[MOD] More Naval AI

[Tholal]

Version 2.4 of the More Naval AI mod.

The original purpose of this mod was to once again get the AI sailing the high seas. It has since expanded to include numerous AI enhancements and tweaks. This mod includes changes to many python and XML files, as well as a rebuilt DLL.

WARNING: Since this is being installed as a 'patch', it will copy over the files in the assets directory. Be sure to make a backup or keep the original FFH2 installer handy. Due to XML changes, this mod is incompatible with any existing save games from FFH 4.1o.

To install, simply download and run the installer.

Download link (v2.4)


Overview of Changes:


The User Interface has gotten a major upgrade via the inclusion of the B.U.G. mod (BTS Unaltered Gameplay). Hit CRTL-SHIFT-O to bring up the options menu (or use the little bug icon in the upper left). Though the sheer number of options can be overwhelming and sometimes confusing, overall this is a vast improvement to the UI. Any and all features can be easily switched on and off, so dont be afraid to try something new! And if you like mapping out where you want to plant future cities, be sure to check out the Strategy Layer (ALT-X)!

Player AI has been changed to include jdog's Victory System from Better AI. The AI civs can now choose a specific Victory condition they are attempting to achieve and use this knowledge to influence the rest of their decisions throughout the game. Previously passive civs (such as the Infernals and Mercurians), now take an active part in the game.

AI Tech evaluation was put through a major overhaul. Many additions were made to account for new FFH abilities as well as to include a more detailed look into what units and buildings various techs open up. The AI will also take into account its current financial situation and Victory goals when deciding which techs to pursue

AI Unit movement has also undergone many changes. The base of this was taken from Better AI and included a noticeable improvement in the AI's ability to move troops and settlers across water. Adaptations were made to better account for some of FFH's features (Inquisitions, Feasting and Lair Exploration just to name a few) and tweaks too numerous to count to many facets of unit AI (such as promotions, upgrades and AI type selection to name a few) have been made after much playtesting and watching how the AI handles itself.

City Production AI has also been largely modified. The AI understands about Heroes, civ-specific units and buildings, and Victory buildings. The AI should be better at adapting and reacting to its current situation when choosing what to build in its cities.

Pretty much anything involving the AI has been improved in some way, and that will be the main continuing goal of this mod. I will continue to work on getting BUG more fully integrated with FFH and I will also be adding to and improving my two new game options (see below), but bug fixing and AI improvement will be the priorities.

Any and all bug fixes for base FFH that have been made known to me have been fixed (to the best of my ability and/or my ability to find the fix elsewhere). There are no known crashing or hangup bugs in this mod. This mod is extremely stable and turn times are relatively quick. If anyone discovers any OOS issues during multiplayer, please report them in this thread.


Tholal's Naval Changes

The way ships and cargo space were handled in base FFH seemed a bit haphazard and made it difficult to mount a meaningful naval assault or invasion. I've made a few minor gameplay changes to various naval vessels to try and fix this and make water-based maps more interesting and fun.

Cargo Holds

Cargo space has been stripped from most ships. The only ones that have designated cargo space are the transport type ships (Galley(3), Galleon(5) and Queen of the Line(10)) and Caravels(1).

Human players can still use the Skeleton Crew and the Cargo Holds promotions to turn non-transports into transports. It just makes it a lot easier to guide the AI when each ship type has a more focused purpose.

Tech and Resource Requirements

Tech requirements are unaltered, but I did change some of the metal requirements. They were just way too strict and could easily hurt those who need it most (stuck on an island with no copper for example).

• Triremes and Galleys no longer require metal, though Triremes are still tied to the Bronze Working tech
• Frigates and Galleons can be built with any sort of metal (copper, iron or mithril)
• Arcane Barges require Fire Mana.
• Galleys can now cross Ocean squares once Optics has been researched (it was too long of a gap until Galleons could be created)
• Several tweaks to stats for all Naval units

Upgrade Paths

Upgrade paths were also simplified:

             --> Frigate -> Man O' War
Trireme <
	     --> Privateer
 
             --> Galleon --> Queen of the Line
Galley <
             -->Caravel

Arcane Barge

NEW GAME OPTIONS

Puppet States and Revolutions

This game option is a merging of the Puppet States mod and the Revolutions (code extracted from RevDCM since it seemed to be more recent) mod.

