LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

(like not being able to demolish buildings without full ownership). 

That's good, it will make it desirable the quick reconquest of one's own city.

What I certainly wont do is just take these huge lists you posted and include all these features. It would be too much work, I couldnt possibly playtest it all, and on some things I simply dont agree. You also have to take into account, that the balance in EL is largely influenced by world settings, your balance on fast resource rich games is different to the balance in my normal games with few resources.

Since you already seem to have a multiplayer focussed balance mod in place, I see no need to adress all these issues. Last but not least: The project is still largely done by me only, I simply dont have the time to do all that stuff and also do all the other stuff that I actually want to do (mostly further AI improvements).

Yes we got this mod but in sadly it is currently buggued : It's impossible to reload a game with it. It means if we have a problem and we have to reload, the game have to end...

Maybe it has changed ? When I played with it, it was like that.

Another problem is your new fortification rule is great. I woud prefer to have one mod only (one mod to rule them all ^^) than two mods.

Ok heard. I will humbly try to make a lobbie for the most important changes. ^^

I give my point of view of each of the change of our good old multiplayer patch :

1. Current changes summary

1. Settler's movement + 4 (Allayi and Clans +5) and vision +150% on turn 1 only -> No. Here the idea was to give to playres the most balanced start. But it tend to make that everyone has good start, and 2-3 village starting region. In hindsight, I do not like it.

2. Militia stats depends on population in city (+3 def/att and +1 damage for pop, and HP increases as pop^2: +1 HP for 1 pop, 4 for 2, 9 for 3, 100 for 10 etc) -> No. ELCP Fortification rule solve the problem of the weak milicia to a more profund level. We don't need that.

3. Fixed slavery abuse in cultist city (only pacified villages grant bonus, not converted) -> No. Because it's already fix I think now, right ?

4. Reworked first faction skill of broken lords heroes. Now it gives +1, +2, +2 industry for pop -> No. It does not feat with the Broken Lords lore. Feel non Background aligned.

5. Reworked necrophages' quest reward on chapter 1. Now reward is 240 dust -> Yes. Others factions have good early reward (20-30 titanes for Vaulters, 2 units and 10 ressources for Ardent Mages etc.). So why not Necrophages ? I think it's the idea.

6. Reworked vaulter's quest reward on chapter 1. Now it provides titan only, +20 +30 + 40 instead of +15 +20 +30 -> No. Vaulters don't need this buff.

7. Population buyout cost reduced by 25% for broken lords -> Yes. Broken Lords are economiquely weaks. They really need some buff to be more competitive.

8. Reworked necrophages' quest chapter 2. Now it's passible easily -> Yes. A price of 5 Titanes/Glassteal + 5 luxury ressource + 100 dust looks me good for Ka-Riss hero).

9. +50% road income -> No. I don't understand the purpose. Roads are already very good. Their main function should be the unit transport !

10. Vaulters unique city improvement winter shelters now aplies winter dust reduction immunity also -> No. I agree with the idea, because this building is rarely used today. But I don't want to buff the Vaulters, as their are in the top tiers of power today. I think we could reduce the price of this building to 20 Strategic Ressources to 10 Strategic Ressources to encourage its construction.

11. Two dust era 3 technologies  now available for Broken Lords at era 2 -> Yes. A simple change. But it can help the Broken Lords. Especially the Dust Transmutter. It's not a strong buff, because you still have to build these buildings, and they are not cheap.

12. Broken Lords Monument now provides +10 dust instead of +4 -> Yes. I approve too. Broken Lords need to be buffed. This change has already be done to buff the Forgottens by the Amplitude devs, a long time ago.

13. Village rebuilding cost redused from 60 to 45 -> No. I do not agree with his change. I don't understand the intention and purpose. I think Necrophages only should have a -50 % cost in village rebuilding. They need it I think to be more viable, more powerfull.

14. All vaulters unique city improvements now require 10 strategic resourses -> No. I disagree. 

15. At colonization city now has 0 defence -> No. I remember the idea, but it's not so logical or usefull. I like to have early city with a correct fortification.

