K-Mod: Far Beyond the Sword

[Gamer999]

@Gamer999 the problem of the AI using the wrong units to clear away invaders is a difficult problem to solve. The reason it happens is that the AI's decision making process basically just involves them cycling through each of their units one by one and looking for the best thing that the unit could do. There are very few circumstances where the AI will take into account what its other units are doing. It just looks for the best thing each individual unit could do.

So, if the AI is trying to decide what to do with a war elephant, they might see a spearman and think "well, my attack odds aren't too bad - and I really want to get rid of that spearman. So I'm going to attack." They don't look to see if there is some other unit who could do a better job.

This is behaviour is due to a flaw in the system; and that flaw causes other problems too. I think the best way to solve it would be to completely rewrite the AI so that instead of cycling through each unit and asking "what should this unit do", it instead should create a list of objectives and then cycling through the objectives and ask "which unit (if any) should do this". (Although, such a system would have other problems...)
Anyway, the upshot is that this kind of problem is difficult to completely fix. I don't intend to make any major structural changes to fix it, because I don't think it would be worth it (and it might not work well anyway) - but I might be able to make some tweaks to make it less likely for the AI to make mistakes like that.

Ok. Nice to know. Great if you can make AI little less likely to do this.

As for the scaling of global warming. I'm not certain what you mean about it becoming 'unplayable'. Do you mean that global warming becomes extremely strong well before the end of the game? If you have some particular example of a map / settings combination where this happens, I'd like for you to post about it in the GW feedback thread. Regardless of whether or not there's an option to turn GW off, I'd like for it to work properly on all maps! And as for having an option to turn it off... does anyone happen to know if it's possible to add / change the available options in the custom-game settings screen independently of all custom maps? In particular, is there some way I could add a new dropdown menu to control the strength of global warming; and change the multiplayer options so instead of a checkbox for 'simultaneous turns', there's a dropdown menu with 3 options (sequential, simultaneous, and a new semi-simultaneous option)? - If this stuff can be added to the general game options (not the map settings) then I might implement it... but otherwise I don't think there is a suitable place for a 'no GW' option.

For earth maps I have played mostly Rhyes earth with enlarged europe and as far as I remember from old earth game that I had played very far into future era enviromentalism with public transportation and recycling centers wasn't enough to stop it. The counter wasn't going down in the domestic treshold neither in the global one. I had many factories and industrial parks, the cities weren't too big. AI also seemed to have very little interest to change situation. It doesn't make the game unplayable for other than going long into modern age (where you could change the course), I was really meaning that I like to play some modern age scenarios so it's pretty much unplayable for that in the long run.
Some mods like Fall from Heaven has extra ingame options for some features if you would have use for it, but I don't personally know how it's included.

I'm however unable to play the game for now because my pc is broken but I'm planning to play modern era based earth scenarios in future and I could then post more about if it's still useful information.

 

[keldath]

hey karadoc,

wanted to express again my great appreciation for your work,
more and more mods are using kmod as a mod base structure.

keep up the development for the better of mankind and multi
player game

 

[Gamer999]

Yes, I too think that this mod is best mod for the game right now.

 

[TheOnlyDJCat]

Hi Karadoc,

it may be common knowledge, but I just understood the strange behaviour of AI when negotiating peace. It happened often that I checked the peace treaty offers at the beginning of a turn, saw that i will get some money or a tech and decided to capture one last city this turn. After capturing this city the AI won't make peace anymore or I had to pay for it suddenly.
Now I understand, that the AIs evaluate my army strength mostly by counting my units in their territories. So after capturing the city my army evaluation in fact decreases because the units aren't in AI territory anymore.
I think that's a bit strange, because I crushed many defenders, captured a city. and got a weaker evaluation...
Do you think this can be changed, for example by evaluating units by their position a the beginning of turn?

 

[Danwood]

I refresh this page something like 10 times a day to check for updates

 

[noto2]

Karadoc - I would be willing to help out in any way if you every want any assistance, such as by playtesting, just let me know

 

[Charles555nc]

Id love to have an excuse to start up a new game, even if it were just a bunch of minor tweaks:

For example, The ai took my vassal's border city...I moved a massive army into a nearby forest but not ajacent to the taken border city. Next turn the ai suicided all its troops against my stack on the forest (+50% defense) and I lost maybe 3 or 4 units total out of like 25.