When a player captures the city of another civ and they have knowledge of creating Vassals, they will be given the option to set up a Puppet State rather than capturing or razing the city. This will create a new civ of the same civ type as the previous city owner. This Puppet State will be a permanent Vassal to the creating player. In addition to normal Vassal State limitations, Puppet States will not have a Palace. If a Puppet State becomes the last incarnation of its civ type, it will turn into a legitimate civ and the Palace restrictions will be removed.

Revolutions allow for cities to become disenchanted with their current ruler creating events that the player has to react to and sometimes even spawning a rebel civilization and creating civil wars.


Advanced Tactics

This option incorporates various game-related tweaks that I thought would provide a different and interesting FFH experience

• Players can pillage their own roads
• Pillaging sometimes grants experience
• Bombarding sometimes grants experience
• All units have an inherent withdrawal chance
• Mech units can be captured as a result of battle (code adopted from the War Prizes modcomp by mechaerik)
• Great Generals generated from combat with other civs
• Advanced Diplomacy (adapted from Advanced Diplomacy by Afforess)

Thanks to Kael for providing FFH2 in the first place! And thanks to the many coders from whom I have borrowed or copied code, including (but not limited to), jdog and the Better AI crew, Sephi and the Wild Mana crew, Denev, Snarko, karadoc, Terkhen and lfgr.


Known Issues

• Workers sometimes build improvements out of city range
• AI more likely to have an economic crash when Aggressive AI setting is on
• Some parts of Civ4lerts dont seem to be working
• Revolutions - sometimes when switching to a different civ via a Revolution event, the player is unable to proceed past the current turn
• Revolutions - When a human player is killed, they are automatically switched to controlling the next civ in the turn order

Any and all feedback and bug reports are much appreciated!


For a more detailed look into what changes have been made, here are the change logs for the past several revisions. Source code and a more complete changelog can be found at Sourceforge

Spoiler:

Revision History

Version 2.0

• Addition of the BUG mod (adapted to fit FFH)
  • Sevopedia (Enhanced civilopedia)
  • Strategy Overlay (ALT-X to turn UI on and off for it)
  • Numerous other interface options (CTRL-SHFT-O or button in upper left for BUG options)
• AI
  • AI will bring more troops on naval assaults
  • AI more interested in Promotions that grant extra movement points
  • AI more interested in promotions that counter other units
  • AI civs in a Turtle strategy are more likely to Hurry production if they can
  • AI more willing to use animal units for creating buildings
  • AI will no longer pursue an Altar or Tower victory if those victory options are disabled
  • AI will be more aggressive about building Hero units
  • AI should be less likely to start new wars before its ready to attack
  • AI will no longer accidentally Scorch lands of players they are not at war with
  • Raider civs should be more interested in pillaging
  • Various tweaks to how the AI values potential city sites
  • Barbarians will be a bit more pesky and less suicidal than in base FFH (code by ChrisAdams3997)
  • Overhaul of AI tech evaluation
  • AI will actively seek out dungeons and lairs to explore
  • AI will sometimes use Priests to found Temples
  • AI will be less interested in buildings that grant access to units when the game option NO_BUILDING_PREREQS is selected
