Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

If i make a map with some unconnected provinces (say around 6) as special "pocket planes", when the AI reaches the research for teleporting/etc... will the Ai attack these provinces?

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

The AI is extremely unlikely to teleport/cloud trapeze into them, but could maybe send some remote attacks if owned by a nation they're at war with. Since that pretty much means that having 5-10 PD in those provinces will stop the AI from ever reaching them, the answer is effectively no.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Ok... then i will simply assign some very powerfull guardians to the "gates" to these provinces instead.... thanks.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Here are some other ideas for this solo provinces:

1) add magic sites which curse, disease, bad_luck, or give horror marks so they are poorly guarded by the human player.

2) I believe ballbarian found a method to prevent the option of building castles. I don't remember the details.

3) create a mod which will allow the ranged attack summoning spells to be more powerful, since most are relatively weak. The ghoul one is especially pathetic.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Thanks for the tips NTJedi... i will not create a mod for the map as i want to be able to play it with CBM and other mods, but since i already was thinking of adding special sites to the "pocket plane" provinces i think i'll also add 1 or 2 sites with bad effects to them too... i want to add 1 level 4 site to each pocket plane and then i will add another 1 or 2 damaging sites too...

i decided that i'll add 8 "pocket planes" to the map, with each one having 1 good level 4 site of a magic path and 1 or 2 bad sites... any recommendations on bad sites? and what are considered the best sites of each magic path?

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

I doubt the AI would ever do any attacks against the provinces--without any direct access to them the AI would never realize who owned the province and thus it would have no reason to attack. (Admittedly, this wouldn't work if the AI knows things it shouldn't.)

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

The AI knows things it shouldn't.

This is why it will occasionally declare war on you and drop remote attacks and seeking arrows on you while you have no idea where it is.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Keep in mind that the AI is another nation in the game.
In fact, its 3 nations. Indepts, Spec1, and Spec2. Those "nations" are susceptible to the same things in the game as everyone else. So even the Independents will get random events which attack their locations.

So in that way, YES, the AI will attack unconnected provinces.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

That makes no sense at all. The AI, in this context, refers to AI played nations. It's true that independents and special monsters are implemented as nations, but that's pretty much just for the purpose of figuring out who fights who. They don't recruit troops, cast spells or attack other provinces.

Random events do happen to unconnected provinces, but that has nothing to do with whether AI nations will attack them. (Exception, some nations unlock random events that provinces with national troops. LA Ermor cultist attack comes to mind.)

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

If the intent is to make them difficult to hold by human players, keep in mind that bad sites generally do nothing to weaken province defense. I suppose sites pushing scales to Misfortune/Turmoil 3 might increase turnover, but random attacks will generally be only so strong unless you mod the units involved and AFAIK will never storm a fortress.

The bad sites have a much greater chance of working against whatever independent guardians you put there, unless you carefully choose sites to which they're immune (like disease sites for demons/undead guardians).

I suppose that independent units placed on a map are never in 'hide' mode, right? Otherwise, one could perhaps mod a super-stealthy mega-astral + high-MR commander + mega-recuperation + mega-regeneration that autospawned enough nastiness to overwhelm plausible PD and require a real defense to stop).

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Well as long as your mod doesn't conflict with the other ones in spell/unit IDs or something similar that shouldn't be a problem - should it?

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

No, it would be fine. You just have to compare what you've done to Sombre's Mod Catalogue spreadsheet.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

It should also be noted that when independent provinces get "attacked" they actually get reinforced with more units, they don't actually fight the "attackers".

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Thats not entirely true. But I should have mentioned that it does sometimes. (I forgot that)

There are 3 AIs for indepts and random events. IF the AI for that attack matches the AI of the province, then it acts just like one of its own armies moving to the province. It joins the army that is there.

But if they dont match, they fight.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

I have never seen them fight. Even with scouts splattered across independent provinces. I've seen plenty of provinces that have been reinforced. Of course it's easier to see those, since you don't have to be present when the event occurs.

How are these AIs assigned? Randomly? Do all of them occur as "random attack" events or only the one used for independent provinces?

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

I think what gandalf is saying is that if special monsters attack independents, then the two groups will fight. But if they're attacked by a random attack that would generate independents, the two groups will merge.

