Buffed AI for BNW

[joncnunn]

Hi, I was looking thru the source of this mod (Version 9)

Looking at this line in Gameplay.sql :

Spoiler :

UPDATE HandicapInfos SET AIStartingWorkerUnits = 1;

It looks like it has the effect on Deity level of actually decreasing the AIs starting workers, which at that level is

Spoiler :

<AIStartingWorkerUnits>2</AIStartingWorkerUnits>

(By comparison, the line has no effect on Immortal where the AI already starts with 1; it's Emperor and below in which the update statement causes a boost)

Also, in the sql files I'm seeing a lot of statements that just update the XML values of existing fields; wouldn't it be better to have those changes in your XML file?

Also, I find that in base game the AI has tons of cash just sitting there on Emperor and above; it doesn't need any discounts to upgrade units; all that does is increase the amount of cash they have doing nothing. (Note that it isn't lack of cash that stops the AI for cash buying units; it's instead that it's been coded NOT to cash buy units at all unless its military advisor says its way behind; better results would be had by modding that part of the AI logic)

Spoiler :

UPDATE HandicapInfos SET AIWorkRateModifier = 50;

That's a bit too much; at that rate it only takes 1 turn to repair a pillaged tile which (if the AI were actually aware of it) lead to war time repair for healing by pillage

And these three:

Spoiler :

UPDATE HandicapInfos SET AICreatePercent = 80; -- projects

-- To compensate the AIs poorer construction decisions
UPDATE HandicapInfos SET AIConstructPercent = 75;
UPDATE HandicapInfos SET AIBuildingCostPercent = 75;

I think that would be better set at a per difficulty level. In fact in case of AIConstructPercent;
1. What's listed is based game Emperor level and so this has the effect of reducing the handicap from base game for Immortal & above while at the same time increasing it at King and below.
2. There is already in the AIDefaultHandicap block this variable:
BuildingCostPercent. Remember that AIBuildingCostPercent from the human level gets multiplied by it.

Also I looked thru and didn't see anything changing either of these variables that give the AI a couple of handicaps within the AIDefaultHappiness section:

Happiness:

Spoiler :

<NumCitiesUnhappinessMod>90</NumCitiesUnhappinessMod>
<PopulationUnhappinessMod>90</PopulationUnhappinessMod>

Science:

Spoiler :

<ResearchPercent>85</ResearchPercent>

Cultural policies:

Spoiler :

<PolicyPercent>75</PolicyPercent>

I'm not necessarily saying that the mod should change them (in fact the AI definitely needs that research bonus), but it's not 100% accurate to say AI is on even happiness yet with the human on this mod yet.

 

[glider1]

Thanks joncnunn you have highlighted some important points. Someone else on this forum mentioned that deity is not adjusted properly.

The only level that is being adjusted in practice at the moment is emperor. This mod has merged in the Smart Mod by Ninakoru so AI purchasing depends on what that mod is doing. When I get the motivation up I'll work on fixing the other difficulty levels. Feel free to contribute.

EDIT:
For anyone testing this mod, try to play it on emperor and use infoaddict to help you see the effects on AI happiness/science/teching.

 

[joncnunn]

Thanks joncnunn you have highlighted some important points. Someone else on this forum mentioned that deity is not adjusted properly.

The only level that is being adjusted in practice at the moment is emperor. This mod has merged in the Smart Mod by Ninakoru so AI purchasing depends on what that mod is doing. When I get the motivation up I'll work on fixing the other difficulty levels. Feel free to contribute.

EDIT:
For anyone testing this mod, try to play it on emperor and use infoaddict to help you see the effects on AI happiness/science/teching.

You might be interested to know that I'm in isolation testing the part that removes the AI starting techs but gives the AI per era bonus on Immortal.
The result is that its now possible with a good enough hammer start to build GL or any single early wonder you want on standard map size default number of opponents; but you won't really be able to build two early ones as most civs. So that part of the mod appears to be working great.

 

[glider1]

Good to hear Joncnunn. I'll convert over the SQL handicap file into XML as you have suggested so at least there is a consistent baseline for all the different difficulty levels. Marshall and I are testing it on emperor, if you could continue working on immortal that would be ideal.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

Good to hear Joncnunn. I'll convert over the SQL handicap file into XML as you have suggested so at least there is a consistent baseline for all the different difficulty levels. Marshall and I are testing it on emperor, if you could continue working on immortal that would be ideal.