  • AI will value techs that give them access to their World Spells
  • Sprawling AIs should be a little less aggressive about expansion once they reach their city limit
  • AI more likely to use Great People to discover techs that let them found Religions or receive new Great People
  • AI will use its starting Warrior to Shadow its Settler
  • AI will more actively pursue Altar victories
  • Numerous tweaks and adjustments to Unit, City and Player AI
• Bug fixes
  • Illians get +1 commerce on Ice River tiles
  • Fix for crash caused by the AI trying to cast area effects near the map edge
  • Passive Spellcaster XP gain now scales with game speed
  • Fix for mis-aligned Ocean grid display
  • Objects no longer give visibility beyond their tile; they are also not affected by spells and should not cost any maintenance
  • Objects and HN units should no longer trigger contact with other civs
  • HN units should no longer display info about the owning civilization in the combat log text
  • Bug fix for ghost players sometimes remaining in the game
  • Bug fix / gameplay change - Life mana is now associated with Alteration rather than Divination
  • Royal Guards are now never obsolete
  • Elohim AI players will now have any Unique locations revealed at game start (just as a human player would)
  • Warrens now work again for Settlers and Workers (More Naval AI bug)
  • Fixed an OOS issue in Pitboss games (bug find and fix thanks to Dis)
  • Fix for Barbarians ressurecting Orthus (again!)
  • Immortal Illusions will no longer respawn on death
  • Immortal units can no longer be added to Flesh Golems
• UI
  • UI - new code for displaying ALTAR_OF_THE_LUONNOTAR progress on the Victory screen (code taken from Master of Mana)
  • UI - Player will now receive a pop-up confirmation when declaring war on another civ via alt-clicking on the scoreboard (code taken from Karadoc's K-mod)
  • UI - change to Great People Rate, Maintenance and Research due to Mana bonuses will now be displayed in the associated popup mouseover help in the city screen
  • UI - Automatic Terraforming has now been re-enabled
  • Debug UI - AI tech values can now be displayed in debug mode (CTRL-SHIFT over an owned plot) (ChrisAdams3997)
• MISC
  • Human players can now be vassals
  • Power ratings have been adjusted; techs and buildings no longer give any increase in power ratings; most units have been given new power ratings (affects the power graph, demographics info for 'soldiers' and the AI)
  • AI Auto-play (CTRl-SHFT-X)
  • New Game Option - Puppet States and Revolutions (adopted from the Puppet States mod and the Revolutions mod with some tweaks by myself and lgfr) (BETA)
    • Players can choose to install Puppet States when they capture a city from another civ (requires knowledge of whatever Tech allows Vassals)
    • Cities and Nations have Revolution indexes. When they get too high, there is a chance that the city will revolt, often spawning rebel troops. Happiness, Health, Buildings, Civics and number of troops present can all affect the chance of Revolutions
  • New Game Option - Advanced Tactics (BETA)
    • Players can pillage their own roads
    • Pillaging sometimes grants experience
    • Bombarding sometimes grants experience
    • All units have an inherent withdrawal chance
    • Mech units can be captured as a result of battle (code adopted from the War Prizes modcomp by mechaerik)
    • Great Generals generated from combat with other civs
    • Advanced Diplomacy (adapted from Advanced Diplomacy by Afforess)

