Mod: EA Improved Computer Opponents

[Edratman]

Attached is a mod that attempts to improve computer opponents. Seven EA nations have been modded to “EA Improved Computer Opponents”, Yomi, Agartha, Pangaea, Kailasa, Hinnom, Oceania and R’lyeh. These nations were chosen for this mod because they were the six nations with least victories on the MP scoreboard (when mod was started). The mod also includes the Better Independents mod. It is mandatory that you disable existing BI mod to avoid conflicts (I made some minor changes to the BI).

Hinnom added 10/5/08 following a long thread pointing out how poorly Hinnom performed in SP.

I had to blend EA and MA units for both EA Oceania and EA R’lyeh to give these two nations improved land capability to be a better computer opponent. I read all the guides and the many threads on these nations and acknowledge that the land capability limitations are an intentional design by the devs for the era. I have no issue with this decision, but my testing indicated I could not effectively improve these nations as computer controlled opponents if limited to EA units.

Factors that were not changed:
1. There were no changes to any unit stats for national units.
2. There were no additions of units, commanders, heroes, or any other changes of this sort, except for EA Oceania and EA R’lyeh.

Factors that were changed:
1. Starting armies were enhanced.
2. PD was enhanced
3. Only the strongest units, priests, commanders and mages were kept on the recruit lists.
4. All nations have four starting magic sites to enhance gem, gold and resources.
5. Capitol only recruitment restrictions were removed.
6. All nations have “Great City” as the start fort.
7. Both EA Oceania and EA R’lyeh are a blend of EA and MA units to provide improved land based capability for these nations.

The attachment contains both EA and MA Improved Computer Opponents.
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Ver. 1.2 Add Hinnom as Improved Computer Opponent 10/5/08

[Edratman]

Ver 1.2 10/5/08 - Added Hinnom as Improved Computer Opponent following discussion thread in main forum.

[Tifone]

Very nice idea. I'm looking forward to try your mod in a couple of weeks (university is terrible for free time for playing ).

(noob's question: if I disable the mod later, everything returns to vanilla without problems, right?)

[Edratman]

Originally Posted by Tifone

Very nice idea. I'm looking forward to try your mod in a couple of weeks (university is terrible for free time for playing ).

(noob's question: if I disable the mod later, everything returns to vanilla without problems, right?)

Yes everything returns to normal.

By the way, the modded nations are still playable by a person if you want to try a boosted nation.

[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.