16. Capital now has double defence recovery speed -> No. Not important. Fortication rule is enough.

17. Urces base cost increased from 90 to 120 -> Yes. Yes because there are two minors factions units which have a weak cost BUT are strong and resistant (I think to Dorgueshi and Urces mainly). Urces are the top of them. Claws is the best weapons, Ray attack too. And Urces already gives on the best assimilation bonus of the game !

This phenomen of cheap cost exist too for Eyeless Ones and Ceratan, but you can't use them in mass in armies. You can still produced them in mass to sell them at the market, which is maybe overpowered, but it's okay, compared to the situation where you use them to conquier your ennemis.

18. Pillage speed doubled -> Yes. I know that +100 % looks high. I Remember that here the purpose was to make early pillage strategy viable. Today, no one pillage, except sometimes, Forgottens. Pillaging need a tech. You need units produced. You need to have them on the ennemy land, and you have to take the risk to pillage.

I think +100 % is perhaps too high, but I support any idea to make Pillage viable especially in early game. Because Pillage is so fun and so exciting !

19. Pillage reward +50% -> Yes. Same idea here.

20. Forification recovery bonus from defencive improvements greatly increased -> No. ELCP Fortification rule is enough.

21. Now on marketplace available 10 non-exclusive heroes -> Yes. In some situations, you got bad heros, no good industrial hero, no good choice. Sometimes, it break the game balance, as you can't have any industrial hero for your canal lock city. Going from 8 heros to 10 heros is a good thing.

Another argument : any new factions (Kapaku) bring their heros to the market pool. More and more heros dilute the good heros. At the beginning of the game, there was no Forgottens, No Morgawr, no Shifter heros. Today it's full of "crap" hero, not of your faction, you don't want.

22. Stockpile bonus rescaled to 100, 350, 850 -> Yes. Not sure of the numbers. Maybe just +250 and another +250 would be enough. No one buid Stockpiles today. We use these techs to transformer pearls stockpiles, or market stockpile, into improved stockpiles. So +500 max as improved stockpile, would be enough.

23. WW unique defencive tech now available at era 2 -> Yes. Why not. Can be good to have early military tech like that (very situationnal and not powerfull).

24. Shaman now provides 100% buf, has +25% HP and increased cost -> No. +100 % buff is too much. It has to be changed, but not in this way. Same idea for the Geomancer, who should have a better support power (in volcanic land especially).

26. +1 range for fanatik ateshi -> Yes. This unit is very rarely built. So +1 range would make it interesting !

27. Fixed quest bugs -> ?. Hum yes sure.

And you LeaderEnnemyBoss, what is your opinion about these problems and change ? Do you agree ?

Now, about what you say below :

So If you want to make suggestions for ELCP, the best way to do it is to post only a few issues that you deem especially necessary and that are not already solved by other mods. Changes that (also) affect multiplayer that I plan for the coming version(s): 

- Cooldowns on faction specific declarations (market ban, black spot, force truce, etc.)

- disallow selling units when not within own empire borders (except cultists)

- I am also thinking about doing something about stockpiles since they dominate SP aswell (havent made my mind up yet, what exactly ... will probably move era4 tech to era5 at the very least)

- The Forgotten could probably use a buff ... not sure where. Cheaper heros? Better units?

2. My opinion on each cooldowns

- Market Ban : 1 turn between each as cooldown. Roving Clans should keep control on the market. They are the master of it. But if the player invest 240 influence point (something like that I guess) to break the market ban, it's fine. One turn after, the Roving Clans should be able to ban them again. So they only have one turn do recruit heros (which need some money in bank) or buy/sell ressources.

- Black Spot : I don't see where you could put a cooldown here, as it's not possible to cancel break a black spot.

- Force Truce/Peace : 5 turns between each as cooldown. It's already a very powerfull tool. You can even use it as agressor (you conquier a city with a fast force, then you force truce :p ) so 5 turns between each force truce (to the same player) looks me good.