Version 1.7

• AI
  • AI - Major reworking of several unit AI functions and adjustments to how the AI assigns Groupflags to its units
    • AI should be more active about taking care of threats inside and near their borders
    • Assignment of Inquisitor and Feasting AIs are handled dynamically
    • Temporary Summons should be more aggressive
    • Units designed for attack are less likely to be assigned as defense units
    • AI should be better about defending important cities
    • Adjustments to SettleMove: AI given more leeway about where to place first city; AI should be better about not placing first cities right next to each other; AI will send its settlers back to safety if it thinks there is too much danger nearby
  • AI - Naval units with a full cargo hold won't try to cast Longshoreman
  • AI - Privateers and Pirates will no longer Declare Nationality
  • AI - AI will try and keep extra defenders in their Holy City when pursuing a Religious Victory
  • AI - AI more likely to cast area effect spells
  • AI - AI understands how Tsunami works
  • AI - Tolerant leaders less likely to raze
  • AI - Patrol groups are allowed to declare war
  • AI / flavor tweak - AI civs with just one level of the Altar will now consider switching to religions that make them evil
  • AI - Floating Eyes will now recon properly
  • AI - Donal Lugh will cast Recruit
  • AI - Tolerant civs encouraged to build the unique buildings for other civs in captured cities
  • AI - AI will dynamically determine how much defense each city needs
  • AI - AI will no longer build the Mercurian Gate in their Holy Cities
  • AI - AI workers will no longer replace developed Mana nodes
  • AI - minor reduction in the AI's interest in Theocracy
  • AI - AI will summon more often
  • AI - AI more likely to cast Gifts Of Nantosuelta
  • AI - Tweaks to code that finds starting spot for the Infernals
  • AI - Barbarian Allies wont try and target Barbarian Cities
  • AI - AI less likely to research a Religion that isn't their favorite
  • AI - AI more likely to target Altar cities when enemy is pursuing an Altar victory strategy
  • AI - AI will prefer to upgrade units with experience when upgrading to Tier 3 and 4 units
  • AI - AI will delete Stranded Conquest units if its in Financial Trouble (mainly affects Clan after they use their World Spell)
• BUG FIXES
  • Bug fix - HN ships that declare nationality will have their blockades cleared (no more phantom blockades)
  • Bug fix - Disrupt will no longer cause cities to have negative culture
  • Bug fix - fix for issue that would sometimes cause the isSummoner() function to incorrectly return as false
  • Bug fix - fixed a typo in the AddtoFleshGolem code
  • Bug fix / AI cheat fix - AI no longer allowed to target cities that they haven't yet revealed
  • Bug fix - fix for loop that could occur when a mixed stack led by a Water Walking unit would try and find a path to a water tile
  • Bug fix - fix for a potential endless loop where a unit would repeatedly rejoin another unit that was trying to heal
  • Bug fix - now Barbs really can't cast Resurrection (my previous fix for this issue wasnt working properly)
  • Bug fix - added missing text key for units that explode in combat
  • UI Bug Fix - city screen will now properly display the production bonus from Unhappy Production
  • UI Bug Fix - fix for a missing line break on the civ info pop-up that's shown when first starting a game
• GAMEPLAY TWEAKS
  • Naval - Privateers and Pirates Bombard rate reset to zero (gameplay tweak I made early on that I'm now removing)
  • UI - Infernals get their own color (black with a reddish tint) to differentiate them from the Barbarians
  • UI - Blockading ships will now be identified as such in their mouseover help
  • UI - Text messages for Golden Ages and Wonders being built are now colored
  • Flavor Tweak - Treants that expire will leave behind New Forests
• MISC
  • Code - setBlockading() is now exposed to Python
  • Code - added debug logging for spellcasting
  • Internal Assert fix - Immortal units that are killed in their capitol won't try to reset their XY position
  • Internal Assert fix - units that are immobilized due to casting at the beginning of their turn won't try to move
  • Code - python assignments of mage-type AI is now handled in onUnitCreated rather than onUnitBuilt (mainly affects Infernals upgrading Manes)
  • Code - added PyResult for Declare Nationality (to fix permanent blockade issue)
  • Code - added new AI Type - UNITAI_INQUISITOR
  • Code cleanup - removing old mage promotion code that is no longer being used
  • Code - enabled the onUnitLost python callback; adjusted the location of the callback in the kill() function in the SDK

Version 1.61

• AI
  • More tweaks to promotion choices
  • AI less likely to start premature Warplans while in Conquestmode
  • Conquest stacks will search a slightly larger range for potential barb city targets
  
  
• Bug fixes
  • Fix to keep Adept units from being assigned the ATTACK_CITY AI
  • Automated naval units will no longer cast worldspells for human players

