Question before buying!

[Gandalf Parker]

Eventually everyone tends to get too familiar and abit unhappy with the vanilla game. For those people there are varieties of game settings, special maps, game mods and nation mods, and even 3rd party programs. All of which are designed to make the game different than vanilla.

That doesnt just apply to MP play. It also applies to Solo play and to upgrading the AI. There are settings, maps, mods, modded nations, and 3rd party programs which take the AI far beyond what you might have played when you were going thru the demo or tutorial.

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

That doesnt just apply to MP play. It also applies to Solo play and to upgrading the AI. There are settings, maps, mods, modded nations, and 3rd party programs which take the AI far beyond what you might have played when you were going thru the demo or tutorial.

For SP, is there a particualr link/thread to guide to these? For example, I think I read the Balance Mod is not best for AI, where should I start looking? Thanks.

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

For SP, is there a particualr link/thread to guide to these? For example, I think I read the Balance Mod is not best for AI, where should I start looking? Thanks.

Some of the more popular ways to improve the SP experience are:

• Edi's Better Independents mod (sets recruit costs for indeps sky high so the AI doesn't create hordes of generic units.)
• Using a no-indep-recruitables (NI) map; Sombre created a few in this thread, and there are more if you dig around. (Uses map editing to remove generic units as poptype recruitables.)
• Ballbarian's SemiRandom program (creates maps from template files that have custom designed provinces/pretenders, so you don't get self-crippling AI opponents as much, and the province defenders are more likely to make sense for the province in question.)
• Specific scenario maps, like Edi's Faerun map (a map with custom designed provinces). There are other scenario maps out there, although not as many as one would like...
• Using "overpowered" mods as AI opponenents; some people put some of Amos' mods in that category, although I haven't tried them personally.

[Gandalf Parker]

This thread started out as "House Rules Against AI" but it turned into a general thread on improving the AI.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44783
Unfortunately there isnt a sticky on the subject of Solo games.

[JonBrave]

Thank you, guys above, these are all excellent answers!