AI Thoughts

[Endoperez]

The AI does hunt blood. It isn't very effective, but it does do something. I think the biggest problem is that Mictlan doesn't use the slaves effectively (summoning cheap summons/random summons that don't work together/ blood sacrifice) and that other nations don't have that many blood hunters.

Maybe one variable in the AI algorithm would be the gold cost of the most effective blood hunter? E.g. Jotunheim would have only few Skrattis hunting slaves, because they are expensive.
Also, if AI had lots of blood mages, it should know to start bloodhunting (Vaetti Hags have random Sorcery, so 1/4 has Blood, and they are very cheap researchers).

[thejeff]

But because the AI doesn't build castles, it can only build one national leader a turn, which means it has to choose between a cheap blood hunter and other more useful mages.

I'm not very good with the blood nations, but I know I don't really get the blood economy pumping until I can start dedicating castles to churning out cheap hunters, while still building some actual casters.

[NTJedi]

I know some AI opponents like ERMOR don't research any blood magic!

One of the biggest game improvements would be allowing us gamers to disable/enable specific spells and items. It's sad seeing the AI waste tons of earth gems on 20+ cave drakes during late game.

[Endoperez]

I happen to prefer enemies like Ermor not researching any blood magic...

Does the AI cast ritual spells that are meant to build castles?

If, say, Three Red Seconds was made a national spell for all the AI nations, removed from the research tree, and made Astral 1 ritual costing 5 gems... Could the AI use it?

[Arralen]

Hmm .. depends if its on the AI spell list, what it most likely isn't. Or it will try to cast it from a lab, but it uses only the lab in the home province - and there's a castle already present... .

Write a small mod, test it

[NTJedi]

Endoperez said:
I happen to prefer enemies like Ermor not researching any blood magic...

True... but Ermor can be made much worse if given one or more blood magic sites with blood income, given a handful of blood magic spells at the start of the game, and given an immobile commander with the magic ability to cast them.
Worked for me on giving Arcos this setup and Infernal Crusade... sure enough he had Juggernauts and Demon Knights attacking me mid and late game.

Endoperez said:
Does the AI cast ritual spells that are meant to build castles?

If, say, Three Red Seconds was made a national spell for all the AI nations, removed from the research tree, and made Astral 1 ritual costing 5 gems... Could the AI use it?

I believe this has a good chance of working... however will the AI be smart enough to know how to protect these places. It might make the game easier for humans if the humans have castle-types to use at the front lines since the computer doesn't seem to protect newly conquered castles that well.

[Endoperez]

[quote]
NTJedi said:

Endoperez said:
I happen to prefer enemies like Ermor not researching any blood magic...

True... but Ermor can be made much worse if given one or more blood magic sites with blood income, given a handful of blood magic spells at the start of the game, and given an immobile commander with the magic ability to cast them.
Worked for me on giving Arcos this setup and Infernal Crusade... sure enough he had Juggernauts and Demon Knights attacking me mid and late game.
[quote]


Even then, you aren't exactly waiting for AI to research those spells, are you? A Fountain of Blood, income of 3 slaves/turn, and Infernal Crusade (50 slaves) gives the AI a batch of Demon Knights every now and then, BUT ONLY if it doesn't use the salves for something else.

Would make for an interesting mod, any way. Or map, as all of this could also be accomplished that way.
mod: #reccom "Blood Summoner",
#startsite "Blood Income",
#school "Infernal Crusade" X Y (X is -2, IIRC, Y is nation number (Abysia 0, Machaka 16)
map:
#setland XYZ (capital province)
#knownfeature "Blood Income"
#commander "Blood Summoner"

[RedRover]

I think the AI would do a lot better with blood-hunting nations once it is capable of building more forts.

Perhaps some of those testing Dom3 might weigh in with an opinion? Is such an effect observable?

A default 25 PD for a province with a fort seems reasonable to me (possibly moddable by fort type and/or base nation); the trick would be to integrate this into the build/recruiting algorithm in a reasonable fashion.

One lump to PD 25 may be too much (325 gold), but maybe an initial build to 10 PD (55 gold), then +5 PD/turn to 25 (costs 65, 90, 115 gold, respectively)?

The simplest way might just be to add the default PD cost onto the fort cost and delay building until everything can be paid for at once. Of course, different approaches might be combined.