[BTS] Improved AI

[Financial Ombudsman]

Hi folks,

I've read that it is possible to download and use a mod to improve the AI opponents. In your opinion, which is the best mod to get to improve AI behaviour?

I currently run Civ IV BTS with patch 3.19 and BUG mod.

 

[lymond]

First, I'm not a fan of AI mods, as the game is difficult enough as it is...just move up difficulty.

However, if you are going to use one I would recommend Better BAT AI. It combines the Better AI mod developed years ago with the joys of BAT, which is BUG/BULL and graphics. You can find it here:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/better-bat-ai.421897/

I played with it a little some time ago, and found the Better AI focuses on making the AI make better decisions like improvements and diplomacy without necessarily jacking up a "false" difficulty.

Another popular mod that focused on AI, as well as other game mechanics, is the Kmod. I'm not a fan of it myself as I feel it leans more toward "false" difficulty, such as AI focused more on building units and declaring wars very early, while if the human survives until later game the AI has nerfed themselves a lot so it actually gets easier as the game progresses. Still, it is something different. The mod incorporate a few BUG features, but more cherry picks them and leaves a lot of good things out.

 

[Fippy]

I had played a K-mod deity game (average start) in S&T.
Was fun until vassaling came into play lol..AIs will break free again as soon as they are allowed by game rules (land % or power i think),
which was really annoying. At some point i quit, cos killing 50 units over and over became less interesting.
It's removing some fun from taking vassals if you cannot give them techs or cities backs, they must stay small or you lose them.

2nd flaw would be the UI, not nearly as comfy as BAT, Buffy or just Bug + x.
For those who are less used to those mods, might not be an issue.

Overall i can partly agree with Lymo saying "false difficulty", they become stronger in military but weaker in teching.
Why only partly, hmm well it's still more challenging than rushing Gandhi with 3 units in his cities.
I would say K-Mod has nice potential, but needs some more polish before i'd play again.

 

[Financial Ombudsman]

Hey Iymond and Fippy, thanks very much for responding in such detail, really appreciate it, cheers

 

[Aristos]

I second lymond's suggestion, but if you don't want the heavy graph component of BAT, I would recommend Better BUG AI, which is the original merge of BUG/BULL with Better AI and some extras. I prefer that setting, and top it with Blue Marble Gold. That is, to me, the civ 4 experience as good as it gets. Very enjoyable, and as others have said, without shifting the game to a wargame only which K-Mod tends to do. For Panzer General with some cities in between (Shafer dixit), we have civ 5 and civ 6, but without an opponent.

 

[gavenkoa]

is the Kmod. I'm not a fan of it myself as I feel it leans more toward "false" difficulty, such as AI focused more on building units and declaring wars very early

I experienced earlier wars too on IMM within first 70 turns or so when tried to expand quicker without proper protection (exploited fog busting of territory to deal with raged barbs).

Got to replay and learn Archery.

Was fun until vassaling came into play lol..AIs will break free again as soon as they are allowed by game rules (land % or power i think),

From v1.35 changelist: https://github.com/karadoc/Civ4-K-Mod/blob/master/changelog.txt

+ The 'why don't you attack' diplomacy option is now only available if the civ is at least pleased towards the player, or is the player's vassal.
+ Slightly tightened the conditions on when an AI team will offer itself as a vassal.
+ Adjusted many of the conditions on when the AI will choose to accept a vassal.
+ Taught the AI to free itself when it no longer wants to be a vassal.

Changing game mechanic in non-obvious non-standard way hurts me as I am studying C++ code to understand rules. I don't like to learn two games ((

 

[Fippy]

Yep it's a major flaw (for now) in K-mod.
If an AI capitulates, i expect no turning back.
Peace Vassals breaking free? Sure, but after winning wars this was very annoying.

 

[gavenkoa]

@Fippy It is discussed with details why that happen in k-mod here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/k-mod-far-beyond-the-sword.407049/page-148#post-15304502

@f1rpo wrote:

in k-mod: if (5*iVassalPower > 4*iAveragePower)
in BtS: iVassalPower > iAveragePower

So vassal in BsT should be better that you, and 4/5 in k-mod.

So you should leave only trash cities for your vassal (without significant building and population).

 

[AcaMetis]

A vassal with only a few trash cities isn't worth taking in the first place, though. They wouldn't be able to tech anything or fight anyone with only a few trash cities, the +1 for influencing other civs wouldn't be worth it over erasing the motherland in their core cities you've taken, and they likely wouldn't have any useful resources to trade you if they were stuck with just some trash cities. Maybe they've got some tech you want, but you could just get those in a peace deal, wait ten turns, and than finish them off. You'd get a -1 diplo penalty for declaring on a friend, sure, but you'd also get diplo penalties for having a vassal ("we're afraid of our rivals being vassals to your empire" IIRC?), so it evens out.

 

[devolution]

I recommend Advanced Civ https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/advanced-civ.26111/ which in my opinion is both the spiritual and technical successor to K-Mod. Advanced Civ contains heaps of bug-fixes, AI enhancements and usability\GUI improvements compared to K-Mod 1.46. In short there is little purpose in sticking with a "stale mod" since the last commit to K-Mod was back in May 2018.