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thunder's_ai_tweaks.pack

This mod was made to solve or improve a bunch of things that i didnt like. This mod isn't perfect or some fix for every issue. There are a few issues i have with it but they are small in the grand scheme of things. There are more tweaks that i would like to make. I will talk about both what i changed and the issues below. I will list the reasoning below, and a tl,dr below that. this will be mainly part 1 of what i did. part 2 can be found in the change notes. always check the change notes for updates. last update was 1/30/16


I will start with the Ai and recruitment. The AI could never really handle building proper armies with the way recruitment works in the GC. They would need 3-6 buildings to make an ideal army. This made most of the one region minors have the same generic stacks of troops as they were limited to what they could build. This made for some dull game play. My solution, while not elegant gets the job done. ALMOST every unit for every faction is available from their main city building in a region.(GC only) There are a handful of units that are only available in the small or large city buildings but everything else excluding artillery is available to both city chains. there are so many units for some factions that the tier 1 city buildings will be almost if not unreadable tool tip wise causing them to blank out. tier 2 and above dont have this issue. use the in game wiki if you need to know the details.


This change made for a drastic improvement in what armies that AI makes. You will not only see better army composition, but better army quality troop wise. I did not go in and change how the AI makes up its army composition. I left it as is. The ai just has more of its roster to choose from.

The change also effects how you can play as well. You too will have access to your entire roster. No more losing some unit thanks to auto resolve and having to run across your country to remake that special unit. No more being stuck with crappy armies until you dominate a large chunck of the map. You can choose to build your elite units earlier, but your economy might not be able to handle that. This change has been a good one imo. Not only are the armies of better quality, but you get to see units you normally dont.

Now, you still need tech to upgrade your units over the campaign. You dont get access to your tier 4 spearmen right from the start as an example.

I did not make changes to the hoardes and how they recruit units. This is only for settled factions.

One last note on the recruitment. Just because the AI recruits better armies, that does not mean they will be 10x smarter in battles. They can still do something dumb and waste their good units.

I tweaked some values to make the ai more likely to resettle and occupy.

i changed how the ai wants to take land and deal with friends/foes land. I didnt like how large chuncks of the map were left untouched. So i made the Ai want to colonize. You will have a hard time finding unsettled land. The AI may be a little too recolonizing happy but meh. This may lead to some moments where they resettle near the enemy,

The AI is also more likely to leave armies on threatened borders if it can, it will try to completely control regions if possible, and it will try to focus more on neighboring provinces.

The Ai will also try to defend allies land when possible, defend land it just took, retake land it just lost, and more likely to defend its capital.

Now the above are things more likely, the AI will still do whatever it does when it feels like it.

the AI is also more likely to attack walled cities(yes, i have fought more walled city battles in the last few campaigns then i did in the last year+ of owning this game)

i did not touch how the hoardes act when it comes to defending, or taking land. I have seen the AI try and settle fairly soon after they become unlanded. I did try and make the huns a little more aggressive against walled cities.(still needs more testing)

Now the main issue with the above is the Ai is more aggressive. This is good, but the Ai sometimes is a little suicidal. Sometimes weak armies(either beaten up or small stacks) will still attack cities when they shouldn't its not too bad imo. There are times i think they shouldnt, but did, and the fight was actually close. I dont like the Ai doing this but idk how to fix it without ruining the more aggressive ai. i guess it is not a bad thing the AI is not omnipresent.

Ai navies have a simlar issue. Navies however are not as important in attila so while i find this annoying, its not game breaking.

Another note, jsut because the Ai does what it should on the campaign map(attack a weak city for example) doesnt mean they will be 10x smarter on the battlefield. They may do what is right on the campaign map, and blow it on the battlefield.


on to the next major change.

ill start by saying that mil buildings for the romans and SE are cheaper to make, small upkeep, and possibly lower food cost. with my recruitment changes i listed above, it made these buildings useless and costly to these factions more than the barbarians.

all of their old military buildings now provide buffs to their respective type of units.(so cav building helps your cav have better stats) you can also recruit more units and they will have more experience. they also provide a garrison based on what type of building they are. the Persian buildings were a little more difficult to do as all of the EoS factions use their buildings. If another faction uses roman or SE buildings, they will get access to the garrison troops should they be able to use them.(ostrogoths can make roman units for example) all factions actually can use the buffs the buildings provide.

to see the buffs in more detail, check the change notes section as there isnt enough room here.

these changes makes the romans(SE to a lesser extent) more durable and have better armies in general. even before i changed the military buildings, the WRE and ERE were holding on, if not taking land in germany, the steppe, or even the persian lands. compared to the vanilla game, it is nice being able to take on the romans without them dying in 20 turns in.

buffed workshop buffs. 10/20/30 % better shields, armor, weapons, ammo, and hulls, lowered negatives PO and squalor.


i did something similar for the barbarians here https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=801931366 (garrison and troop buffs, and lower upkeep)

tl, dr

there are some bugs/issues, read the above to learn about them in more detail.

recruitment has been changed, almost all units are available with the city chain buildings. there are a few exceptions. artillery is not included. tech is still needed to upgrade units.

large onager explosive shot nerfed.

tweaked the AI to make them more aggresive against walled cities. made them want to expand to nearby lands and colonize more. the will try and defend their lands better and allies as well.

and i tweaked mil buildings for romans and SE in upkeep and bonuses, and gave them a garrison.

+ other minor stuff that there wasnt room for here. check the change notes to see in them in more detail. there are a lot of minor QoL improvements there imo.