3. My opinon on others changes

- disallow selling units when not within own empire borders (except cultists)

Great. Very logical, and force the players to be have strongers scouting forces. And Cultist are preserved. Perfect.

- I am also thinking about doing something about stockpiles since they dominate SP aswell (havent made my mind up yet, what exactly ... will probably move era4 tech to era5 at the very least)

Moving would postpone the problem. Which is better than nothing, but I think a simple nerf is necessary.

Going from +500 / +1000 to +250 / +250 look me good. But off course, no one will never build stockpile intentionnaly, as the cost will be too high. It does not matter as no one build reserves directly (too expansive, it's simple to rush buildings with dust, or to invest in good buildings !).

- The Forgotten could probably use a buff ... not sure where. Cheaper heros? Better units?

The +100 % speed of Pillage and +50 % dust reward should help them in the early game !

If you want to help them, you can too reduce slightly (-15 % I think) the cost of Predators and Assassins. Myst are too much interesting compared to these units.

Dude, this is still quite a large list ^^. Your dream of "one mod to rule them all" will stay a dream for the forseeable future, because I wont just patch in 10+ balance changes. I'll put some in maybe ...then test it for the while. The next release (2 weeks later) I will put in a few more ..and test them for a while. All in all this will take months of work, I'm not even sure I'll still be working on this project in like 3 months. Since I know you play multiplayer often, and I know you want these changes ASAP, its just a better Idea for you to just get your mod in order again. Then you can use ELCP as a base patch, and apply your big custom balance mod to it. And I can work on implementing some of the changes you made one by one and at my own pace.

Now I can certainly help you getting your balance mod to work with savegames again. Just post a link to your patch and an example save that wont load, and I can check whats wrong.

I understand of course.

I tried the mod multiplayer with the ELCP mod. They are incompatible since there are many bugs : permanent winter, no notifications icon etc.

I do not know at all how to fix the mod multiplayer (the impossibility to reload parts, and now this incompatibility).

I think it's better to go on a blank basis, the ELCP mod, and wait for the rebalance patch of Amplitude. It is more reasonable. ^^

Jojo_Fr wrote:

I understand of course.

I tried the mod multiplayer with the ELCP mod. They are incompatible since there are many bugs : permanent winter, no notifications icon etc.

I do not know at all how to fix the mod multiplayer (the impossibility to reload parts, and now this incompatibility).

I think it's better to go on a blank basis, the ELCP mod, and wait for the rebalance patch of Amplitude. It is more reasonable. ^^

The most likely reason is that its just outdated (made for older versions), I'm pretty sure that can be fixed in a day or so.

How do I unistall the mod? I'm trying to compare the unmodded version with the modded one

HanZaw wrote:

How do I unistall the mod? I'm trying to compare the unmodded version with the modded one

a) Windows uninstall menu, or

b) unins000.exe in the Endless Legend folder, or

c) verify integrity of Game Files in steam 

TommyThunderbolt wrote:

How do you modify those hardcoded files? I'm wanting to modify somethings in Endless Space 2, mainly adding minor factions, but I want them to be as well done and fit in with the others.

Edit: Might as well explain more of what I want to do. I want to add a Kapaku minor faction and hero (using the leader animation from endless legend if I can).

I edit the .dll files with dnspy. However porting animations/model or even textures is a whole different beast, dnspy alone wont help you in that case. You would have to have access to the asset files, which is possible with programs like devxUnityUnpacker or UABE, but I have not enough experience with thes eprograms to give you any directions.

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

TommyThunderbolt wrote:

How do you modify those hardcoded files? I'm wanting to modify somethings in Endless Space 2, mainly adding minor factions, but I want them to be as well done and fit in with the others.

Edit: Might as well explain more of what I want to do. I want to add a Kapaku minor faction and hero (using the leader animation from endless legend if I can).

I edit the .dll files with dnspy. However porting animations/model or even textures is a whole different beast, dnspy alone wont help you in that case. You would have to have access to the asset files, which is possible with programs like devxUnityUnpacker or UABE, but I have not enough experience with thes eprograms to give you any directions.