I'm going to resume testing starting tomorrow. My current campaign has, so far, been the most exciting CiV game I've ever had. My only regret was increasing my modded map size a bit. It was perfect before I adjusted it; at least for that number of civs. Now, there's slightly too much unused land.

 

[glider1]

New version 10 will come out in the next few hours Marshall. If you pull the plug on your v9 game try v10. I'm just giving it a test run now. I have already seen that in V10 the AI is better at replenishing its troops and I found a bug in v9 where the AI wasn't getting the full offensive bonus in one case, so be prepared for an even more capable military AI in V10.

EDIT:
V10 released where the AI is that bit more potent than v9 so watch out (see the OP for more info). The AI's tech rate from the industrial era still needs to be tested, as do the balance of difficulty levels other than emperor.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

New version 10 will come out in the next few hours Marshall. If you pull the plug on your v9 game try v10. I'm just giving it a test run now. I have already seen that in V10 the AI is better at replenishing its troops and I found a bug in v9 where the AI wasn't getting the full offensive bonus in one case, so be prepared for an even more capable military AI in V10.

EDIT:
V10 released where the AI is that bit more potent than v9 so watch out (see the OP for more info). The AI's tech rate from the industrial era still needs to be tested, as do the balance of difficulty levels other than emperor.

Change log:
V10
Includes support for all difficulty levels with Emperor currently receiving the most attention
AI offensive bonus applies in all territory including home soil
AI unit costs reduced to help it replenish troops on defence
Fixed a bug where the AI was not getting the offensive bonus in one case

Thanks for the new update. The changes look very good. Is it saved game compatible?

I haven't had much time to play during the past few days, but that will change come Saturday. I'm looking forward to testing the latest update.

Thanks again.

 

[glider1]

Hi Marshall, I think that I am heading the wrong direction with the mod changes wonder what you think. When I came back to this mod after a few months, I thought I had found a bug in it where the AI was getting the offensive attack against other AI's not just humans. So I fixed it. The problem is that I think the AI does need to get that attack against other AI's. I'm seeing a cold war problem in the latest version where the AI's are having a love fest diplomatically with each other.

The reason is that because the unit support costs are reduced, every AI can easily afford a military and so I have created a cold war situation between the AI's (not against humans). If I give the AI the general offensive attack even against other AI's, that favours offensive civs, but it helps to unbalance the diplomatic cold war as well. If an offensive civ runs away with conquest, it will be kept in check because small AI's are stronger in this game thanks to the lower happiness bonus and the per-era science bonus which both favour small civs. So offensive AI civs will have success against other AI's but then hit serious problems as well (which should make it more interesting and break the cold war problem I am seeing).

So my argument is that when you were playing whatever version it was v7,v8 where the AI was getting offensive attack against other AI's, that was probably better than where we are now with v10....

In a perfect world, the way to help the AI would be to leave the AI untouched, and nerf only human offensive attack and hit points. That would mean that AI verses AI is balanced and humans will struggle in a correct fashion against the AI. Then the AI's other bonuses can be reduced as this mod does. So in theory, this mod should not be called "Buffed AI", it should be called the "Nerfed Human" mod It's a very negative concept!

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Marshall Thomas]

Hi Marshall, I think that I am heading the wrong direction with the mod changes wonder what you think. When I came back to this mod after a few months, I thought I had found a bug in it where the AI was getting the offensive attack against other AI's not just humans. So I fixed it. The problem is that I think the AI does need to get that attack against other AI's. I'm seeing a cold war problem in the latest version where the AI's are having a love fest diplomatically with each other.

The reason is that because the unit support costs are reduced, every AI can easily afford a military and so I have created a cold war situation between the AI's (not against humans). If I give the AI the general offensive attack even against other AI's, that favours offensive civs, but it helps to unbalance the diplomatic cold war as well. If an offensive civ runs away with conquest, it will be kept in check because small AI's are stronger in this game thanks to the lower happiness bonus and the per-era science bonus which both favour small civs. So offensive AI civs will have success against other AI's but then hit serious problems as well (which should make it more interesting and break the cold war problem I am seeing).

So my argument is that when you were playing whatever version it was v7,v8 where the AI was getting offensive attack against other AI's, that was probably better than where we are now with v10....