Even if I used my 4 trebs on the taken city (which was on a hill) I wouldve been completely unable to take that city.

 

[Gamer999]

If you play modern era I would like to know for the good of the mod if anybody have had similar experiences on different maps about the global warming, so that I would know if I had not been talking trash. (Of course you could post it in the GW thread.)

 

[Charles555nc]

In this example the mighty Tokugawa sends his gigantic 60+ unit army after my wimpy northern vassals as I steamroll directly at his capital through his barely guarded border cities (3 units in his capital currently).

(aggressive ai setting).

 

[Manujuanel]

Hello. I want to ask something, I have tech splash screens turned off. Withouth K-Mod I only hear Nimoy or Sid saying "You have reasrched...", but with K-Mod quotes are played. Is there any way to revert it to the vanilla way?

Also, I saw a post in this forum saying that global warming is a way to penalize players who use too much nukes. Since this is removed K-Mod remvoed the old global warming triggers was something introduced in order to compensate that?

 

[ripple01]

I've noticed in some limited testing that I've done, that the AI seems to value religion-founding techs less in K-Mod than in vanilla BtS. I've picked Isabella and ran AIAutoplay and had her pick 3-4 other techs before picking Meditation or Polytheism, even if no one else has founded Buddhism or Hinduism. This seems irregular to me; has anyone else noticed this behavior?

 

[Gavagay]

I've noticed in some limited testing that I've done, that the AI seems to value religion-founding techs less in K-Mod than in vanilla BtS. I've picked Isabella and ran AIAutoplay and had her pick 3-4 other techs before picking Meditation or Polytheism, even if no one else has founded Buddhism or Hinduism. This seems irregular to me; has anyone else noticed this behavior?

AIs still beeline religion from start sometimes but yes, usually they prefer to take some worker techs first. I regard it as an improvement, actually.

 

[Charles555nc]

Rushing religion can be over rated, particularly if u have one or two close connections to sources of happiness. Getting food, expanding, and getting cottages quicker can definitely be a better choice at some starts.

I like it.

 

[Manujuanel]

I think I have noticed a bug. In the game screen, when i click on a leader name while pressing Shift+Alt to toggle the war plan no icon is shown. However, I think vassals still prepare for war.

 

[Charles555nc]

Man I still check this page alot

 

[Charles555nc]

Wow so the ai

1. assassinated my governor
2. took a nice sized city

And I have no idea what exactly happens when a city's governor gets assassinated. Felt kinda cool though. Dang crafty ai.

Anyone else know what happens when a spy assassinates your gov?

 

[jpm]

Hey Karadoc, thanks for all your work! You have breathed new life into BTS for me. It's as though you took over patching the game now that Firaxis has moved on. The new AI in particular is quite impressive. I cannot thank you enough.

There are a few points I would like to address, which may have been discussed previously, but the thread is 99 pages long, and I don't currently have the time to read the whole thing.

1. Slavery is still the most overpowered civic in the game, and everyone knows it. My suggestion: move the -1 from towns from serfdom to slavery.

2. The Inca are still the most overpowered civilization in the game and everyone knows it. My suggestions: reduce the terrace to 1 and/or remove the free combat I promotion from the quechua.

3. The dun: firstly, the last game I played as the Celts, my axemen did not receive the free guerrilla I promotion. The building description says that it still provides this, so perhaps it is a bug. Or, you removed this bonus when you gave it the +1 exp to melee bonus, and I just missed it in the changelog (note: the changelog is kind of a pain to read through, if it were consolidated to changes by type instead of version, so all the balance changes were together, and all the AI/bugs stuff shortened to "Improved AI/Fixed bugs" it would be much more readable).

Secondly, the +1 exp to melee is very strong in the hands of Boudica due to the synergy with aggressive + charismatic. Starting with combat I gives access to the "vs. unit type" and medic promotions, and another promotion on top, since charismatic means 2 promotions at 4 exp. This enables you to build combat II formation spears, combat I city raider II axemen, combat 1 guerrilla III Gallic warriors, combat 1 medic 2 any melee, along with numerous other possibilities which can be tailored to the situation. All with no exp civics, no great generals, not a singe battle fought. Later on when exp civics and military instructors come into play you can straight build combat I city raider III macemen, which when upgraded to rifles are absolutely devastating. Is this synergy intended to compensate for the Celts' weak starting techs and mediocre UU?