Thanks for the response. I'm used to modding Paradox Interactive's games (Hearts of Iron, Stellaris, Europa Universalis) which are very moddable, so it's taking some time to figure how to mod games from the Endless series (where it seems a lot of things are hardcoded).

TommyThunderbolt wrote:

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

TommyThunderbolt wrote:

How do you modify those hardcoded files? I'm wanting to modify somethings in Endless Space 2, mainly adding minor factions, but I want them to be as well done and fit in with the others.

Edit: Might as well explain more of what I want to do. I want to add a Kapaku minor faction and hero (using the leader animation from endless legend if I can).

I edit the .dll files with dnspy. However porting animations/model or even textures is a whole different beast, dnspy alone wont help you in that case. You would have to have access to the asset files, which is possible with programs like devxUnityUnpacker or UABE, but I have not enough experience with thes eprograms to give you any directions.

Thanks for the response. I'm used to modding Paradox Interactive's games (Hearts of Iron, Stellaris, Europa Universalis) which are very moddable, so it's taking some time to figure how to mod games from the Endless series (where it seems a lot of things are hardcoded).

Note: If you "only" want to create a new race without new graphics/models etc, but just new techs, abilities, units using existing assets, you can do this without accessing hardcoded files for the most part. You should have a look in the official modding discord, there is still a lively community for ES2.

Heyho,

first of all thanks for your awesome mod!

I just read the changelog and haven't found any buffs for the allayi except for the luxury alchemist fix.
I do feel like they are by far the weakest faction in the game. Since they can't go wide and the +100% needed food makes them mediocore at best in going tall.
They just have two usuable Units which are both bad. (Seeker is way to squishy and monk doesnt enough damage to compensate) They really lack a meatshield.
Their faction tree for heroes is bad aswell and is more helpful for cultist who want to bribe the entire planet. I could go on a bit longer, but my question is:

Are there any buffs for the allayi in the Patch(wich are not in the changelog), or are they planned?  

Hey everyone, the next version of ELCP is here! Remember to join my [Discord Channel], if you want to have a chat. Further information for newcomers in the [official forum thread].

During my time with EL I noticed, that the AI doesnt seem to use many of the unique features the game brings with it. As a consequence the game may look shallower than it is - especially for inexperienced players! One goal of this patch was therefore, to ensure the AI is able to use more of the tools that are available to it. Several Factions have new AI routines, that allow them to use faction specific abilities.

On the balance side of things the probably biggest change was made to how stockpile upgrading works. Getting a bunch of cheap "level 0" stockpiles with pearls and upgrading them to +600 or +1600 even with a mere two techs always felt rather strong to me, and apparently I'm not alone in that assessment. With my new stockpile upgrade ruleset, stockpiles are "fused" before being upgraded. This still allows pursuing a "stockpile upgrade slingshot" as a viable strategy without making it that strong. As every larger modification to the core files, this feature can be disabled in the pregame menu. Additionally I lowered the construction costs of stockpiles across the board in order to make actually building them a more attractive option.

Speaking of disabling features: ELCP-Settings now have their own category in the "Advanced Game Settings" screen, providing more space for future settings and easier readability for the player!

Remember, XML related balance change can be reverted by my [Vanilla Balance Mod].

Downloadlink (Installer) || Downloadlink (Zip) 

Note: Multiplayer saves from older versions are not compatible with newer versions (Singleplayer saves are fine)

Changelog for v2.1.7:

General

• ELCP specific settings now have their own category in the "Advanced Game Settings" pre-game menu
  • The "Miscellaneous"-category got a bit crowded, and there will likely be more settings to come in future versions
  • Depending on your resolution and whether you have the Big Screen UI activated, settings may look a bit "squeezed together". This was necessary so I could fit them all on the screen.
  • Small Issue: Due to a hard to fix bug the settings screen may be misaligned when opening it right after changing the resolution or toggling the Big Screen UI. Just close and reopen the screen in that case.
• Fixed Sacrifice Population (Necrophages) not scaling with game speed (thanks Cornebre)
  • Pops are worth more turns the slower the game speed, making this tech almost useless on every game speed except fast, which is why I consider this a bug
  • The old value (one turn per pop) is now the base value for fast game speed
  • Slower game-speeds scale accordingly, that means: 2 turns per pop on normal, 3 turns per pop on slow, 4 turns per pop on endless
• Included a workaround for the cultist village bug
  • The bug causes converted villages to be counted twice towards upkeep and empire plan cost