All I was talking about were indy provinces and indy generating attacks, as opposed to special monster groups. So as far as I can tell, what I said should be sound. Although gandalf also seems to be implying that there's a group of special monsters that will attack an indy province and then take it over, which... as far as I can tell, could only even theoretically occur in the case of the eater of the dead going berserk, and I'm not even sure about that one.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

You can also attack indies with remote special monsters, Horrors, Ghost Riders, etc. Which fits what he's saying. But I don't think there are any random special monster attacks.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

There is a very rare type of Indy's comprised of Unicorns, Pixies and Leprechauns, which can appear and attack regular Indy provinces, capture them, and then start building magical fantasy cities (not just forts!!). And if you capture these cities (though be warned, Pixies are tough as nuts!), you will find they contain things like libraries, factories, stables, universities etc, which you can upgrade to improve your troops, mages, and even the AI of your mages.

Sadly these Indy's are very rare and hard to trigger, so the chances of you seeing them in a normal game are zero :( Although this is intended, as they are in fact one of the many hidden Easter Eggs Illwinter has put in the game. But the good news is you can trigger them if you know how :) and luckily for you all, I do know how :D As what you need to do is....


Start by empowering a Pan to N10B10, make him an assassin with a Black Heart, and then (from here on things get tricky) every turn for 10 consecutive turns you need to Hellbind Heart an enemy mage 1st round during an assassination attempt (Note, it has to be the first round, or the counter resets). But it is also essential that the Charmed mage (Note, it has to be mage of some sort) must survive the battle against the enemy forces in the province every time. If the mage it killed, the counter is reset. (*Hint. This is why retreat orders are followed in some assassination attempts, but ignored in others)

Then after you've done this, you must send the same Pan to the Arena for another 10 consecutive turns, where he has to Charm (Note, you must not use Hellbind Heart) 3 commanders each Arena contest, all in the first round, and all 3 commanders must make it back to your capital the next turn from wherever they end up (*Hint. Use Vortex of Returning). Like the first part, this process also must be repeated for 10 consecutive turns (*Hint. You will need at least one Wish caster to wish for death matches. I personally prefer empowering WraithLord's to S9 when I need a Wish caster)

And during the 20 turns that all this is happening, you must have placed a stealth army in every province on the map, and the total stealth value of each army must be a minimum of 1,000. None of these armies must ever be discovered either, as if they are, the counter immediately resets.


As Easter Eggs go it's a tough one to get. But well worth checking out IMO if you have the spare time.

Oh, and I also have to mention that to trigger this Easter Egg you must be either EA or MA Pangaea (obviously), playing on at least a 5,000 province map, be the only human player, and up against a minimum of 15 AI nations. With all the nations in the game having to survive from the start to the moment you trigger the "I live in a fantasy world with no connection to reality" Special Indy Attack (to give it it's full name). Plus all of this has to be done within 100 turns.

Good Luck :)

(ps. I would attach a save file showing this Easter Egg, but I won't, as where's the fun in that for you guys)

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Brb, testing this.

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Wow nice. I'll update the wiki!

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Sorry I didnt notice this earlier.
Actually all 3 (indepts, Spec1, Spec2) are individual AIs. They can be turned on in a game using map and/or server commands. In particular Spec1 and Spec2 can be turned on as full computer players. I do it on the Chaos games on my server (chaos games are not recommended for new players). The result is abit of extra fun to have independent armies with a pretender and a prophet marching across the board. They all fly the white banner so its not as easy to tell when you are being marched on until it catches you by surprise. They also are automatically immune to certain long-distance attacks.
http://www.dom3minions.com/HostedGames.htm

Re: Attacking Unconnected Provinces
 

Yes, that's all true, but still irrelevant. I understand that all three are individual AIs, and could be made into AI nations, but normally they are not. (It's a neat idea and I can see how it could be fun to play with.)

In normal usage AI nation refers to the same nations that a human player could play but controlled by the computer, not to random attacks that are grouped together for convenience into things that could be nations but aren't.
So when someone asks, "will the AI attack unconnected provinces?", to reply as you did may be technically true, but it's at best misleading.

It's also misleading to say that <paraphrasing> random attack events sometimes reinforce independents. As far as I can tell, barring map or mod hacks, it's not sometimes but always. "Almost always" would have worked, as would "Always, with the following exceptions ..."
"Sometimes" is just wrong.