What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

See chart: I have been playing a single player for some time now and most of the AI's for once are expanding nicely. All except Rlyeh. They were expanding but for the last 100 turns have just flat lined. What causes this? Theories?

My theory is that the AI just hordes everything in the capitol province and just starves itself to death! Thoughts?

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Illness? Heartbroken? Unreturned love? Melancholia?

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

AI EA Rlyeh can't get out the sea, so I presume it conquered all the sea provinces it could (in its lake or whatever) and then never lost any of them.

Pretty simple.

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Ha nope! Long way to go for that! :)

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Strong indies. When AI faces, like, strength 9 indie knights all around itself, it becomes depressed and dies.

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Most of the time bad scales. All the games I've played SP, the AIs with hideous scales (Turmoil, Death, Misfortune 3 seems to be a popular combo) manage a strong push in the first 25 turns or so and then they just flatline because their scale combo has wiped out their population and resource base and they just linger on. Contrast with the ones who have good scales, such as high order, some growth, neutral or positive luck and perhaps otehr positives as well, those become absolute steamrollers.

Get an EA Vanheim with the good scales and you may well see an army of 300 hirdmen sweeping away everything in its way and that one being just one of many, for example.

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

That still doesn't explain what's in his screenshots. Rlyeh has a huge amount of units in its cap, but it has completely frozen, not losing a province or gaining one in a large number of turns. Obviously if it was trying to take indies it could, given its massive army there.

Maybe if you could show a shot with eyes of god up or something showing the edges of their territory, rather than just their cap? They do have a decent little empire, they just stopped taking new stuff.

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

A 'Defensive AI' could also be playing a part. Played SP games for over a year before playing MP games, and altered the settings enough to know that 'Defensive' 'Standard' 'Aggressive' AI does have an affect on how the AI plays (as it should do).

Although going nowhere for 100+ turns does seem very odd for any AI setting.

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Something I have noted on the AI's part at times: It gets into a war and expends all it's effort on it's opponent ignoring neutrals on another side.

Now, if it got into a war with someone on land that it couldn't attack it could get stuck.

I'm in a game against the AI now where I saw that with two empires. They both declared war on me and completely ignored a whole pile of neutrals. In one case I had deliberately left some of those neutrals alone so the AI would have an expansion path that didn't go through me as I didn't want to force a war while I was still expanding. It took the AI a few years to go around the mountain through the neutrals. (My army was mostly involved against the other AI and I was simply holding a chokepoint against the guy.)

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Those are "Polypal Spawns", auto-spawned by "Polypal Mothers" ... which have 0 strategic movement ... so if they where generated into their mothers squad, they'll sit there foreever.

Strange, though, is one thing: the mothers have only leadership 10, therefore the majority of the spawns should end up elsewhere, but maybe there's a bug involved ... .

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Could be as I am playing with strength 9 but the AI has more than enough troops to take care of this!

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Yes normally that could be it but in this game I put all AI's to have all balanced even scales no more no less...

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Hmm yeah I will use the eyes of god when I get there research wise to take a better look and Ill post!

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

It's R'lyeh - insanity is a feature. :-)

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Yep I think this must be it. It spawns all those troops but they cannot go anywhere. Then it probably just starves its capitol to death and cannot produce anything other than auto spawns. I definitely do think there is a bug somewhere here as I have seen this same situation before with EA Rlyeh many times...

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Normally I would think this to but as you said it has been going on for way longer than any setting should...

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Hmmm maybe I have seen this as well...

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Instead of Eyes of God, turn on --comptrn. Check how much its income is compared to the maintenance costs. It could be that income is effectively zero, which might mean it can't buy any leaders to move those polypal spawn to the front.

-Max

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Even if the AI cannot buy any more leaders (are those spawns not upkeep-free??), it still has it's pretender in the province (Wyrm), which should be able to lead at least hundred of them or more into battle ... unless they require magic command, and it maybe does not have magic leadership at all??

Maybe Kristoffer or better Johan should have a look at the turn file ...

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Thanks how do I turn that on just type comptrn? Yep good point not only has the AI probably starved itself to death with autospawn but probably bankrupted itself as well!

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Instead of typing "dom3.exe" at the command prompt, type "dom3.exe --comptrn". If you're accessing dom3 through a shortcut on Windows, right-click on the shortcut and select "Properties," and on the window that pops up, on the "Shortcut" tab (which is where it should start out) there's an entry that says "Target:" and has something like "c:\Program Files\Dominions3\dom3.exe" in it. Add " --comptrn" to the end. If you're using Linux it's different, but if you're using Linux you know enough to adapt the procedure anyway. ;)

Now, every time you play a turn in SP, it will generate a file for every computer player that lets you see their empire as if it were a human player's empire, except that for some reason you don't get scouting reports. You can see how many troops they have, what battles they fought against other AIs, what their gem income is, etc.