Balance [Core files]

• Units can no longer be sold when in foreign territory
  • Note: Fortresses and (converted) Villages count as owned territory, units can still be sold there
• Changed the way Stockpile Upgrading works, you will now lose half of your stockpiles when upgrading them to the next level (decimals are rounded up in the players favor)
  • Reasoning: While stockpiles themselves are fine, the upgrade mechanic is ridiculously strong to the point that its disallowed in many multiplayer games
  • So the challenge was to make upgrading them weaker (but still viable!) while keeping the raw numbers the same (in order to avoid nerfing cultists too much)
  • example: 10 level 0 Industry Stockpiles (10 x +100 Industry) will be upgraded to 5 level 1 Industry Stockpiles (5 x +600 Industry) after researching "Unskilled Labor"
  • 5 level 1 Industry Stockpiles (5 x +600 Industry) will be upgraded to 3 level 3 Industry Stockpiles (3 x +1600 Industry) after researching "Organized Labor"
  • 10 level 0 Industry Stockpiles (10 x +100 Industry) will be upgraded to 3 level 2 Industry Stockpiles (3 x +1100 Industry) after researching "Organized Labor" without researching "Unskilled Labor" first
  • can be deactivated in the "Advanced Game Settings" pre-game menu

Balance [XML]

• Reduced Construction Costs for Stockpiles across the board (to make actually constructing them more attractive)
  • Level 1 from 1200 to 900, Level 2/3 from 2500 to 2000
  • Level 1 Pearl from 600 to 450, Level 2 Pearl from 1100 to 850, Level 3 Pearl from 1600 to 1200
• Reverted the old buff to the wood based summer industry bonus of Living Towns (Wild Walkers)
  • This buff was a compensation for some nerfs they received, since those nerfs are no loner in place and building cost reduction stacking was solved differently, the buff is no longer needed
• Feedback from reddit users and experienced players indicate, that the broken lords currently struggle a bit compared to most of the other factions, the following changes have been made:
  • Quest 1.1 now requires 2 infantry escorts instead of 3 (can be done immediatly)
  • Quest 2 now requires 6/10 Era 1 techs instead of 8/12
  • These quests were very annoying to solve, since they require you to do stuff early that actively harms your progress. Additionally delaying them for too long may make the next quest (settlement with 13 dust min) very hard to do.
  • Also reduced the cost of Population Buyout by 10% across the board
• Increased number of heroes in the market by about 2 (1 exclusive, 1 general)
• Reduced Neros' base stats significantly (Damage down by 70%, Health down by 18%, Attack down by 20%) and reduced damage of Vortex of the Polar Ice by 40%
  • This Guardian typically just one-shotted armies on its own, the changes should tone it down to a more manageable level
• Activating already active luxury boosters resets the duration instead of adding it on top of the current duration
  • Stacking luxury booster duration made the 130 resource reward (Wine!) gained from the era 1 deed way too powerful
• Added cooldowns to some diplomatic abilities
  • Market ban can not be used for 2 turns after a ban was removed (in order to give chain banned empires a chance to buy at least some heroes)
  • Force Truce can not be used for 5 turns after a Drakken has declared war on someone (to give roving clans a chance to recapture cities lost in surprise attacks)
  • Note: Force Truce cooldown only applies if the Drakken Player started the war
  • Cooldowns are seperate for each diplomatic contact - If Empire A removes your market ban, you can still ban Empire B without having to wait
  • The new DiplomaticCooldownPrerequisite can be freely used by modders

