Advanced AI
Mod version 2.5
This mod improves the AI of the game in almost every aspects.
—– FEATURES —–
– Improved AI Province Management
The AI no longer chooses what and where to build randomly, now it follows custom build orders and will prioritize military, economic and defense buildings, as well as special unique buildings. This is by far the main feature of the mod because buildings are everything in this game. And they’re also the basis for a much better AI recruitment. Improving the AI recruitment witthout changing how it builds can’t have optimized results. I didn’t just tweak existing values, I created a new AI logic for this.
– Improved AI Recruitment
Now that the AI can build, it can also have access to a much more variety of units. Just like the province management, I created new army templates and unit priorities, it’s a completely new AI logic and not just a modified vanilla one based on existing values. There are so many changes here I can’t list them but in the end all that matters is that the AI armies will be balanced but also varied at the same time. What I mean by that for example it’s that on occasion you’ll see a more infantry oriented Dwarf or Wood Elves army to suprise you, or a cavalry oriented Empire army, or a missile cav and missile infantry Orc army etc…
Keep in mind however that the AI never disband its units unless in bankruptcy.
– Improved AI Skill Selection
Here again, the randomness has been greatly reduced and all skills for all Lords and Heroes are now in 3 categories for the AI:
* Must have skills –> all abilities, spells, mounts and unique skills, the AI will pick them as soon as they are available.
* Regular skills –> mostly combat and army skills so no matter what skill the AI picks up it will be useful. I kept some kind of randomness here for variety.
* Useless skills –> it doesn’t mean those skills are bad, it means they are not useful for an AI for many reasons
High level AI characters will now be challenging and when you confederate you won’t get a garbage LL anymore.
NOT INCLUDED IN CURRENT VERSION! WILL BE ADDED LATER.
– Improved AI Budget and Income Management
Better budget allocation between armies, buildings, diplomacy etc… The AI will also spend more without going into bankruptcy. Because yes the AI needs an economy, no matter what some people believe, it only gets some cost reduction cheats so yes the AI can recruit a unit or build at a reduced cost, but it still has to pay for them like you.
– Improved Battle AI Usage of Spells/Abilities
Here again the list of changes would be too long. I created completely new parameters for the AI to use when deciding how and when to activate spells and abilities. Vortexes and AOE spells will be used where they can maximize damage or disrupt formations, buff/debuff will not be used randomly but where and when it matters, abilities will be used in accordance to what they do. Also the AI is now able to use some combos like using nets on charging units and countercharge them when they’re defenseless, it will use Prey of Aneth Raema or the Ulthar’s Rangers ability on units that are taking heavy fire to quickly dispatch them, etc… there are many things to discover by yourself.
– Improved AI Strategic Decisions
The AI will be much more focused in its decisions, in accordance to their personalities. The AI armies will no longer stand idle or go back and forth like they often do in vanilla. Also AI factions will also colonize in a smarter way and avoid colonizing unsuitable regions if possible.
– Changes to the avoid player and anti player "features"
* The avoid player fonction that exists on E/N difficulties has been deactivated.
* The anti player fonction that exists on VH/L difficulties and on all difficulties for Chaos has been greatly reduced. The AI will still target the player but only if there is no better target available. So for instance the Chaos armies will eventually come to you but won’t ignore other factions on their way.
– Improved Campaign Balance
I ran many test campaigns and while some factions have an easier starting position than others, the dominating factions at the end were often different each time. All major factions can now have their chances.
I’ve seen those results with my mod and NOTHING ELSE. If you use any mods that alter gameplay elements or if you use Crynsos Unlocker you might get different results, some good and some bad. Use campaign mods at your own risk, the risk being a completely unbalanced campaign.
—– COMPATIBILITY —–
The mod is compatible with the latest version of the game (coast_beta, version 1.5.1) and all DLCs. It works in both campaigns, the Vortex and Mortal Empires. However it is not savegame compatible. IT WON’T WORK WITH THE 1.5.0 VERSION OF THE GAME, you have to install the coast_beta.
Please see the compatibility section for more information about compatibility with other mods but as a rule of thumbs:
* It is compatible with all quality of life and graphical mods.
* It is compatible with pretty much all campaign mods (modified gameplay elements, new features, new skills, new units etc…) but keep in mind that the AI won’t use the new stuff correctly or at all because it’s an AI and it has to be programmed to use them. They may also alter the balance of the campaign so use them at your own discretion.
* It is not compatible with mods that change the AI, so overhauls like Radious and SFO won’t work because of this and also because they are an alternative version of the game this AI was not designed for.
—– SUBMODS —–
– Improved Chaos Invasion (RECOMMENDED) –> http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1326804680
– Agent Limiter (RECOMMENDED) –> http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1326804400
– Better AI unit usage in battle (RECOMMENDED) –> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1530019698
Thanks to the C&C Modding Den for their support.
Special thanks to Uriak, MINOS and AV-BriaN-.
And a big thank you to all of you who have supported my work since the beginning.
I hope you’ll enjoy this mod. Have fun!!!
Join the modding community on Discord! https://discordapp.com/invite/uxyGSAr
