Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

No I played with Hinnom on a No Indies map and they still got tooled by the other AIs.

I think the best AI nation barring UW or LA Ermor is EA Ulm. It seems to do well every time.

In terms of balancing, you can't worry too much about SP and the AI, because the AI doesn't use the nations as they are supposed to be used anyway. Despite them having awesome PD and a strong starting force, the sort of things the AI can use well, they still don't do great. I don't really understand why though.

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

Based on limited observation, the AI Hinnom perfers to recruit the first 4 troops on the recruit screen. I theorize it is because these unit require lower gold/resources and it allows a larger quantity of unit recuits each turn.

You just never see AI Hinnom use chariots, for example. And you never see AI Caelum massing Mammoths for the same computer logic.

And EA ULM does well because the gold/resource costs of all its troops are approximately the same (slightly higher for best unit), so they do not have a precipitious drop off in unit quality when the computer chooses quantity over quality.

Using the Improved Computer Opponents mod you will see Caelum armies with 20 Mammoths, only because of restricted choice. Based on this thread, I'll add Hinnom and post it tonight.

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

Wow, I think you are onto something! Your explanation fits well with the massive armies of Marverni Horn Blowers the AI loves to parade around.

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

I think you've nailed the problem on its head.

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

Thank you both.

For additional confirmation try the existing EA or MA Improved Computer Opponents mods.

I've run some quick tests with Hinnom and determined balancing the changes will take some time. I had a similar problem with EA Argatha. In nations where the top end recruitables are vastly stronger than the rest I've found getting a balanced boost is more difficult.

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

Ive seen many suggestions for MP which would break AI or break the enjoyment of playing a nation in solo games. Ive also seen suggestions for AI or SP which would break MP etc etc.

I dont think that SP has been ignored by the Devs. In fact I think that many of the recent additions to the game are pro-SP and possibly damaging to MP. But the impression of nelect towards SP does exist in the forums. Thats understandable though. The MPers need to hang around more to get games, and need to create logins. The statistics on sales and on forum use (anonymous readers tend to outnumber registered by 200% in the forum at any time) it appears that there are many many SPers who just come for quick answers

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

That may be the case, Gandalf, but I don't think the game was ever built with SP in mind-and without a more powerful AI, it's hard to shoehorn in strong solutions, although I'm confident the Devs *do* try, they've been very attentive to our needs and desires, within the constraints of their limited time.

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

I always found SP very entertaining. Now that I'm playing even MP I find it of course much more interesting, with diplomacy and everything - yet I'm always gonna play SP too and every improvement in this, is welcome :)

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

SP is a far easier experience to tailor via mods than MP because you don't have to get permission from other people or wait for them to test and agree/disagree with changes.

Hence I am generally of the opinion changes should be made with MP far more in mind. Besides which, most nerfs of Hinnom would also be good for single player. Try playing as them in SP - it's ridiculously easy to school the AIs even with extremely heavy handicaps like staling for 10 turns at the start. The AI just doesn't have any answer for the all around elite game Hinnom brings.

Re: No more MP for Hinnom?
 

I'm not so sure I understand the logic behind saying that fixing a nation in MP is going to break it in SP...

Tolerating a broken nation so that it works with a broken AI is what is not a solution at all. Fixing a nation for MP should have precedence over making a nation work well with a dysfunctional AI.

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?