In a perfect world, the way to help the AI would be to leave the AI untouched, and nerf only human offensive attack and hit points. That would mean that AI verses AI is balanced and humans will struggle in a correct fashion against the AI. Then the AI's other bonuses can be reduced as this mod does. So in theory, this mod should not be called "Buffed AI", it should be called the "Nerfed Human" mod It's a very negative concept!

Any thoughts on this?

Is it possible to make the AI unit purchase bargain only apply when it is at a war against the player? I'm not sure that that is the solution, but I was just wondering if it were even possible.

As far as the AI receiving the offensive bonus against other AIs... if it helps make the over-all game experience better, than why not? In my last campaign, the AI sometimes made steady progress against other AIs -but it was often slow and tedious; even when the attacking AI was far stronger. and this is when the AI was, unknown to us, receiving the offensive bonus outside of it's own borders that it was receiving against humans. My point is that, even with the AI having this bonus (which, at the time, was just for attacking on enemy soil), the AI still didn't blitz through weaker AIs with ease. and even if it had, the new way is that the bonus applies everywhere -not just outside of the AI's territory; so the AI that is getting conquered by another AI, would now be able to counter-attack with the bonus.

Concerning the 'love fest' diplomacy issue.... Ideally, the world in CiV would alternate between times of peace and times of conflict. but with the number of civs and city-states I play with, it seems unrealistic that too much time could pass without some kind of conflict somewhere in the world. This brings us back to the AI vs AI issue: aggression has to be worth the effort. If the AI vs AI balance is too far in favor of the defending AI, than the AI would be better off investing that war production in infrastructure, to best compete against the human and the strongest AIs. Also, keep in mind that both happiness issues and diplomatic issues (warmonger hatred) are in place to balance this. So an AI should be able to successfully make rapid conquest, but even with initial military success, suffer diplomatic consequences which eventually prove overwhelming (WWII Germany is a good example of this). Does the AI receive the same warmonger hate penalties as the player?

It's really quite difficult to balance though, as stalemates (like WWI) and underdog triumphs (like The Finnish fighting-off The Soviets) should have their place as well. I think that Civ 4 actually did a better job in representing the respective stalemate/blitz of WWI/WWII, mainly from having the machine gun unit (which couldn't attack) and had a defensive bonus against artillery barrages (clearly representing WWI). Then the tech tree introduces tanks and good bombers, ending the stalemate practically overnight. but this is a whole different topic altogether.

I really think that the worst aspect of love-fest diplomacy occurs when the top 2 to 4 civs all like one another. The very nature of being a powerful, advanced civ should put you at odds with other competitive civs. I wouldn't like it if the whole world declared war on me just because I'm getting close to a victory type, but the runner-up, especially if it subscribes to a different Ideology, should do everything and anything it can to stop me (or another AI, if that's the case). In my last game, all but two civs (including me) went with Order. This is part of the problem: the first three civs pick one of each (to get the bonus tenants) and then almost everyone else automatically picks Order.

Getting back on topic, I think the main thing we have to decide is, "Should the AI receive the offensive bonus against other AIs?" Now that the bonus applies everywhere, I'm inclined to say we give it a try. I'm not sure that it's right move, but I believe it is definitely worthy of testing. My guess is that it will make the game better over-all: more dynamic, more threatening to the player (even though this new rule doesn't directly involve the player).

I agree that the "Nerfed Human" mod may sound conceptually negative, but I've stumbled upon this in other single-player games. While playing Europa-Universalis and Endless Space, I needed a challenge and, just like with CiV, I thought that giving the AI bonuses too extreme at a certain point sort of "broke" many of the games' best features; even if I could still compete and win. In an attempt to bring back some balance, I gave the player many penalties so that the AI bonuses needn't be so extreme. It took some tweaking here and there, but I believe it was a far greater alternative than just blanketing the AI with 300% bonuses and such. In particular, with Europa-Universalis, I'd sometimes want to play as a larger country (some of the more "famous" countries), but if I did the game would have been all but won within the first ten years (it's suppose to last a few centuries). So my human nerf was the only way I could play and still be challenged for a while.

When I shared my nerfs with some other players, they were initially shocked that I would do this to myself! but many of them later agreed that it's far more balanced to give the player a 50% penalty and the AI a 50% bonus then it is to just give the AI a 100% bonus.

