[Chance]

Cyphon88, on 21 March 2011 - 10:49 PM, said:

The BAI hasn't been that impressive yet, and some bits of it are quite glitchy indeed.

I'd agree with that but it's nothing compared to whatever routine decides when to attack castles...as in every TW game. Sadly the strategic AI seems to lack in quite a few places, guess turning up the difficulty is the only real solution or autoresolve everything which is "fair".

Still finding the game very nice it got atmosphere which has been lacking in the last few TW games, its very pretty and if one does not expoit the AI too much it can be challanging at least for the first 30 or so turns even on normal at least as Oda or one of the other surrounded by enemies clans.

/Chance

[Gothos]

Playing as Date on Normal and methinks I could be running out of time in the short campaign...
The start went well, I secured the north, but quickly ran into trouble... Takeda were strong. Like, Strong. The ate Uesugi, Tokugawa and Oda for breakfast, and were already controlling much ground when I reached them. I arranged a marriage and went into an alliance, using them as buffer from further inland as I consolidated control over the northern regions, Taking Miyagi and one more province, though my Takeda allies beat me to taking the Fukushima province... I'll have to confront them, in the end, unless I can buy the province somehow down the line (it's in my victory conditions).
So, a few years passed, which I spent upgrading infrastructure, crushing a rebellion in my home province Iwata (god damn food shortage!) and even went up to the sword dojo upgrade where you get -1 to training times. Basically, now my sword infantry comes out of the oven with 4 ranks of experience, training 4 every turn - nice capacity. Pity that Iwata is so far away from fucking everything, I'll have to resort to transport by sea, and that's unsafe now because...
... because I went to war with Hatakeyama, and now Satomi (Satake got taken out sometime in between, I don't even remember), which both have better navy than me... at least so far. Since Satomi were allied with Takeda, I bought off Takeda with 500 koi per turn for 10 or 15 turns, and they went to war at my side. A few quick seasons later I found myself in posession of most of Satomi territory, while Takeda only managed to grab one province so far... Satomi still have like 3 but I had to call it a day.
Takeda seem to have armies consisting mostly of ashigaru of both varieties and bow samurai variety. I have mostly Katana Samurai and Date No-dachi Samurai. They've got the numbers and generals (I had to make my best general go medieval on his stomach ), but I have the quality and experience, as well as several superbly devious ninja and nefarious intent. By the way, ninja rock! I've got one who has like 9 stars in Assassinations and he's been running around killing every general and agent he sees. Another one is spcializing in sabotage and there's no castle gate, building or army he can't sabotage.
All in all I've been something of a backstabbing snake using a stronger clan as a shield against everyone. Is nice so far. But, it's like 1559 already and I only have what, 9 provinces? Out of 25 I need. That's... not a lot. I need a bigger fleet now, build up my army some more and take on the Takeda at some point. Or maybe just slide past them and take on the centre and south, taking Fukushima from them only as my last move after seizing Kyoto...

[Chance]

Shouldn't be a problem the AI sucks at defending its land. Sometimes its even better to attack a strong clan because their armies will be where they are fightning not in their rear. In my date and usegi games i turtled with 10-12 provinces until 1580ish then took a 40 province victory easy, the AI folds like a cardhouse when one has defeated its main stacks because of all the backstabbing. Might be worth nothing that vasals do count towards your victory conditions so faced with a troublesome province just vasal it off and hope the vasal does not backstab you (trade treaties seem to work most of the time, also one of the few ways to get trade going after Realm Divide event).

How large are the Takeda ? I haven't seen an enemy clan above 18 provinces yet and those where fairly harmless, the computer does not seem to understand that markets are a lot better then castles most of the time. Hence they tend to have undersized armies for their land except when they spontainously spawn stacks (or just some extra samurai) and generals which seem to be one of the few reasons the AI seems challanging.

As for transporting times it might be one of the things I like the least about this game...its pointless building up a province that isn't going to be at the frontlines as such its near pointless to build up your starting provinces (except as an economic centra) if your in a corner (date for example who either way has Miyagi (sp?) next to it which is superior either way). I'd loved it if the map had more provinces instead of extremely large ones.



/Chance

This post has been edited by Chance: 22 March 2011 - 05:34 PM

[Gothos]

Takeda had like 15 provinces when I had 11. Odd thing - don't AI players get Realm Divided too?
In any case, I've since abandoned that game as it seemed unwinnable at the point I was. I really screwed up on several levels. My distribution of forces was wrong and I timed my backstabbing attack wrong. I've managed to take 6 Takeda provinces, including sacking their capital, but at that point my armies were quite reduced, reinforcements were years away (fuck you Iwate) and Realm Divided kicked in and other factions started to pour in alongside the Takeda main stack.
The errors I've made that I can think of:
1. Having my major production centres in the far back of the map, making reinforcements non-existant pretty much.
2. Neglecting fleets - when I went to war with everyone, the sea was instantly cleared of any ships I've had. No seaborne raids for me! No troop transports!
3. Force distribution and scouting - I ended up marching more than half my forces to empty castles for no good reason at all. I could've taken most of his backwater provinces with bands of ashigaru, and use my 5-6 exp bar samurai and cav to tie Takeda and others' armies.
4. Sacking the Takeda capital. I could've used a major recruitment centre, but all I did was make it rebel and they gained a full stack of decent troops.
5. Timing. I actually moved against Takeda before all my forces were properly in place. I was absolutely terrified of the time limit for the short campaign at 1580, so I played my hand too early.