Version 1.6

• AI
  • More tweaks to how the AI values religions
  • AI will always have some interest in researching their Favorite Religion, even if it has already been founded
  • AI favors units with its Favorite Unit Combat a little more
  • Pillaging large amounts will modify War Success rating
  • Updates to ConquestMove so that Barbarian Allies won't search for Barbarian cities to attack
  • Tweaks to how units are assigned as PermDefense (should keep Heroes from being assigned as city defenders)
  • Many updates and tweaks to AI_promotionValue()
    • Pushed the AI for mage promotions into the DLL (was previously handled in Python)
    • More code to handle FFH-specific promotion tags
    • AI will choose Inquisitor promotion when pursuing Religious Victory
    • Many formula adjustments to account for the fact that Combat promos give +20 rather than +10 as in base civ
    • Added in some adjustments for FFH-specific AI types (for example, AI_HERO and AI_TERRAFORMER just to name a couple)
  • Floating Eyes will now try to Recon rather than attack
  • Found and fixed an issue that would cause Mana Upgraders with Metamagic II to Dispel mana nodes right after building them
  • Re-allowed the AI to cast Dispel (AI will now properly dispel and rebuild mana for Tower victory given enough mana nodes and enough time)
  • Minister Koun will adopt a religion
  • Minister Koun starts with the same Favorite Religion as the leader that created him (this will actually work for any 'spawned' civilization that doesn't have a Favorite Religion)
  • AI will use the Lichdom spell
  • AI less interested in casting Wonder
  • Mercurians and Infernal enter Conquest mode immediately; other minor tweaks for how civs are put into Conquest mode
  • AI will enter Conquest mode when at war (should prevent the issue of large Barbsmasher stacks wandering aimlessly when at war)
  • AI should be better at building missionaries for cities on other landmasses
  • AI takes into account the Worker rates for the default race when deciding how many workers to build
  • AI more interested in building Missionary ships, especially when pursuing a Religious Victory
  • AI will switch AIs for Missionary ships that upgrade and then find themselves with no cargo space
  • AI more likely to build Priests when pursuing Religious Victory
  • AI will opportunistically cast Spring if they are next to Smoke or Fire in their territory
  • Units preparing for a city attack prefer to group rather than wander alone
  • Units designated as Counter units should be a little more aggressive about making opportunistic attacks
  • Better handling and AI assignment for captured animals
  • Warwizards use ConquestMove rather than MageMove (MageMove is for city defense adepts)
  • Naval Units will now choose Crew promotions (finally got this working!)
  • Terraformers and Mana Upgraders wont try to group
• BUG FIXES
  • Bug fix - Barbarians no longer allowed to cast Resurrection
  • Bug fix - fix for text display for impassable terrains in Unit Help
  • Bug fix - catch for wrong units getting Mage AI
  • Bug fix - War Machine now given Hero AI
  • Bug fix - Wilboman now given Hero AI
  • Bug fix - fix for incorrect code that could prevent the AI from building a proper Naval force
  • Bug fix - AI civs now rewarded bonuses for exploring Letum Frigus as appropriate
  • Bug Fix - fix for a bug that would sometimes cause the AI to not upgrade a mana node if it already had mana of that type
  • Bug Fix - Make sure upgraded Workers get proper AI (fixes issue with Slaves upgrading to Lunatics)
  • Bug fix - removed leftover references to unused events from base Civ
  • Bug fix - fixed several internal assert errors that wouldn't cause crashes but would result in improper data being passed about
  • Bug fix / Flavor Tweak - Sons of Inferno no longer spawn directly. Instead, Disciples of Acheron will upgrade to Sons of the Inferno at level 7
• GAMEPLAY TWEAKS
  • Gameplay tweak - Galleys allowed to upgrade to Caravels again
  • Gameplay tweak - Base movement for Caravels reduced to 5
• MISC
  • Code improvement - isSummoner, isDebuffer, isBuffer and deBuffCast functions are now all dynamic (they were hardcoded. This should help out any modmodders than want to use my DLL and make changes or additions to the spells. AI will now be better at understanding new or changed spells without additional code)
  • Debug - display Religion values in debug mode

Version 1.51

• Bug Fix: Fix for a crash bug introduced with the last update
• Bug Fix: Religion percentages now display correctly on the Victory screen
• AI: Terraformers will now cast Spring on Oases
• AI: AI won't explore lairs before turn 10

Version 1.5

• Revamp of the way the AI chooses religions (this should stop religion flipping once and for all, though this function is still a work in progress)
• Adjustments as to when AI will use various worldspells (Religious Fervor, River of Blood, Raging Seas, Warcry, Rally, Gifts of Nantasoula)
• Created basic AI for using Arena Battle and Blaze
• Created basic AI for using Wane and settling Shades
• Created basic AI for the Add to Flesh Golem spell
• AI will now occasionally summon Floating Eyes
• Changes to the AI calculations for producing Mages and Priests units
• AI now gives extra value to producing units that match the leader's favorite unitcombat type
• Added a catch for terraforming units that are upgraded to non-terraforming units so they'll be given a more useful AI type (mainly affects Priest of Leaves upgraded to Paladins)
• AI now values the Fear promotion when choosing upgrades
• Various tweaks in how units are assigned Groupflags
• Lunatics require Octopus Overlords to be present in the city they're being built in (fixes Barbarians from making Lunatics)
• Bug Fix: Removed invalid text key that would sometimes show up when mousing over the scoreboard
• Bug Fix: Summoned units now get default AI for their unit type
• Bug Fix: Disabled code that would cause Volcanoes to spawn in Hell terrain
• Bug fix: Infernals will no longer try to terraform Hell terrain
• Bug Fix: Updated text for Tower of Necromancy and Bane Divine (translations via Babelfish)
• Debug: Groupflags now displayed for units when in Debug mode