AI

• Units will now specifically try to move away from reinforcement positions to make space for new reinforcements (programmed by morgoth)
  • Often times, ranged units kept blocking the reinforcement spot if they were content with their position and could reach their intended target (AI had trouble handling this)
  • Now they will move away - will also affect human controlled units!
  • If you want them to stay on that position for some reason, use the "hold position" stance
• AIs will now search Temples during Dust Eclipse
• Fixed a bug that caused AI empires with shipyard tech being unable to search ruins on land
• Fixed a rare bug, where an AI empire would go crazy and spam settlers without any regions to colonize (at least I hope so)
• AIs can now solve the "Accursed Bounty" competitive quest
• Vaulters/Mezari can now use their teleport ability, defensive only for now (thanks morgoth)
• Roving clans make use of privateers when they are rich enough
• Drakken are more likely to use their "Force Status" diplomatic abilities
• AIs will now use their patrol units to defend besieged cities
• Discouraged AIs from spamming some of the weaker units too much (Preachers, Masterminds, Ceratans, Driders)
• Opened up my old "greedy" Cultist production AI for other Empires
  • they should favor developing their cities more rather than spamming units
• Increased AIs willingness to retrofit units when at war

Sweeeet!

Your mod if a gift for the Endless Legend multiplayer community.

The improvements of A.I you bring are great, but the balance changes are smart, light, but very usefull. Thank you very much ! We are more and more players to use it in multiplayer !

Hi EnemyLeaderBoss,

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

Shadowhal wrote:

Hi EnemyLeaderBoss,

First of all a big thank you for your efforts with the AI and the general balance changes. I had grown to massively enjoy the game but a lot of AI behaviour just held back its potential so much.

To illustrate: first game I started with your patch, went for tough, and as early as turn 40 I knew I was out (vanilla normal was a walk in the park previously once I knew how things worked). Second attempt, hard, still quite behind but not impossible. A proper challenge. I even had to resort to a dirty trick to stay in the game. So... Thank you.

Now for a few hopefully useful bits. I noticed still some odd behaviours. If you are interested, I could send some saves that illustrate this. Maybe it helps isolate why they did what they did. More specifically:

-- AI declared war on me, even though a) it had no noteworthy army near my border and b) I had a pretty powerful army ready to strike and good garrison forces. Actually, it preempted me as I was just waiting for the right moment. Needless to say it didn't end well for them. So... Maybe hold off with the declaration until it is ready to do something? 

-- some turns later the same AI suicides its damaged, weaker army into my main force and doesn't even bring in its reinforcements. Granted, the reinforcements would likely have been destroyed as well, so may have been smart to keep them out of it. But why attack at all? That seemed odd. 

-- I can't say for sure, but I think it must have stopped upgrading its units some time ago. At least I feel like I hadn't seen new version numbers on its troops for a while, that their stats hadn't changed much since an easier war, and that in those era 2/3 war the battles were a lot more challenging. And that AI is ahead of me technologically. 

Side note linked to that: is there a way to study how an enemy unit is equipped? Probably not in the standard mode but maybe there is some cheat or editor mode or sth. One or two things I am just very curious about.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm not an experienced player yet but hopefully I have something/more useful to contribute in the future. 

Thanks for the kind words ;).

Start the game with the launch parameter "--enablemoddingtools" to gain access to a number of cheats and modes for testing purposes. You can switch to other empires with the number keys on your keyboard, check unit equipment, what they build etc. . pressing enters opens the chat menu, entering /? lists a number of useful cheat/debug commands.

As for your post: I'm not sure how much AIs take military power into account when declaring war at all. If you want to send saves I would need them right at the start of the turn were the "bad" behavior happened  (so autosaves) in order to implement changes and see if they work. But: I also cant promise any fast changes because my todo list is large. As for unit equipment: There is a bug in my patch that sometimes strikes and leads the AI to underequip units, It will be fixed in the next version.

Thanks for the quick response and the hint with the modding tools. Got it to work without any issues. Insightful.

