Manassassas
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Stopping the AI from building so many ships!

Tue Nov 20, 2018 12:41 pm

Apologies to all if this has already been covered but a cursory search of the forum yielded nothing obvious.

Because I'm often very busy with real life stuff, I tend to play against the AI. However, when I play as the Union I find the South's efforts are hampered because Athena insists on building massive fleets. In games that go beyond, say, 60 turns the Confederates always end up with a much more powerful fleet than the Union, which is obviously at the expense of their land forces. Setting aside the fact that this is ahistorical, it means that Athena puts up much less of a fight than she could do if she concentrated on land forces.

I've only come up with two potential solutions:

First (this one is time consuming and messy) I play as the Union but every turn after I make my moves etc I save, then load the game as the Confederates and buy Athena's troops for her/make political decisions. This works, but I've noticed that Athena sometimes then doesn't move any of her troops - so I think I may be doing something that messes up the AI or thinks that both sides are being played by a human player.

Second, this is something I've not tried as I lack the modding knowledge (and time, frankly) - but is there a mod which hugely reduces the Confederate shipping pool so that Athena can't build such massive fleets?

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Captain_Orso
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Re: Stopping the AI from building so many ships!

Tue Nov 20, 2018 4:11 pm

If you load the opponents side of the game, and then save that side's orders, during turn execution, those will be the ONLY orders the opponents side has. The AI only generates orders, if there is no ORD file for that side to execute.

There is a parameter which can be set, so that during turn execution, after the AI has created orders for all factions for which a player has not generated orders, the game simply drops back to the executing player's map display.

At this time you can load either side and change order for either faction, whether they originate from a player or were AI generated. When orders from all factions are present at turn execution, turn execution should proceed beyond AI orders generation and complete normally.

You can of course write some events which reduce the opponent's unit pools for ships. This might be the most workable solution, bc all others require messing with the orders Athena generated.

I wouldn't take away all Brigs at any rate, bc I very often use them extensively for blockade running, and think Athena ought to be able to do that as well.

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Gray Fox
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Re: Stopping the AI from building so many ships!

Tue Nov 20, 2018 4:36 pm

If you post the settings you use for preferences in the game, this would be helpful. I set Athena to Colonel and max some other settings so that she gets extra resources. I have noticed her to eventually build raiders, however the game is usually over by then. I have never experienced Athena to build a Navy larger than the Union. The CSA often runs out of War Supply (WS) in a turn, at which point Athena can only make flatboats. So it's not uncommon to see a lot of those.
I'm the 51st shade of gray. Eat, pray, Charge!

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DrPostman
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Re: Stopping the AI from building so many ships!

Wed Nov 21, 2018 8:29 am

I've noticed Athena has a fetish for flatboats and transports. Way too many of them.

Delbruck
Civilian
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Re: Stopping the AI from building so many ships!

Mon Nov 26, 2018 8:32 pm

I recently picked up the game and had my first campaign as the union. I won in early 1864. The Confederates had 28% of Union land power, but about equal naval. During the game, I assumed l didn't understand the power numbers, because I saw little evidence of the southern navy attemting to interrupt my operations. As it turns out, it was all "hiding" in Texas. Looking at the numbers now, I am amazed at the size of the Confederate navy, which includes:

23 Ironclads
7 steam Frigates
4 cottonclads
10 gunboats
13 frigate squadrons

They had 47 fleets, and the number doesnt include the many brigs and transports they had. In addition, of the 35 units in production 20 were naval (including 6 more Ironclads).

Perhaps the size of the Confederate navy was the result of my inept blockade, which I have no doubt. But looking at the southern evonomy, they had 0% inflation. By contrast the north had 11%. So they never printed paper money - which implies not many drafts of manpower.

As a side note, Athena made no practical use of RE Lee, except perhaps as a diversion. He ended the war in Tennessee with 86 power, and no subordinate corps.

Bamilus
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Re: Stopping the AI from building so many ships!

Tue Jul 30, 2019 5:03 pm

Captain_Orso wrote:If you load the opponents side of the game, and then save that side's orders, during turn execution, those will be the ONLY orders the opponents side has. The AI only generates orders, if there is no ORD file for that side to execute.

There is a parameter which can be set, so that during turn execution, after the AI has created orders for all factions for which a player has not generated orders, the game simply drops back to the executing player's map display.

At this time you can load either side and change order for either faction, whether they originate from a player or were AI generated. When orders from all factions are present at turn execution, turn execution should proceed beyond AI orders generation and complete normally.

You can of course write some events which reduce the opponent's unit pools for ships. This might be the most workable solution, bc all others require messing with the orders Athena generated.

I wouldn't take away all Brigs at any rate, bc I very often use them extensively for blockade running, and think Athena ought to be able to do that as well.


And the parameter to set would be?

Rod Smart
Colonel
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Re: Stopping the AI from building so many ships!

Tue Sep 17, 2019 4:04 pm

Gray Fox wrote: I have never experienced Athena to build a Navy larger than the Union.


I have never experienced Athena to build a Navy SMALLER than the Union.
In games that last into 1864.
In part because I only build transports, stock replacements to fill out the damaged fleets I'm given, and completely ignore building river forces.

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