No more MP for Hinnom?

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by Omnirizon

Is the AI directly modifiable through modding? Is that what Erdratman does? Why isn't there more work on this front? Rather than trying to tolerate a grossly unbalanced nation if only because it works well with a broken AI?

Nope. His mod removes 'bad' units from the nations recruitable selection and gives them more gold, resources etc to start with along with a larger starting army.

It makes them stronger not smarter.

[Edratman]

[quote=Sombre;643142
Nope. His mod removes 'bad' units from the nations recruitable selection and gives them more gold, resources etc to start with along with a larger starting army.

It makes them stronger not smarter.[/QUOTE]

Exactly correct. Smarter is KO's and JK's baliwick.

A significent clue is that I do not use Improved AI in the title of the mods, rather it is termed Improved Computer Opponents.

By the way, EA Improved Computer Opponents including Hinnom is now posted in the Mods and Maps forum.

All the mod does is restrict recruitables to the best two to four units and the best three to five commanders. Also capital only restrictions have been removed and gold/resources have been boosted in what I think is a balanced manner. I did not mod the nations or units in any other way, with the exception of EA Oceania and R'lyeh.

I primarily play MA, not EA. Using the MA version of the mod I have seen MA Man armies of 35 knights, 20 wardens and 40 longbows in the first year as an example of the changes this mod effects.

For EA Oceania and EA R'lyeh I combined EA and MA units to give these nations some land capability. I found in my testing that when these nations started in a 4 or 5 province isolated sea, they were incapable of expanding to the land and becoming an opponent of consequence.

[Gandalf Parker]

I seperate SP and AI. And Ive never said that fixing MP would break SP. I only said that it COULD break SP if it wasnt at least considered in the suggestion.

A fix for MP which might break SP would be deleting special nationals of flavor because they cause imbalance. A fix for MP which might break AI would be deleting certain spells which the AI uses well and players abuse. There are also many examples of fixes which would benefit SP or AIs which I would never suggest because it would definetly affect MP.

The easy fix for those who only consider the MP play would be to simply remove the offending items. Doing that with no concern for other methods of play would be fairly rude. The game might have been made with MP in mind (which Im not sure I agree with) but the numbers seem to support more non-MPers so it would be a good idea to at least consider the "environmental impact" of recommended fixes IMHO.

[Illuminated One]

But you could always keep the old version of Dom for SP if there are multiplayer related changes.
Dom3SP.exe -> old Dom for SP
Dom3.exe -> patched Dom for MP

[Gandalf Parker]

I always save previous versions (on my server so that everyone can catch up to the patch). But that would only work for one patch. Johan has already had the discussion about patching multiple exe's. He doesnt like the idea.

[llamabeast]

Obviously forking the code wouldn't be ideal though.

[Edratman]

An additional bonus when playing the Improved Computer Opponents mod is the computer global casting. This setup probably comes close to replicating MP global casting.

When I made these mods I gave the boosted nations significent additional gems: motivation was partly whimsy, partly intentional and partly out of "it was the easiest way to go".

Anyway, I'm deep into a MA game and the Improved Opponent modded AI nations are throwing up a global just about every turn. As a SP player, I never had to fight off globals like I do now. I'm using up all my pearls on Dispel so I can keep my favorite globals from being randomly displaced (what is the term for that?). And the computer seems to be adapting to this because I think it is putting more and more gems into protecting the globals.

I do play on easy research. I got tired of never getting to the really cool spells by the end of a game.

[Epaminondas]

I think one of the main problems with AI Hinnom is that the AI cannot handle the pop eating issues. I've seen the AI get a few heroes or pop out a few Melqarts or Baal and literally exterminate the population.

So I suppose here's a perfect case where a nation that is effective in MP can't compete in SP as AI.

[Sombre]

Removing the pop eating should be easy enough, anyway.

[Epaminondas]

Originally Posted by Sombre

Removing the pop eating should be easy enough, anyway.

How so? Wouldn't you have to clear the entire unit stat and then re-input the whole thing minus the pop eating? Maybe it's not hard, but it's damn tedious