I have to bring this post to an end now, but obviously there are still many decisions to be made. We seem to be at the cross-roads for many of these. but from it's first version, this mod has made a very positive difference. I tried it for the first time soon after you created it and I haven't played a single game of CiV without it since. Just before using it, I was trying with my extremely limited xml modding to do something similar (balance all eras, instead of having to play extreme catch-up from the beginning, only to be too far ahead by the later eras).

I should have more time to test the latest version on Saturday.

 

[glider1]

Thanks Marshall great post!

I'll try a few different concepts and report back. It is impossible to do these things without altering the DLL because the game has very few inherent mechanisms for handling differences in human-AI combat. Main thing for now is to see if it is indeed true that there is more of a love fest between AI's in V10 because of very similar military strengths regardless of the AI.

It would be possible to apply the unit replenishment bonuses for the AI only when it is at war against humans, but that still gives the AI a bonus against other AI's because if the AI DOWS a human and suffers minimum casualties, it has a ready made army to attack other AI's with.

EDIT:
I haven't released yet but I thought an update on progress would be useful, take your pick which you would like of these once you are done with V10:
V11: Restores AI offensive attack against other AI's as well as humans and as such is similar to V10
V12: Big divergence from V10-11 - Nerfs only humans in unit and city strengths and ranged attacks, leaving the AI's offence and defence untouched.

 

[glider1]

Here is a really nice version of this mod now that I have played through and tested (but only up to the late renaissance). It focuses mainly on nerfing human strength and ranged attack while still offering some AI offensive attack as well. Therefore, with this version we can balance the mod any way we see fit, like it was with previous versions, or try new things.

The main change is the removal of the AI unit replenishment code. I have found that it upsets the AI-AI diplomacy and the AI's economic decisions. Now that human strength and range attack are nerfed, the AI's default handling of unit replenishment (especially on defence) is adequate for it to be a serious competitor.

The main outstanding issue now is to balance the per-era-science rate of the AI starting from the industrial age onwards, so that the AI is competitive at victory conditions even on lower difficulty levels.

Have fun, I sure have had a hoot of a time with V11, Genghis has been a real nuisance!

See the first two opening posts for more detailed info.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

Here is a really nice version of this mod now that I have played through and tested (but only up to the late renaissance). It focuses mainly on nerfing human strength and ranged attack while still offering some AI offensive attack as well. Therefore, with this version we can balance the mod any way we see fit, like it was with previous versions, or try new things.

The main change is the removal of the AI unit replenishment code. I have found that it upsets the AI-AI diplomacy and the AI's economic decisions. Now that human strength and range attack are nerfed, the AI's default handling of unit replenishment (especially on defence) is adequate for it to be a serious competitor.

The main outstanding issue now is to balance the per-era-science rate of the AI starting from the industrial age onwards, so that the AI is competitive at victory conditions even on lower difficulty levels.

Have fun, I sure have had a hoot of a time with V11, Genghis has been a real nuisance!

See the first two opening posts for more detailed info.

If you're having a hoot of a time with v11, then that's the one I'll be trying first. Is it saved game compatible with v9/v10? Thanks in advance.

 

[glider1]

Hi Marshall - v11 won't crash v9-10 games but the game will probably not turn out as v11 intends because the unit replenishment code in v11 is largely dropped but will still be current in old v9-10 save games. I'd get onto v11 game or finish the other game first. V11 is the new milestone for this mod. Civ5 is finally producing a playable experience for me after all these years since it was released. Without it, the game is too dull and doesn't inspire seat-of-the-pants play style. With this mod, the game becomes suspenseful on a turn by turn basis, sharp and yet still possible to explore the creative side. I'm really enjoying the ebb and flow of the other civs.

I'd be interested to hear how you go on emperor level with the latest version. I'm on immortal and the going is tough but a lot of fun....it's just questionable whether I have any chance of actually winning the game....Lots of war, lots of peace and a lot in between. Gone is the love fest. It is playing like more of what I personally expect of a civ game. Rise, and fall, risk and reward with decent diplomacy tension as well.

EDIT: remember that the AI science rate is possibly not adjusted correctly post renaissance.
EDIT: there is still debate in my mind on whether the AI/human military buffs/nerfs should stay at 20% or increase to 25%
EDIT: I've only tested it on Marshalls emperor/large map settings posted earlier in this thread.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

Civ5 is finally producing a playable experience for me after all these years since it was released.

Amen! It's been a long time coming.

Lots of war, lots of peace and a lot in between. Gone is the love fest. It is playing like more of what I personally expect of a civ game. Rise, and fall, risk and reward with decent diplomacy tension as well.

