Harder Difficulty with Clever AI Tweaked
This mod is compatible with the 1.9 ‘Lance’ Update!
This mod aims to enhance the challenge of game progression while maintaining fairness.
Some tweaks I have made to yl3175’s mod to create a more balanced and enjoyable experience.
Here are the major tweaks I made to the original mod:
- Removed Event that caused AI to leave wars the player has called them into after a certain amount of time had passed.
- Reduced the AI levy modifier, bringing it closer to the player’s levy count at the same realm size, though still slightly higher.
- Slightly decreased the AI’s MAA price discount to better align with the player’s economy.
Additionally, minor adjustments were made to further refine the mod.
Features unaltered:
Major Changes:
- Balance the vassal contracts for all the government types. (taxes and levies)
- AI marriage will be more reasonable. eg, the player is unlikely to ally an empire through marriage when you are barely a duchy.
- Buff the AI’s piety/prestige gain
- Decrease the chance of success for scheme
- AI will stick to primogeniture.
- AI will be more likely to conquer the land instead of fighting for relic, artifact, etc.
The primary goal when compared to the original mod is to mitigate the considerable advantage the AI possesses over the player at similar realm sizes. Instead, I aim to ensure that the AI is at least on par with, if not slightly stronger than, the player when realms are of comparable size leading to it feeling more fair but still challenging.
The AI will now forge stronger alliances and offer more resilient resistance to your expansion. It is more likely that you will have to wait for opportune moments, such as when the AI is engaged in costly wars or experiences setbacks, to strike effectively.
Unfortunately in the pursuit of making the AI more comparable to the player some changes have been made that are definitely not ideal but are more so workarounds, the biggest of these two is allowing both AI rulers and the player to adopt primogeniture at game start. While this may not be an ideal solution, it is necessary because the AI either can’t or won’t take advantage of any of the methods most players will use in order to avoid the realm shattering that comes with partition, such as disinheriting, killing your own children, making them monks, etc. This significantly contributes to the game’s ease, as players often employ these methods, resulting in the AI being noticeably weaker in the early game due to realm shattering upon ruler death, but if you want to self impose some additional difficulty keep partition for yourself!
Furthermore, my mod endeavors to tackle the AI’s infrequent ability to form empires early on. It fosters more aggressive and expansionist behavior among AI rulers, making them more inclined to seize substantial amounts of land, particularly when surrounded by weaker rulers.
Please note that all these features already exist in the original mod. I am merely enhancing the work of the original creator, and the vast majority of credit goes to yl3175. If you enjoy my mod, I highly encourage you to show support to the original mod and its developer.
Give the mod a try and feel free to provide feedback in the comments section to help us further improve it!
I also recommend incorporating other difficulty and flavor mods to enhance gameplay. This mod implements straightforward changes and introduces AI modifiers, making it compatible with most other mods. I particularly suggest using Historic Invasions for added historical immersion and to introduce formidable powers in the world, thus shaking up the established order.
TO ENABLE THE MOD, ADJUST DIFFICULTY SETTINGS AT GAME START!
If you encounter any issues during your playthrough that you suspect may be caused by this mod, I recommend disabling all other mods and testing whether the issue persists with only this mod enabled. If the problem continues, please leave a comment below describing the issue, and I will investigate it promptly.
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