Version 1.4

• Tweaks to AI production choices, mainly focusing on buildings that are required to create units and Mages and Priests
• Priests of Winter now get UNITAI_HERO
• AI allowed to build forts
• AI controlled Vampires will now look around for cities to Feast in
• AI will join Overcouncil and Undercouncil again
• AI won't raze cities if the No Settlers option is enabled
• Fix for non-mage units getting Mage AI
• Tweaks to AI civic choices
• Volcanoes will now appear in Hell terrain
• Scorch will now turn Marsh to plains
• Fix for Barbarian units spawning as civ-specific units
• Various other fixes and tweaks to try and improve the AI

Version 1.3

• Fix for Adventurers not gaining experience
• Adventurers can upgrade to Grigori Medics
• Fix for a Python error when Orthus is created
• Improvements to AI civic choices (based on Better AI and Denev's mod)
• Fix for some ships having too much defense
• Fix for AI building too many ships
• Minor fix to AI_Missionary move to keep the AI from using their first Disciple unit to create a Great Work rather than establishing a religion
• Update to the AI's computation of it's religious victory status (checks that religious victory is turned on and also checks the XML for what percentage the victory is set to)
• Minor tweaks to AI city production
• Heroes less likely to attack at low odds

Version 1.2

• Volcano event has a chance to start fires and smoke in nearby lands (taken from Flavour mod)
• Fix for potential crash in LokiMove
• Fix for InquisitionMove
• Fix to keep non-elf terraformers from casting Bloom on top of bonuses
• Various tweaks to stats for Naval units (see this post for details)

Version 1.1

• Fixed several crash bugs
• Taught Loki to use his Entertain spell
• Kuriotates can now upgrade their settlements if they start losing their cities
• First pass at changing how the AI decides which mana types to build
• Minor tweaks to AI for city production and civic choice

Version 1.0 (not compatible with previous save games)

• Tech choices now handled in the DLL
• Religious, Altar and Tower victories incorporated into the Better AI Victory Strategy system
• More tweaks to City Production AI
• Stooges now take an active part in wars and conquest
• Hyborem's Whisper updates from Denev's mod (better selection of cities; AI can use the spell properly)

[Seven05]

There are some handy functions built into Civ4 for identifying areas, since areas in Civ4 are really continents you can use these to help the AI decide if, or how many, ships they'll need. I used this in my Civ4 mod to prevent the AI from building too many ships (obviosuly not a problem in FfH). I'll see if I can dig up the old python code from before I moved it to the DLL to give you some ideas. You can probably use similar code to refine how you determine which AI to assign to the units having them maintian a larger navy if they're split across multiple areas or switching to a more aggressive AI if they're at war with somebody on a different area.

[[to_xp]Gekko]

awesome

[Tholal]

I just realized that I didn't really talk about the net result of my changes. I'll edit my original post later, but for now here's a quick summary.

• AI will build boats, settle islands and make sea assaults (decent job of settling; sea assaults are kind of hit or miss)
• AI civs that begin with coastal empires will hit the water techs earlier

[snarko]

Originally Posted by Tholal

* Wont settle on on-tile islands - Even on larger islands they will sometimes drop off settler groups only to leave them sitting there doing nothing for the rest of the game. As near as I can tell, what often happens is that the settler group gets dropped off at the wrong island, and then spends the rest of the game trying to get across without the help of a boat. This appears to be an FfH specific problem.

This is because FfH has a check, in the SDK, to stop AI units from moving if they can't move in any direction. This is to prevent a WoC issue. Don't think it would be an issue to exempt one tile islands from this rule (I did it before without noticing a problem) but it requires SDK modding

As the settler is surrounded by water it can't move in any direction, therefor the AI is not allowed to use it in any way (including settling).

[Sephi]

Originally Posted by snarko

This is because FfH has a check, in the SDK, to stop AI units from moving if they can't move in any direction. This is to prevent a WoC issue. Don't think it would be an issue to exempt one tile islands from this rule (I did it before without noticing a problem) but it requires SDK modding

As the settler is surrounded by water it can't move in any direction, therefor the AI is not allowed to use it in any way (including settling).

you can remove the whole code without problem (done in wildmana)

[Nor'easter]

As someone who started a navy brainstorming thread about a month ago, I definitely agree with what you did with Cargo Space and streamlining the Upgrade Paths, should help make things easier for the AI.

[Tholal]

Originally Posted by Nor'easter

As someone who started a navy brainstorming thread about a month ago, I definitely agree with what you did with Cargo Space and streamlining the Upgrade Paths, should help make things easier for the AI.