That's sounds like the kind of civ game I've always wanted as well.

there is still debate in my mind on whether the AI/human military buffs/nerfs should stay at 20% or increase to 25%

I thought they were at 25% for human ranged units. and 33% for offensive AI attacks.

I've only tested it on Marshalls emperor/large map settings posted earlier in this thread

How many civs and city-states are you playing with? Are you playing continents?

 

[glider1]

Epic 15/20 on your modified large continents map Marshall. In V11, humans are nerfed in strength as well as ranged attack, and the AI a smaller boost than previous on offensive attack. So this takes some of the percentages down to:

NERF_HUMAN_STRENGTH = -20%
NERF_HUMAN_RANGED = -20% (as well as an indirect fire randomised nerf to range-3 units)
AI_OFFENSE_BONUS = +20% (against humans and/or AI)

The nerfs apply to human units and cities as well as human units and city ranged attack. The AI offense is there as an ongoing trial to see if it helps or hinders the conquest civs against humans and other AIs. A bonus like that should help conquest civs that are successful striking first. If it doesn't work as hoped, we could change the numbers back to something like -33, -25, 0.

The odd part is that the AI is actually better at replenishing lost troops without the bonuses in V11, than it had with the bonuses in V10 and down. I'm not sure why. In V11, unit spending buffs are back to the Smart-AI default rates in any case.

EDIT: you can change any of the numbers in the mods own handicap.xml file yourself anytime even during a game (so long as you exit/change/reload from the desktop)

 

[Marshall Thomas]

Epic 15/20 on your modified large continents map Marshall. In V11, humans are nerfed in strength as well as ranged attack, and the AI a smaller boost than previous on offensive attack. So this takes some of the percentages down to:

NERF_HUMAN_STRENGTH = -20%
NERF_HUMAN_RANGED = -20% (as well as an indirect fire randomised nerf to range-3 units)
AI_OFFENSE_BONUS = +20% (against humans and/or AI)

The nerfs apply to human units and cities as well as human units and city ranged attack. The AI offense is there as an ongoing trial to see if it helps or hinders the conquest civs against humans and other AIs. A bonus like that should help conquest civs that are successful striking first. If it doesn't work as hoped, we could change the numbers back to something like -33, -25, 0.

The odd part is that the AI is actually better at replenishing lost troops without the bonuses in V11, than it had with the bonuses in V10 and down. I'm not sure why. In V11, unit spending buffs are back to the Smart-AI default rates in any case.

EDIT: you can change any of the numbers in the mods own handicap.xml file yourself anytime even during a game (so long as you exit/change/reload from the desktop)

I'm starting anew with v11 with the AI_OFFENSE_BONUS = +20% (against humans and/or AI) changed to 25% (the others unchanged), on emperor difficulty. 15 civs and 20 city-states; continents with my modded large size.

 

[chumchu]

This looks like interesting work that I would like to try soon. I have some questions/ideas. Why the increasing tech bonii and not a continuous bonus? A continuous bonus would help the AI reach the later eras earlier which will have a similar effect through snowballing.

Does there exist or is it possible to create a blanket modifier for all economic categories of the AI handicap? This would seem like a promising avenue to explore since it does not discriminate between different strategies for the AI and it is easy to understand as the human player. To exemplify: at king the AI gets 15% more happiness/science/food/production/culture/faith/tourism/gold whereas at deity the AI gets 60% in these categories. If it is easier you could nerf the player by 10% per difficulty level in all of these categories instead.

This would be in line with the ambition to make the AI more competitive late game when these percentages really kick in. Your changes to combat and the lessened starting kit for the AI would fit well with this system I believe.

Another small change that would reduce player advantage dramatically is if it was possible to create a piece of code for the AIs extra starting warrior that told it to follow the extra worker around everywhere without exception. The code would not have to have any other effect, just the warrior standing there makes all the difference. If successful you could give the city states a warrior with the same code.

 

[glider1]

Excellent ideas chumchu. The two warrior start for the AI, is supposed to tackle the issue of both exploring, defending and protecting the worker, as well as the AI occasionally stuffing it up to make things more interesting for the human who likes to DOW on first contact. I think the worker protection code could do with some polishing!