 

[plastiqe]

Spoiler :

Hey Karadoc, thanks for all your work! You have breathed new life into BTS for me. It's as though you took over patching the game now that Firaxis has moved on. The new AI in particular is quite impressive. I cannot thank you enough.

There are a few points I would like to address, which may have been discussed previously, but the thread is 99 pages long, and I don't currently have the time to read the whole thing.

1. Slavery is still the most overpowered civic in the game, and everyone knows it. My suggestion: move the -1 from towns from serfdom to slavery.

2. The Inca are still the most overpowered civilization in the game and everyone knows it. My suggestions: reduce the terrace to 1 and/or remove the free combat I promotion from the quechua.

3. The dun: firstly, the last game I played as the Celts, my axemen did not receive the free guerrilla I promotion. The building description says that it still provides this, so perhaps it is a bug. Or, you removed this bonus when you gave it the +1 exp to melee bonus, and I just missed it in the changelog (note: the changelog is kind of a pain to read through, if it were consolidated to changes by type instead of version, so all the balance changes were together, and all the AI/bugs stuff shortened to "Improved AI/Fixed bugs" it would be much more readable).

Secondly, the +1 exp to melee is very strong in the hands of Boudica due to the synergy with aggressive + charismatic. Starting with combat I gives access to the "vs. unit type" and medic promotions, and another promotion on top, since charismatic means 2 promotions at 4 exp. This enables you to build combat II formation spears, combat I city raider II axemen, combat 1 guerrilla III Gallic warriors, combat 1 medic 2 any melee, along with numerous other possibilities which can be tailored to the situation. All with no exp civics, no great generals, not a singe battle fought. Later on when exp civics and military instructors come into play you can straight build combat I city raider III macemen, which when upgraded to rifles are absolutely devastating. Is this synergy intended to compensate for the Celts' weak starting techs and mediocre UU?

I play with events on, so running Slavery does have the added disadvantage of revolts. Even with that it is still the go to civic for every single game and Serfdom doesn't really need the disadvantage so I suppose I agree.

Ugghh the Inca... they're head and shoulders above the rest of the civs; in fact I just posted the same Terrace nerf in the suggestion thread.

Duns only give guerrilla to units that can already get the promotion: archers, longbows, muskets, grenadiers. This is the case K-Mod or not. Gaelic Warrior starts with the promo anyways so it's only getting the +1xp from a Dun. It's all right there in the first post spoiler from version 1.38 which is, IMO, extremely readable. : )

I think this was a great change for one of the weakest UBs. Celts are so much fun to play now their elite units are right up there with Spain and Mongolia.

 

[Charles555nc]

I'd like to see the forge get a base +1 hammer, its already a fairly expensive building. Mostly to help tech cities that manage to produce it be more independent without slavery.

And maybe an extra transport spot in the galley and galleon.

I also agree that I'd like to see the -1 for towns put onto slavery from serfdom.. but Im not a pro.

 

[Ondskan]

Hi Karadoc,

it may be common knowledge, but I just understood the strange behaviour of AI when negotiating peace. It happened often that I checked the peace treaty offers at the beginning of a turn, saw that i will get some money or a tech and decided to capture one last city this turn. After capturing this city the AI won't make peace anymore or I had to pay for it suddenly.
Now I understand, that the AIs evaluate my army strength mostly by counting my units in their territories. So after capturing the city my army evaluation in fact decreases because the units aren't in AI territory anymore.
I think that's a bit strange, because I crushed many defenders, captured a city. and got a weaker evaluation...
Do you think this can be changed, for example by evaluating units by their position a the beginning of turn?

This can happen even with the normal AI and usually makes a lot of sense.
I'm not sure what type of situation this exactly was but the idea behind it is quite simple. First you have an army beside a city. To save that city he wishes to give you a gift. Now that you captured the city there is time to rebuild and he won't offer the same until you stand besides a new city again.