That thread was definitely part of my inspiration.

[Tholal]

Here are some screenshots to show the comparison between base Ffh2 and my mod.

I used a setup that is a difficult map to play and one the AI really has trouble with. I chose a small archipelago map with high water, eight civs, ancient start, no Acheron. There was no human interference at all, and both playthroughs used the exact same start and map.



First picture shows the starting layout.



Here are the results for the base game. As you can see, the game was really very static aside from the appearance of Minister Koun, Hyborem and Basium. But despite building ships, none were ever assigned as settlers or assault ships, so everyone stayed on their own little island. Not a single inter-island settlement was ever built, and no enemy troops ever landed on foreign soil.



Then here's the game with my mod installed. This round was much more dynamic. Not only did everyone settle at least one city off their starting island (though the Balseraphs soon got stuck in one of those situations were the settler lands in the wrong spot and then never moves again), but there were also a number of naval assaults over the centuries. Obviously, the Lsjolfar tore the Sheaim up, but the Elohim also took the two southernmost cities from the Hippus (hard to see due to the culture borders). The Sidar also acquired the easternmost Bannor settlement.



And here we have a final comparison showing the status at turn 350 (which is near the end in a quick game) between the two versions (before is base Ffh2). The Sheaim have been conquered, and the Svartfalar responded to an ill-advised war declaration from the Bannor by destroying all their ships, mounting a trade embargo around their capitol and taking a border island city.

[ExMachina]

This looks very interesting. I've been playing on Pangaea maps lately, since the AI seems to have such problems with navies. This mod looks like a vast improvement so far.

[Valkrionn]

Tholal, if you don't mind I'd like to look at what you've done and see what we can merge to RifE.

[[to_xp]Gekko]

that test looks seriously awesome O.o

[Tholal]

Originally Posted by Valkrionn

Tholal, if you don't mind I'd like to look at what you've done and see what we can merge to RifE.

Yeah. No problem. What I've done so far is fairly crude. The main issue I discovered was that no naval units were ever being assigned assault or settler status, so simply getting those into the mix makes a huge difference.

[Sephi]

yeah, Kael merged only the dll side of my basic naval AI, not the XML settings, that's why you saw no settle ships.

[Tholal]

I have a new version that I'll post either tonight or tomorrow. Here's a quick preview of the changes:

• Caught and fixed an issue that would result in newly founded cities trying to immediately build another settler
  
• Did away with trying to use the AI_ESCORT_SEA script on naval units as they would never do anything useful
  
• Added a check whenever war status changes to convert missionary and animal AI units to the AI_ATTACK script
  
• Some naval units will now take an appropriate crew promotion when created
  
• Added a check to convert the first Caravel created to a SETTLER_SEA AI to see if I could help the computer players make that first ocean crossing

[Tholal]

Beta 1.1 released (see first post for more info). I'll be heading on vacation on Friday, so there won't be any new versions released for a couple of weeks.

[[to_xp]Gekko]

thanx!

[Tholal]

I was hoping to show further developments in the world, but the game went into one of those infinite hangups around turn 447. This image shows the map state at turn 5, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 440, respectively. This test was done with the latest version of Erebus Continents, low cohesion, high water, x-wrap -- everything else on default settings



The Lanun had their sizable island all to themselves and they took full advantage, planting cities all around the coast and launching successful assaults of the Calabim and the Hippus, wiping both from the map.

The Balseraphs chose a different path, using Loki to snag the 2nd Sheaim city and then waging a continuous, eternal war against the Elohim (restarting it as soon as possible after every cease-fire). They didn't build a single city all game, instead relying on their conquests, which were only mildly successful. But their aggression basically ensured that all of the civs on their island would never amount to a world power, though the Elohim did try to escape the insanity by moving some of their people to a tiny island in the northern hemisphere.

The Khazad were mostly content with sitting on their two cities, though they did join the Lanun in attacking the Hippus, securing a city on that island and then branching off to another nearby. But then they summoned Basium, declared war on the Sheaim and the Doviello, subjugating both. The Grigori also jumped into the fray, taking the Sheaim's lone offshore colony and joining the Khazad in beating the evil civilization on their home turf.

[[to_xp]Gekko]

amazing what you're doing man

[Shoobs]

Keep up the good work!