The Sea Kings!

[EZRhino]

Thanks Koitnrein

[KoitnreinA]

when will be the scenario finished?

sorry i am bad in english xD

[EZRhino]

Your English is far better than my German

The scenario will be done eventually, I'm not sure exactly when that will be. Sometime in the next few months probably.

[EZRhino]

I've been giving some thought to some game play issues plaguing me recently. The AI, with one notable exception, proves to be utterly incompetent at conquering enemy cities. In some areas too many units are more content to go for a nice backpacking trip out in the bush instead of expanding their lords dominions (of course, who can blame them ) When the disparate civs need is proximity. Foreign campaigns and seaborne voyages seem take long enough that it can get repetitive to move units through the countryside for turn after turn. And he prospect of doing anything at all in the huge cloak of blackness surrounding the bright little oikumene of your civilization intimidates me in the same way the first few turns of moving units in Red Front usually does

I've just realized that the map is too big for the AI to be as aggressive/intelligent as I would like for my scenario, so I'm crafting a new map of about 16,000 squares (as opposed to 32,000). I want there to be plenty of room for empire building, if only slighty less empty void to fill than there is now If any would like to use the current map feel free to DL it. Cropped a bit with Mercator's mapedit tool I'm sure one could find some use or other for it

Btw, Anyone with a clue as to why some barbarian cities will assiduously produce units for the war effort while others will merely complete their first unit and subsequently fail to accrue shields from the point on?

Getting enough barbarians with as little help for the events.txt is critical to the scenario that I'm working on and it's maddening to watch the Cypriot and Minoan cities chugging out sea peoples even as the Kashka and the bedu of Palestine fail to materialize

Any ideas?

This is more or less what greece would look like with the resolution reduced by about a third. I might have to make it smaller still:

[EZRhino]

Here's the map

[Harry Tuttle]

Have you tried adding Hi-Value units to your cities? I have found that the AI will seek out and reliably attack units that have a high cost. You can use them as teasers to get the AI to attack.

[EZRhino]

Yea, actually the defensive units are very expensive generally compared to the attack units (chariots/various siege weapons). Strangely the AI seems to prefer to mass defenders instead of attackers. This might have something to do with the advice.txt...

Civs just need to be near each other to not only because this affects how belligerent the AI is diplomatically but also because this tends to channel their respective armies into one another's territory more effectively.

[techumseh]

Too large maps are a common mistake. I think you're right to start over with a smaller map. I've had to do the same thing several times. There's no doubt that it maximizes both the combat and diplomatic abilities of the AI.

I think the AI only builds new units in barb cities until the total number of barb units reaches a fixed level. And it's quite low, AFAIK - 6 or 8.

If you haven't reviewed Willam Keenan's Barbarian Paper on the Cradle site, have a look. Manipulating game-created barbs is a matter of controlling which techs are available. Large areas of forest, mountain and hills with no units nearby determines where they will appear. The presence of settler units is the trigger for the spawning of barbarians.

Otherwise, events can supplement the AI in barb creation. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get barb units to respond to the MoveUnit command, so you have to create them right where you need them.

Any chance of doing this for ToT? There's 100b of memory in the events heap, as opposed to only 30 for MGE, plus many units can be created with one event - so it's a far more powerful tool.

[EZRhino]

It is going to be for ToT, but I'm already starting to feel the squeeze for events space. I did read Keenan's barbarian papers, definitely a must read!

Originally posted by techumseh I think the AI only builds new units in barb cities until the total number of barb units reaches a fixed level. And it's quite low, AFAIK - 6 or 8.

Strange, there are far more than eight barbarian units on the map, and yet some cities continue to churn out new barbarians indefinitely while others fail to complete even one...

[fairline]

I guess Tech meant 6-8 barbs in a single city rather than on the map as a whole. Are the barb units defensive, thereby encouraging the AI to horde them in a city rather than sending them out to attack other civs?

[tanelorn]

Wow, what an accurate map, down to minute details. Let me guess, desert is impassable terrain and glacier is for desert trade routes, right?

[EZRhino]

Originally posted by fairline
I guess Tech meant 6-8 barbs in a single city rather than on the map as a whole. Are the barb units defensive, thereby encouraging the AI to horde them in a city rather than sending them out to attack other civs?

The phenomena occurs frequently in cities with only one or two barbarian units. It's not so much that the AI hoards them within a city so much as it fails ever to even build them. The shield box never fills up...

Originally posted by tanelorn Wow, what an accurate map, down to minute details. Let me guess, desert is impassable terrain and glacier is for desert trade routes, right?

Hey tanelorn, long time no see Thanks for the compliment and yes you're right

[fairline]

Any chance you can delay your wedding to get this one out? I'm dying to play it.

I'm sure the future Mrs Rhino won't mind...

[EZRhino]

Don't worry Gareth, it's a pretty long engagement. Perhaps even long enough for me to finish the scenario before the advent of nuptial doom...

[tanelorn]

Congrats. I think. If you are the marrying type.
I mean, if relationships are the battle of the sexes, engagement is a truce and marriage is victory or surrender.
Too definite, too soon, for some of us.