Yes, in an alternative universe I should have called this the nerf-human mod, but that would have sounded so uncool. I like the idea of a blanket economic category that would nerf the human and nothing else. Then, we would put the AI back onto 100% unbuffed status in every category. The nerf to the human would have to change with the era. The benefit of this is that we would get to see the real AI and have to compete against it on a nerfed basis, not a buffed basis. (remember that a nerf is different to a buff because of the AI-human, AI-AI contest).

The exponentially increasing tech bonus from the industrial, is a direct response to players observations that at the end of the day, science is key in this game, and that science is the biggest area of post-industrial mismanagement by the AI. A linear increase in science would make playing the AI less fun during the early eras, because the AI would always be significantly ahead of the human until the last minute, which limits the game to a catch up exercise (a trap).

In another alternative universe, I would have simply released this mod with nothing but the combat changes, and I would have put those combat changes into the handicaps file the game uses. Just the combat changes alone would have dropped all players down a difficulty, and increased the creativity and fun immediately, even without any other adjustments....

Seriously, I'm going to give some thought to the idea of rebuilding this mod so that the AI starts with no nerfs-or buffs in anything, and then simply nerf the human in an easy to understand way....

EDIT: problem is that changing anything, always requires heaps of testing. Anyway, see how you go with the mod as is.

 

[Dekraa]

I have run around 100 turns on standard pace now with this mod. So here's my verdict with "buffed ai v11": But first I want to tell what I always felt playing Civilization II; Afraid of losing units. Terrified if someone decleared war against me. I wasn't as good then, as I am now, hey I had problems understanding the language at that time for starters. However, that is a feeling I'm missing from Civ V. The feeling that you can lose the game. Allright, I now you can play on deity, but it's all a game of catching up in technology. And you feel a bit left outside.

Though, around 100turns with this mod on Emperor I want to say one thing. It's brilliant! I had to move around so carefully with my scouts, as they would get killed so easily. I have to think even harder now with positioning, or what upgrades I want to have. I know the AI has a buffed advantage, but so do I, as a human, so I feel like we're even. And yet still, I have been able to build my first Antic wonder, the great library, on emperor. I have noticed so many things during these 100turns, that I have even learned a trick from the AI. I'm not exeggerating, it's like the best 100turns ever in Civilization series! I hope it stays this way, and don't snowball once you get into the eras and the AI just gets invincible.

Although I don't think I will get there. Not in this game. Because I placed my 2nd city neighbour to Atilla and he wasn't happy about it. And with his attitude and early game battering ram, you don't have to be scientiest to do that math

I have looked at other mods to have this feeling though, of being competetive, but still afraid. And I was exited at first, using them, it slowly turned the other way as those mods have changed quite a lot gamewise, and I don't know if it's for the better always. This mod though just makes it harder, thrilling and still with the same orginal gameplay, which was great to begin with! Thanks

 

[glider1]

That's great to hear Dekraa. It gives me some confidence that things are going in the right direction. Keep in mind that the mod is not yet fully tested for balance from the industrial age onwards, but it surely can be made so with enough patience and help.

Yes, this mod brings out new strategies and ideas and yes the AI does teach us a thing or two. For example, one game I for the first time built a series of defensive fortresses to defend against the coming Mongol invasion, without feeling like I was exploiting the AI. In a game I am playing now, I declared war on the Iroquois on first contact and have successfully prevented them from settling prime land, but they are building an army that is gradually causing me to retreat to stay clear of the archers attack, and the AI is not crippled, it is able to function and apply enough pressure to make me fall back (AND the AI is not using a carpet of units to do it with). The smart-AI ranged ability to move and fire is particularly menacing in this mod (because human strength is nerfed).

In V12 I'm testing now, it might also be possible to get rid of the AI's policy bonuses (so that you are playing on level terms in policy progress), and the one I like is we can get rid of the AI's artificial bonuses to experience and promotions so when we fight an AI, the promotions it has are exactly what it has earned legitimately through barracks and battles. So an AI unit's experience is a direct and real indicator of it's military history. In V12 the AI will hopefully be unbuffed on happiness throughout the game as well (so that luxury trade decisions and world congress really matter). When V12 is in good enough shape (when I finish playing through a competitive emperor game studying it with infoaddict), I'll post it.

EDIT: For a tip, watch out for city states in this mod that are at war on you! They are capable of capturing one of your outpost cities or at least plundering it. One lone spearman and composite bow from Kathmandu took down my 3rd settlement to 50% strength and starved it, before I could gallop in horsemen to defend it