I have recently taken up this old game and have noticed something I find slightly annoying with the combat system and just wondering if others have noticed this too. - As you set the difficulty higher you lose combat on higher end higher odds. The point I'm at now I have noticed that anything short of 98% is always a rout and around 99% seems to be 50/50. I'm not sure how this translates on the two highest difficulty levels? Will I always need 3 or 4 Axemen to defeat a barbarian warrior?
Combat odds?
- Thread starter TanyaR
- Start date
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- Mar 11, 2008
- Messages
- 26,452
Hello Tanya...welcome to CFC!
(or your awakening from lurkerhood)Barbarians get bonuses against the human player as difficulty increases. I'm not sure if that bonus directly reflects in the odds one sees, but it can lead to more unexpected losses. Regardless, Axes should win at almost 100% against barb warriors. You might get a rare loss to a defending warrior on good terrain, but that should be extremely rare.
What level are you currently playing?
Someone like herr @f1rpo may have more details on how the odds work.
It isn't just barbarians though. In battles against computer opponents I see most of the time for example cavalry lose outright to longbow or pikemen or later tanks and even modern armor lose to infantry. With the barbarians mostly it is my swordsmen vs. barbarian archers, where the odds calculation says around 80% but any difficulty above Warlord I have never once won a single battle like that, I have to have two swordsmen to take out one archer.
AcaMetis
Deity
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- May 21, 2018
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In the case of cavalry vs. longbow or pike, don't underestimate the value of stacking defensive bonuses. You might look at the respective unit 
values and think that a 15 cavalry should never struggle against a 6 unit, but large bonuses make a big difference. Also don't overestimate the value of certain promotions - Combat gives a Cavalry unit as much of a strength boost as a promotion like Shock or Cover takes away from a defending Pike or Longbow, but Combat works regardless of what unit is being attacked whereas the unit-specific promotions only apply if you're actually fighting that specific unit. Which in many cases you won't end up doing since the best defender against a specific attacking unit will always defend the stack.
In the case of early barbarian fights, particularly against Archers (although this also applies to the cavalry vs. longbow situation to some extend), be aware that First Strike can be very painful and the game doesn't necessarily know how to calculate it's effect on combat odds properly. Also note that very low difficulties actually give you a number of free Mulligan fights against barbarians, where even if you pit your warrior against a barbarian tank you'll still win. This bonus mostly exists to save your initial scout/warrior from being eaten by a stray animal, but it never goes away either, so if you never fight barbarians in the early game you can end up doing some really silly stuff with it.
values and think that a 15 cavalry should never struggle against a 6 unit, but large bonuses make a big difference. Also don't overestimate the value of certain promotions - Combat gives a Cavalry unit as much of a strength boost as a promotion like Shock or Cover takes away from a defending Pike or Longbow, but Combat works regardless of what unit is being attacked whereas the unit-specific promotions only apply if you're actually fighting that specific unit. Which in many cases you won't end up doing since the best defender against a specific attacking unit will always defend the stack.In the case of early barbarian fights, particularly against Archers (although this also applies to the cavalry vs. longbow situation to some extend), be aware that First Strike can be very painful and the game doesn't necessarily know how to calculate it's effect on combat odds properly. Also note that very low difficulties actually give you a number of free Mulligan fights against barbarians, where even if you pit your warrior against a barbarian tank you'll still win. This bonus mostly exists to save your initial scout/warrior from being eaten by a stray animal, but it never goes away either, so if you never fight barbarians in the early game you can end up doing some really silly stuff with it.
There are (as far as I can tell from the code) 3 modifiers regarding combat vs difficulty level.
Besides that its all the same regarding difficulty level. But these will be shown in the game as well, so nothing is hidden.
Everything related to difficulty in the SDK
- Amount of free wins. The lower the difficulty the more "automatically win against barbs"
<iFreeWinsVsBarbs>5</iFreeWinsVsBarbs>
- Modifier against animals
<iAnimalBonus>-70</iAnimalBonus>
- Modifier against barbarians
<iBarbarianBonus>-40</iBarbarianBonus>
Besides that its all the same regarding difficulty level. But these will be shown in the game as well, so nothing is hidden.
Code:
// do modifiers for animals and barbarians (leaving these out for bAttackingUnknownDefender case)
if (pAttacker != NULL)
{
if (isAnimal())
{
if (pAttacker->isHuman())
{
iExtraModifier = GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getAnimalCombatModifier();
iModifier += iExtraModifier;
if (pCombatDetails != NULL)
{
pCombatDetails->iAnimalCombatModifierTA = iExtraModifier;
}
}
else
{
iExtraModifier = GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getAIAnimalCombatModifier();
iModifier += iExtraModifier;
if (pCombatDetails != NULL)
{
pCombatDetails->iAIAnimalCombatModifierTA = iExtraModifier;
}
}
}
if (pAttacker->isAnimal())
{
if (isHuman())
{
iExtraModifier = -GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getAnimalCombatModifier();
iModifier += iExtraModifier;
if (pCombatDetails != NULL)
{
pCombatDetails->iAnimalCombatModifierAA = iExtraModifier;
}
}
else
{
iExtraModifier = -GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getAIAnimalCombatModifier();
iModifier += iExtraModifier;
if (pCombatDetails != NULL)
{
pCombatDetails->iAIAnimalCombatModifierAA = iExtraModifier;
}
}
}
if (isBarbarian())
{
if (pAttacker->isHuman())
{
iExtraModifier = GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getBarbarianCombatModifier();
iModifier += iExtraModifier;
if (pCombatDetails != NULL)
{
pCombatDetails->iBarbarianCombatModifierTB = iExtraModifier;
}
}
else
{
iExtraModifier = GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getAIBarbarianCombatModifier();
iModifier += iExtraModifier;
if (pCombatDetails != NULL)
{
pCombatDetails->iAIBarbarianCombatModifierTB = iExtraModifier;
}
}
}
if (pAttacker->isBarbarian())
{
if (isHuman())
{
iExtraModifier = -GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getBarbarianCombatModifier();
iModifier += iExtraModifier;
if (pCombatDetails != NULL)
{
pCombatDetails->iBarbarianCombatModifierAB = iExtraModifier;
}
}
else
{
iExtraModifier = -GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getAIBarbarianCombatModifier();
iModifier += iExtraModifier;
if (pCombatDetails != NULL)
{
pCombatDetails->iAIBarbarianCombatModifierTB = iExtraModifier;
}
}
}
}Everything related to difficulty in the SDK
Spoiler References to handicap :
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