Mod: SemiRandom AI

[Gandalf Parker]

Well its time for another offering from me for the lovers of chaos. Ive been playing awhile with a new program of mine.

It selects nation 77 and assigns basic units and commanders to it.
And then randomly assigns 2 more units and one commander from anything in the game (any unit, summons, or pretender).

6 heroes and 2 multi-heroes are selected from anything in the game.

Also 10 new gods are added to the nation from anything in the game. Its kindof interesting to get an insane god, or a blessable one, or one that can seduce.

This is kindof the opposite of the CBM mod. Instead of seeking balance for the players, Im seeking imbalance for the AI. Within reason of course. The initial version randomized all of the units for the nation.
Too insane even for me.

[Gandalf Parker]

Here is one of the god selection screens I got.

[HoneyBadger]

That sounds great, Gandalf, and a lot of fun, but are the blessable Pretenders actually blessable? In other words, does making them sacred crash the game with the "No Holy" error?

[Gandalf Parker]

I have chosen a couple and didnt crash the game. But I didnt test the actual bless so I probably should next time.

Edit:
OK a pretender seems to stay unblessable. But he can cast bless on others and build temples.
Interesting side note, it seems as though no one can bless themselves?

[Gandalf Parker]

Ok here is a shot of a recruiting screen.


Militia, Lt Infantry, Hvy Infantry, Lt Cavalry, Hvy Cavalry, Knight, Archer, Crossbowman, SLinger, Axeman. Then two units "granted by Eris the Goddess of Chaos" which are Merman Captain @ 150 gold and Manticore @ 150 gold.

The commanders are Scout, Commander, Knight Commander, Priest, and Druid. One commander granted by Eris which is a False Horror at 240 gold. Then various mages granted by the random selection of unit-granting magic sites which means that the Druid is the only mage which can be hired outside of the capital.

I want to test how the AI creates armies when all of these are available but I wouldnt mind some tips from other people who have tested the AIs actions in order to improve them. Im also debating tossing in the Flagellants to get the AI a generic blessable unit.

[Gandalf Parker]

Heehee. Having a Mad Cultist as a god is kindof interesting. And having an Iron Dragon show up as a hero is useful.

[Gregstrom]

Do Doom Horror pretenders disappear at random, as you'd expect?
Also, when will I be able to download this?

[Gandalf Parker]

No. To keep things working right, all of the added units are copied to a new ID number. So they have the same features but are not the same unit.

It might be awhile before downloading. I can make some of the mods it creates available but the program is abit more difficult. For now its a yaBasic program that runs on Windows and my Linux server. Eventually I will compile it for Windows.

Here is one of the mods it made. Just unpack it into your mods directory, enable it, and then play an early era game. The new nation shows up at the end of the list.

[JimMorrison]

Pretty cool!

I'd recommend removing Militia from the roster though.....

Is there any rhyme or reason to the Pretender costs and starting Dominion? The Dusk Elder at 15 is a steal, but some of the others ended up as 190-200? Also, interesting thing I noticed - a Pretender with random magic will recycle each time you select, so you can just try again until you get the picks that you want.

Really interesting to mess around with though. One other thing I'd recommend, is maybe adding 3 units instead of 2. I don't think that will make the strongest any stronger really, but it'll increase the odds of getting something really useful, and affordable. I really like the capital sites though, good job!

Maybe you could just generate a dozen or so of these really quickly, and we could help you test the relative viability against other randomized nations?

[Stavis_L]

@JimMorrison - re: cycling to get advantageous picks, I think the point is to have the AI use this, and it presumably wouldn't do that :-)

@Gandalf Parker - Interesting idea, and looks fun. Have you considered investing a little extra time into the program's infrastructure to allow some configuration a-la SemiRandom/RanDom? Where I'm going with this is to allow randomness, but within certain ranges to prioritize synergistic combinations.

Here's a totally off the cuff configuration schema that might be a way to go (note: had to use braces vs. xml angle brackets for it to be accepted into the post...)

{units}
{unit id="727"}{!-- Jaguar warrior, likes a strong fire, water, or death blesss --}
{magicpreference type="fire" minlevel="9" /}
{magicpreference type="water" minlevel="9"/}
{magicpreference type="death" minlevel="9" /}
{!-- unit synergies are with a fast or flying, blessable unit --}
{unitsynergy type="262" /}{!-- van --}
{unitsynergy type="367" /}{!-- pegasus rider --}
{unitsynergy type="726" /}{!-- eagle warrior --}
{unitsynergy type="791" /}{!-- red guard --}
{unitsynergy type="851" /}{!-- cu sidhe --}
{/unit}
{unit id="784"}{!-- Jotun Woodsman, likes cold and a Nature or earth bless --}
{magicpreference type="nature" minlevel="4"/}
{magicpreference type="earth" minlevel="6" /}
{scalepreference type="cold" /}
{!-- unit synergies are with cold resistant unit or those that
appreciate earth or nature bless --}
{unitsynergy id="831"/}{!-- ice elemental --}
{unitsynergy id="1287"/}{!-- tempest warrior--}
{unitsynergy id="1618"/}{!-- angakok --}
{unitsynergy id="1927"/}{!-- peshti axeman --}
{unitsynergy id="2001"/}{!-- seren --}
{/unit}
{unit id="304"}{!-- devil, likes blood or fire magic, heat, no particular unit synergies --}
{magicpreference type="blood" minlevel="4"/}
{magicpreference type="fire" minlevel="4"/}
{scalepreference type="heat" /}
{/unit}
{/units}