My Experience thus far: AI Frustrations

[reaper101]

There are quite a few things about RS2.6 that are bugging me at the moment. None of these are enough to make me stop playing, but they're still frustrating.
For one, the blatantly cheating AI drives me insane. When an enemy that consists of all of two provinces can produce and maintain multiple silver-chevroned stacks, and keeps sending them to attack my cities, it's both immersion-breaking and just plain annoying. Seeing several units of Agema Elite Phalangites suddenly pop up despite there being no real economic support is immensely aggravating.
The AI also has no concept of force concentration, especially during sea battles, where it'll dispense individual ships all over the place, whereupon my deceres can plow through them. It's only getting away with the same issue on land because it keeps getting handed free stacks with zero consequence, and thus their 'dispersed' armies are more like Oprah handing out veteran elite units.
Also, sieges. When armies specifically stated to not have siege equipment at the opening of the battle (because, yes, I read their army cards) are granted them for free, forcing my defenses to be spread out ridiculously, it's also immensely aggravating. If the sole difference between victory and defeat is whether or not the AI blatantly is given stuff it shouldn't logically have...


Maybe these issues, along with the outright broken diplomacy (which isn't your fault, granted), are fixed in RS3. I wouldn't know because I'm still working on my 2.6 Roman campaign.

[mirelicus]

they put these bonuses in to give the ai a boost.granted,it's annoying,but at least they will last more in the campaign.as far as i know,you can ease you gameplay by disabling the garnison script,so the enemy won't spawn armier when you siege him.

[reaper101]

they put these bonuses in to give the ai a boost.granted,it's annoying,but at least they will last more in the campaign.as far as i know,you can ease you gameplay by disabling the garnison script,so the enemy won't spawn armier when you siege him.

Already turned off.

I get that they do it to give the AI a boost, but surely there has to be a difference between 'enjoyable and realistic armies' and 'here comes the endless elite hordes'.

[BHL 20]

The AI gets more money than the player but not by that wide of a margin. Try playing one of the factions that start with 1/2 settlements like Pergamon or Athens. Even as the player you'll be able to support a solid three stacks off just your capital. You could always try capturing the capital of the faction you're fighting (so they lose their treasury building) and leaving them with some less lucrative regions. However that's exactly the strategy the emergency script is made to punish, so if you have that script on it can backfire

[reaper101]

The AI gets more money than the player but not by that wide of a margin. Try playing one of the factions that start with 1/2 settlements like Pergamon or Athens. Even as the player you'll be able to support a solid three stacks off just your capital. You could always try capturing the capital of the faction you're fighting (so they lose their treasury building) and leaving them with some less lucrative regions. However that's exactly the strategy the emergency script is made to punish, so if you have that script on it can backfire

It's not the AI getting more money that's the problem, it's the fact the units come with two silver chevrons apparently for free and they seem able to make them endlessly. Especially when getting their asses handed to them.
I've only once seen enemy units that aren't automatically 2-silver in experience, and that's with the Greeks, who are basically Greco-Dacian in my campaign thanks to my legions punishing their betrayal most effectively. They're reduced to a few scattered settlements and are relying on Dacian/Scythian auxiliaries for the most part, so it makes sense for their current state.

EDIT: Seeing more and more weak units getting thrown at me, largely from the Cimbri and the Scythians. So maybe I've just been up against their strongest armies? Dunno.

[Nemesis2345]

One main reason i play Rome 1 turn is this stack spam. It actually takes time now to recruit ur units (is not like Medieval 2 where u could train 3 units per turn). Here is 1 unit per turn (even 2 turns for elites like praetorians). This will encourage you to keep your armies safe and retrain them instead of recruiting a stack or so every turn. It will make both the ai recruit less, and you take better care of ur armies,since u cant throw them everywhere because u cant recruit 10 units in 1 turn now.

[reaper101]

My problem, again, isn't stack spam- that's expected, because most of my opponents are, well, barbarians, and they're likely to be numerous.
My problem is the free veterancy and the sheer number of elite​ units being used by the enemy. Also the fact that there isn't infighting, rebellions, etc for the Romans to exploit as they did historically.

[Larkin]

You think that's bad, imagine facing it the other way around...

[BHL 20]

You think that's bad, imagine facing it the other way around...

No the player is always at a disadvantage, this isn't faction specific. When playing on Hard or Very Hard battle difficulty the AI is already getting stat +4 or +7 stat bonuses. If the AI's units come with silver chevrons they may be +9 or +12 stronger than normal. Whatever faction the player controls it's going to be an uphill battle.

[Larkin]

No the player is always at a disadvantage, this isn't faction specific. When playing on Hard or Very Hard battle difficulty the AI is already getting stat +4 or +7 stat bonuses. If the AI's units come with silver chevrons they may be +9 or +12 stronger than normal. Whatever faction the player controls it's going to be an uphill battle.

Not if you take base stats into account, which you should, and stack setup into account, which you should. Silver chevron barbarian armies are much easier to deal with than silver chevron Roman legions or Hellenic armies.

[ur-Lord Tedric]

reaper' - are you playing 1-turn or 0-turn?

Choosing the latter (non-realistic) is to choose lots and lots of battles.

In 1 turn the buffs are there to at least make each enemy fight reasonably well and slow down the happy blitzers.

[reaper101]

reaper' - are you playing 1-turn or 0-turn?

Choosing the latter (non-realistic) is to choose lots and lots of battles.

In 1 turn the buffs are there to at least make each enemy fight reasonably well and slow down the happy blitzers.

0-turn. Again, my problem isn't necessarily the number of battles, that I quite like. It's the free veterancy and prevalence of elite units to an unrealistic degree. It's likely due to the AIs stat decisions, so IDK how to change it.
On the other hand, I've slaughtered Belgae armies by the dozens because the AI likes to make those armies entirely infantry with no archers or cavalry beyond basic skirmishing units and they end up being torn apart by my ranged auxiliaries...so, not all that bad.