So, on one point I was just dead wrong. The unit designs for the AI in question (and another too) were in fact quite up to date. Just not all of their actual units had been retrofitted, but you can well argue that it's a problem of insufficient dust. It had some buffer, but not a huge one. It did seem though that the AI doesn't build as large armies and doesn't make as systematic use of army-wide hero skills bonuses, which can add up to make a huge difference. Has that been noted previously?

On the silly DoW and attacks, I found the saves and autosaves. How should I get them to you? Private message?

And yes, of course, look at these at your time. I realise you are doing this in your spare time and already have a to do list, plus suggestions from many others. Conversely, if there are things that you are particularly interested getting feedback on, happy to keep them in mind. (I will continue my current game with the previous ELCP version, though).

Shadowhal silly attack 1.savShadowhal silly attack 2.savShadowhal-silly DoW.savAbrasax wrote:

Shadowhal wrote:

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

Shadowhal wrote:

Hi EnemyLeaderBoss,

First of all a big thank you for your efforts with the AI and the general balance changes. I had grown to massively enjoy the game but a lot of AI behaviour just held back its potential so much.

To illustrate: first game I started with your patch, went for tough, and as early as turn 40 I knew I was out (vanilla normal was a walk in the park previously once I knew how things worked). Second attempt, hard, still quite behind but not impossible. A proper challenge. I even had to resort to a dirty trick to stay in the game. So... Thank you.

Now for a few hopefully useful bits. I noticed still some odd behaviours. If you are interested, I could send some saves that illustrate this. Maybe it helps isolate why they did what they did. More specifically:

-- AI declared war on me, even though a) it had no noteworthy army near my border and b) I had a pretty powerful army ready to strike and good garrison forces. Actually, it preempted me as I was just waiting for the right moment. Needless to say it didn't end well for them. So... Maybe hold off with the declaration until it is ready to do something? 

-- some turns later the same AI suicides its damaged, weaker army into my main force and doesn't even bring in its reinforcements. Granted, the reinforcements would likely have been destroyed as well, so may have been smart to keep them out of it. But why attack at all? That seemed odd. 

-- I can't say for sure, but I think it must have stopped upgrading its units some time ago. At least I feel like I hadn't seen new version numbers on its troops for a while, that their stats hadn't changed much since an easier war, and that in those era 2/3 war the battles were a lot more challenging. And that AI is ahead of me technologically. 

Side note linked to that: is there a way to study how an enemy unit is equipped? Probably not in the standard mode but maybe there is some cheat or editor mode or sth. One or two things I am just very curious about.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm not an experienced player yet but hopefully I have something/more useful to contribute in the future. 

Thanks for the kind words ;).

Start the game with the launch parameter "--enablemoddingtools" to gain access to a number of cheats and modes for testing purposes. You can switch to other empires with the number keys on your keyboard, check unit equipment, what they build etc. . pressing enters opens the chat menu, entering /? lists a number of useful cheat/debug commands.

As for your post: I'm not sure how much AIs take military power into account when declaring war at all. If you want to send saves I would need them right at the start of the turn were the "bad" behavior happened  (so autosaves) in order to implement changes and see if they work. But: I also cant promise any fast changes because my todo list is large. As for unit equipment: There is a bug in my patch that sometimes strikes and leads the AI to underequip units, It will be fixed in the next version.

On the silly DoW and attacks, I found the saves and autosaves. How should I get them to you? Private message?

And yes, of course, look at these at your time. I realise you are doing this in your spare time and already have a to do list, plus suggestions from many others. Conversely, if there are things that you are particularly interested getting feedback on, happy to keep them in mind. (I will continue my current game with the previous ELCP version, though).

You can upload the save files straight to the thread using the [Upload File] option in the comment toolbar. The icon looks like a sheet of blank paper, folded in one corner.

Thanks for that. I tried attaching them, so hopefully that worked.

Silly attack 1 describes an attack that should either have been avoided at all or could have been a lot more successfull, had the AI brought the reinforcements into the fight.

Silly attach 2 is just a suicide run, no idea why on earth it would do that.

