI Tweaks – No Anti-Player" and AS3086’s "There is No Betrayal after the Victory over Chaos" mods. In general, I’ve given this mod a minimal footprint and I don’t expect it to conflict with other mods, but it’s an AI mod and may conflict with other AI mods.
I made a mod that should prevent the AI’s Anti-Player vendetta and won’t conflict with this mod here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2612265914
Technically, the mod changes 18 records in the table "cai_personalities".
As of patch 1.9.0, the minor powers that are typically affected in an otherwise vanilla game are:
Dark Elves: Bleak Hold (both campaigns), Bloodhall Coven (Vortex), Cult of Excess (both), Drackla Coven (Vortex), Deadwood Sentinels (both), Ghrond (both), Klarond Kar (both).
Lizardmen: Southern Sentinels (Vortex), Teotiqua (Mortal Empires), Tlaqua (Vortex), Tlaxtlan (both), Xlanhuapec (both).
Skaven: Ferrik (Mortal Empires), Gnaw (both), Kreepus (Mortal Empires), Mordkin (both), Spittel (both), Volkn (Mortal Empires).
I write "typically" because the game will sometimes assign different AI’s depending on difficulty setting and/or which faction the player is playing.
There is one Tomb King minor faction with passive AI, and I thought that was very thematically appropriate for that faction so I did not change it.
