Funny Screenshots: Part Deux

[paulcarri]

anyone want to play this?

spot the slight problem lol

 

[Abegweit]

Sure. What's the level and do you have the save file?

 

[SamSniped]

Challenge accepted

 

[uat2d]

Trees on a peak? It's quite clear you worldbuilt that in.

 

[ruff_hi]

Trees on a peak? It's quite clear you worldbuilt that in.

No. Some mapscripts put trees on peaks.

 

[Drakarska]

Agreed, Perfect Mongoose does, as well as certain scripts fm some mods.

 

[uat2d]

Oh, my bad, I pretty much only play Continents/Pangaea/Archipelago/Fractal/Terra

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

Trees on a peak? It's quite clear you worldbuilt that in.

I was gonna say the fact that a tree is in full bloom above the snow line...

 

[Manco Capac]

I love that you have to defend the decision to build ironclads. Just shows you how useless they are in 99% of games.

To answer your question though, the caravels have 3:6 strength against a privateer, which are pretty poor odds. A human player would say "ok, i'm gonna lose at a ratio of 3:1, which is worth it", but the AI's value calculation doesn't extend that deep. I wonder if there is a hard-coded value somewhere in the program?

The will of a unit to attack yours is tied to five components:

1) Unit courage
2) RNG
3) Stacks
4) Unit scripts
5) Bad AI decisions

Unit courage is an XML value tied to every leader where there is the normal unit courage (that is if the AI has at least 50% of win, it attacks you). More courageous leaders (like history told us) like Nappy and Ragnar being at the end of the spectrum will attack at lower threshold accepting more the losses. That is why you're all used to Monty suiciding heaps of units to your Machine Guns than any other leaders (although if Ragnar and Nappy were as bad techers, they would be worse!). Barbs have twice the unit courage of regular civilizations.

RNG will change the AI unit odds to attack especially at the second turn of the confrontation. I mean they are next to each other but the RNG changes the "unit courage" next turn by making the unit more courageous plus adding some RNG flavour.

Stacks global power is an essential component to understand why those advanced AI units refuse to attack you even with good odds unit vs your best defender.
AI considers stacks as a whole for the power measurement. A reason why it happens that you medieval huge stack never got attacked even if the AI has better.

Unit scripts define the AI behaviour and the odd thresholds the unit will agree to attack. Unit scripting was defined to give roles to AI units. There are city raiders, attackers, city defenders, unit counter, etc. Each type has its particularity. My best experiences came from archers because those units receive the largest spectrum of unit scripts. From city defenders to city raider. A prime example is the city defender archer will recoil to high odds winning while the attacker archer is more prone to attack.

Ai bad decisions come from funny instances. I mean just like those stacked orders that ennerve people when starting a new turn and the units move before you can cancel the stacked orders. Sometimes, I have seen suicide archers that make no sense. Although I haven't found a appreciable explanation, I think those weird AI units are probably coming from "bugs" or better said particular missions that weren't updated. BTW, missions are not equal to scripts. Scripts define AI unit behaviours. Missions define an order. Like founding a city, going all the way to point A to B.

A prime example of a script vs a mission is the "Why don't you attack that city?" diplo action. Most thinks that action is broken but it isn't at all. It definitely works. The stack will be given a trajectory from the present location to the city target. The problem is the mission given will be dissipated by annoying enemy units that pass by the stacks and because of unit scripting, the stack will attack that unit (imagine a weak enemy scout) and then forget the previous given mission to attack that city. A reason to give each turn that order to your ally.

That's all for it and don't take it for granted. Myself I'm not sure about it. AI units along AI cities behaviours are the hardest to grok.

 

[aggri1]

This isn't actually funny so to speak, but I feel sorry for the inhabitants of my poor village. There are about 30 barb' axes knocking on the door!

 

[uat2d]

And that's why I play with barbs and events off.

 

[DroopyTofu]

But it's defended by a Praet with a longbow! What could possibly beat that?

 

[God-Emperor]

Oddly, that's why I play with barbs and events on. Well, one of the reasons anyway. Expanding to new land masses unopposed seems dull and uninteresting.

 

[uat2d]

But it's defended by a Praet with a longbow! What could possibly beat that?

I'm quite sure that's just a longbow with Roman graphics.

Oddly, that's why I play with barbs and events on. Well, one of the reasons anyway. Expanding to new land masses unopposed seems dull and uninteresting.

You have the competition with the AI for that. If you're doing it unopposed then you need to turn up the difficulty.

 

[Drakarska]

And that's why I play with barbs and events off.

Nahhh, Give me RB on. Fast and east xp gen for scouts, gives me a quick lvl 4 and the HE way early, not to mention GG points. And on a couple of the mods I play (see my previous screenie) barb xp lvls cap differently and can provide a whole new challenge.

 

[Lennier]

In regular BTS, barbs do not provide GG points.

 

[TezaPsyborg]

Nahhh, Give me RB on. Fast and east xp gen for scouts, gives me a quick lvl 4 and the HE way early, not to mention GG points. And on a couple of the mods I play (see my previous screenie) barb xp lvls cap differently and can provide a whole new challenge.

I always find that RB cripples the spread of the AI civs too much with the exception of archipelago maps and the civ that manages to complete Great Wall. The AIs only get over this once they develop feudalism which takes them waaay longer than normal.

Anyhow back to silly screenshots...

Discovered Music. I must build the Sistine Chapel. Oh he'll help

 

[aggri1]

This isn't actually funny so to speak, but I feel sorry for the inhabitants of my poor village. There are about 30 barb' axes knocking on the door!

I could have had a large army in this town for defence, but since before the town was built, the barbarian army was sitting on a hill out in the tundra (out of view of the screenshot, to the south) for hundreds or even thousands of years, camping, so I didn't bother with a defence force. I noticed that the army was slowly growing over time - I guess soldiers do what they do when they're not fighting. Then recently I updated the mod' files, and the barb' army suddenly decided that they'd had enough fun guarding a useless tundra hill. I don't know what triggered their sudden desire for looting, the updated mod' files or their army's size.

In that mod' (RoM AND), one gets Great General (GG) points from barbarians: I have seven GG's already.

I like playing with barbarians.

 

[aggri1]

Oddly, that's why I play with barbs and events on. Well, one of the reasons anyway. Expanding to new land masses unopposed seems dull and uninteresting.

Yeah, I think it's fun too. And I get GG points!

I'm quite sure that's just a longbow with Roman graphics.

You have the competition with the AI for that. If you're doing it unopposed then you need to turn up the difficulty.

Re. graphics: indeed, RoM AND, and I'm the Romans. There is actually a praet' in there too, but against 30 axes and whatever, I don't think they'll hold out.

Re. empty continents without barbarians... In this mod', barb' cities which grow large enough turn into new civilisations. It's pretty cool. This way, all landmasses eventually become AI-controlled (at least, in my experiences so far). And you often have a lot of civilisations to deal with (on big maps).

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

And that's why I play with barbs and events off.

Somewhat related: If one were to play a game with barbs off but events on, would there still be barb horde events?