DoW save is hopefully self-explanatory. Just the turn when it happens and ... well, it doesn't seem to me that the AI is much prepared to benefit from its DoW.

So, if that kind of AI work will (ever) be in focus, maybe the saves will be of use. Until then, I shall continue to enjoy the fruits of your work :)

Shadowhal wrote:

Abrasax wrote:

Shadowhal wrote:

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

Shadowhal wrote:

Hi EnemyLeaderBoss,

First of all a big thank you for your efforts with the AI and the general balance changes. I had grown to massively enjoy the game but a lot of AI behaviour just held back its potential so much.

To illustrate: first game I started with your patch, went for tough, and as early as turn 40 I knew I was out (vanilla normal was a walk in the park previously once I knew how things worked). Second attempt, hard, still quite behind but not impossible. A proper challenge. I even had to resort to a dirty trick to stay in the game. So... Thank you.

Now for a few hopefully useful bits. I noticed still some odd behaviours. If you are interested, I could send some saves that illustrate this. Maybe it helps isolate why they did what they did. More specifically:

-- AI declared war on me, even though a) it had no noteworthy army near my border and b) I had a pretty powerful army ready to strike and good garrison forces. Actually, it preempted me as I was just waiting for the right moment. Needless to say it didn't end well for them. So... Maybe hold off with the declaration until it is ready to do something? 

-- some turns later the same AI suicides its damaged, weaker army into my main force and doesn't even bring in its reinforcements. Granted, the reinforcements would likely have been destroyed as well, so may have been smart to keep them out of it. But why attack at all? That seemed odd. 

-- I can't say for sure, but I think it must have stopped upgrading its units some time ago. At least I feel like I hadn't seen new version numbers on its troops for a while, that their stats hadn't changed much since an easier war, and that in those era 2/3 war the battles were a lot more challenging. And that AI is ahead of me technologically. 

Side note linked to that: is there a way to study how an enemy unit is equipped? Probably not in the standard mode but maybe there is some cheat or editor mode or sth. One or two things I am just very curious about.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm not an experienced player yet but hopefully I have something/more useful to contribute in the future. 

Thanks for the kind words ;).

Start the game with the launch parameter "--enablemoddingtools" to gain access to a number of cheats and modes for testing purposes. You can switch to other empires with the number keys on your keyboard, check unit equipment, what they build etc. . pressing enters opens the chat menu, entering /? lists a number of useful cheat/debug commands.

As for your post: I'm not sure how much AIs take military power into account when declaring war at all. If you want to send saves I would need them right at the start of the turn were the "bad" behavior happened  (so autosaves) in order to implement changes and see if they work. But: I also cant promise any fast changes because my todo list is large. As for unit equipment: There is a bug in my patch that sometimes strikes and leads the AI to underequip units, It will be fixed in the next version.

On the silly DoW and attacks, I found the saves and autosaves. How should I get them to you? Private message?

And yes, of course, look at these at your time. I realise you are doing this in your spare time and already have a to do list, plus suggestions from many others. Conversely, if there are things that you are particularly interested getting feedback on, happy to keep them in mind. (I will continue my current game with the previous ELCP version, though).

You can upload the save files straight to the thread using the [Upload File] option in the comment toolbar. The icon looks like a sheet of blank paper, folded in one corner.

Thanks for that. I tried attaching them, so hopefully that worked.

Silly attack 1 describes an attack that should either have been avoided at all or could have been a lot more successfull, had the AI brought the reinforcements into the fight.

Silly attach 2 is just a suicide run, no idea why on earth it would do that.

DoW save is hopefully self-explanatory. Just the turn when it happens and ... well, it doesn't seem to me that the AI is much prepared to benefit from its DoW.

So, if that kind of AI work will (ever) be in focus, maybe the saves will be of use. Until then, I shall continue to enjoy the fruits of your work :)

Save files are here:

Shadowhal silly attack 1.sav

Shadowhal silly attack 2.sav

Shadowhal-silly DoW.sav 

NOTE: It functions as an "insert" and not as an "attachment". You accidentally "attached" them in the beginning of the quoted post.