-Max

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

If you're seeking stronger and healthier AI opponents for the entire game... I recommend using the map edit commands to provide all of them with at least 1 growth scale. The death scale will hurt AI opponents more than anything by mid and late game. While a human opponent can handle provinces with low/decreasing population the AI will wither and flop like a dying fish. Giving all AI opponents at least 1 growth makes a huge difference and more fun challenge.

I also recommend not playing any maps with water UNLESS using only the AI nations which have the skill to enter water provinces such as EA Argatha; LA Atlantis; etc., . The vast majority of AI opponents have ZERO skill for attacking water provinces which provides a massive advantage for the human player. Once a human player controls a handful of water provinces the vast majority of land AI opponents cannot attack them.


Now if you're seeking a strong knock you off your seat challenge then do the following using map edit commands:

1) Using start location command in the map file setup yourself on the far left middle or far right middle of a land only map.

2) Using start location command in the map file setup EA Niefielheim on the opposite side of the map from where you are starting.

3) Using the scale commands provide EA Niefielheim with +3 Growth; +3 Order; +3 Luck; +1 Productivity. The +1 productivity will help Niefielheim from buying a massive amount of weak independents... not much, but it helps.

4) Using #knownfeature provide the starting location of EA Niefielheim with the magic site called Library. This will allow the AI opponent to research at a more competitive level.


Then play your SP game and watch the graphs as a powerful AI opponent grows in the distance.

Now it's possible you're a veteran SP player and even using the above 4 commands still don't provide the challenge you seek... thus add the following:

5) Using the poptype command add the command into the map file only for the first 50 provinces which surround the capital of EA Niefielheim. This allows more of his troops to be specific from his nation and less stupid weak AI independents.

6) Using the commander command provide EA Niefielheim with 5 or more SuperCombatants... which includes the equipped gear. This will increase its rate of expansion and allow for some interesting late game battles.

7) Using the knownfeature command provide the capital with an additional magic site which may include discounted casting and/or a higher gem income.

8) Using the god command provide EA Niefielheim with a double; triple or quadrapule blessing. Also equip the god with good and/or unique items. I'd recommend using a size_3 or size_4 god for AI opponents which helps keep them from sending their pretender into the arena death match.

9) Provide EA Niefielheim with an extra province or two or three somewhere on the map which has a castle; temple and lab. Add moderate to high level immobile spellcasters which greatly increase its defense. If desired add a few magic sites as well.

10) Using the Allies command provide the a few allies between some AI opponents. I wouldn't recommend having them all as allies unless you've setup a map where you're in the middle.


Using all the directions listed can provide even the most veteran player with a challenge.

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Thanks- Will this ruin my saved game or will I be able to go back?

Also- Where are these files located? Can I play as Ryleh to see what is going on?

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Hmm...I tried this but it says the target is not valid?

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

I've never tried 'going back,' but from my general knowledge of the way computer programs work I predict that it doesn't alter the state of the saved game, it just generates extra .trn files that let you see what the computer is doing. I.e. 'going back' is a simple matter of starting dom3 without --comptrn and generatinga new turn.

You can't actually *play* as the AI nations because any orders you give as an AI nation get ignored--your .2h file isn't processed. The files are located in the savedgames folder.

-Max

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Do you have a typo in your command? What command are you using? On my system it is

C:\usr\dominions3\dom3.exe --preexec backup.py --comptrn

[You can ignore the --preexec backup.py part]

-Max

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

I went to the windows shortcut "C:\Program Files\dominions3\dom3.exe" and added --comptrn but when I click ok it says invalid target...

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

What does it say now? I'm guessing that you left out the space.

C:\Program Files\dominions3\dom3.exe--comptrn [wrong, will probably give you invalid target]

C:\Program Files\dominions3\dom3.exe --comptrn [right]

We can probably be more help if you tell us what the target is that it's trying to execute--what does Target say now?

-Max

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Try it with the parameter (--comptrn) inside the quotes. If that doesn't work (or that's what you're doing already) try it outside the quotes. Different programs handle the command line slightly differently.

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Yep that fixed it I left out the space thanks! The other good news is that Ryleh is finally expanding!

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

Really? After like 100 turns of total stasis? What triggered it off?

Re: What causes the AI to just die and stop expanding?
 

I wish I knew! :)