I'll do better next time, I think.

[Chance]

Gothos, on 23 March 2011 - 07:29 AM, said:

Takeda had like 15 provinces when I had 11. Odd thing - don't AI players get Realm Divided too?

As with many things in this game Realm Divided is only an obstacle for the player and a fairly harsh one if your not prepared for it. The worst that happens to AI players is the player being given a mission by the shogun to attack them for some great shorttime bonuses.

This post has been edited by Chance: 23 March 2011 - 09:18 AM

[Cyphon]

There is a mod out to make it better, check it out, it doesn't seem to bad, although I've yet to see it's affects on one of my games (Got my ass whupped on my first campaign on VH as the Shimazu, but I learnt some lessons from it certainly).

[Gothos]

Oh and an annoying bug in the game - if you had agents in your army when you conquer a town and Vassal it - you'll lose control of the agents but they'll still use up your limit and take upkeep.

[Cyphon]

That does sound annoying, thanks for the heads up.

[Trull's son]

Anyone else getting the random crash problem when you end turn, and just before the AI finish their turns? I cannot get past the crash, and have quite a few hours logged into that game only to have it crash and stop me in my tracks. I've tried a couple of the fixes recommended online, but they basically amount to having the right drivers etc. Damn shame too; I haven't had this much fun playing a TW game since Rome.

This post has been edited by Trull's son: 29 March 2011 - 09:10 PM

[MTS]

I've only played this for an hour or so, but is it just me, or are there an insane amount of factions? It takes forever just to get between turns.

[Tapper]

MTS, on 30 March 2011 - 12:07 AM, said:

I've only played this for an hour or so, but is it just me, or are there an insane amount of factions? It takes forever just to get between turns.

Every province has an actively playing faction occupying it now, so there are a great many.
You're the first I hear who mentions this, though.... On my system, it is much, much faster than Empire (which by itself isn't saying much as that game sucked donkeyballs in space). The length of AI faction resolution is not a problem for me at all, and goes really quickly.

However, loading battlefields (especially the general speeches) and certain screen jumps (diplo screen) sometimes leads to me regaining a loading screen.

[MTS]

Tapper, on 30 March 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

MTS, on 30 March 2011 - 12:07 AM, said:

I've only played this for an hour or so, but is it just me, or are there an insane amount of factions? It takes forever just to get between turns.

Every province has an actively playing faction occupying it now, so there are a great many.
You're the first I hear who mentions this, though.... On my system, it is much, much faster than Empire (which by itself isn't saying much as that game sucked donkeyballs in space). The length of AI faction resolution is not a problem for me at all, and goes really quickly.

However, loading battlefields (especially the general speeches) and certain screen jumps (diplo screen) sometimes leads to me regaining a loading screen.

*shrugs* Maybe it's my computer, but at the moment it's almost too slow to play.

[Cyphon]

I assume you've changed the processor priority and closed down all the porn your streaming when playing?

If that don't help, guessing it's your computer.

[Cause]

Thread Necro- What can I say Im behind the times

So I finally started to play this game a few days ago. Its a struggle to wrap my head around how different things are.

The first thing I noticed (I played Date who i think have the problem particularly) is just how slow armies move now and how big a province can be. From my starting town to my nearest neighbor I think took me 3-4 turns when I started the game.

Secondly what a Fuster Cluck! 50 factions or more to start the game with.Due to the long travel times and limited armies you have to ally with somebody. Problem is they then go and declare war on the meanest clan and your screwed. Fight them and suffer or break your alliance and have a permanent diplomacy penalty.

The Diplomacy AI is as bad and nonsensical as ever. I have beat clans to near extinction only to have them beg for my mercy and sue for peace. Two turns later they will declare war on me and I will crush them. Still I had to agree at the time because with so few armies and so many choke points and insane travel times its a problem to be fighting on every front at once.

The economy is neutered. I think I made some mistakes here but even so I can seldom afford half of what I need and none of what I want. In Rome/empire I used to make thousands a turn. In Shogun 1 to 3k is the best I can do depending on whether I am being blockaded or raided at sea that turn. Most trade agreements get cancelled after a few turns as clans lose their ports, get landlocked or have their road to me cut off. Or my ally declares war on them or is declared war on. Everything keeps shifting and the whole island hates me. My only Ally is someone who I have to betray eventually because they sit on two of my victory provinces. I wish I had just killed them early game, they have caused me nothing but problems but they are in my rear soft underbelly so killing them must wait.

Speaking of changes being too fast, I often find myself declaring war on a tiny two province clan or leaving an enemy alone for 5 turns with 2 provinces left only to come back to find they tripled in size. This keeps happening to me. The Takeda and Iko Iko are like cockroaches.

Sieges are faster paced, but I still have no siege equipment and I don't think anyone else does either, which just makes them charnel houses with very little tactical options. You should still have the option to wait a turn or two to build ladders or something to help you when you do assault. I have in the past exploited a bug which makes the AI assign too high a priority to killing your general. So I run him to the wall and retreat and they send one unit at a time to hunt him down. I have almost destroyed whole stacks piece meal this way, the only thing the ai wont send out is the archers. I do like the garrison idea but except for the highest castles there is no point. 2 units cant stop anything, five can at least wipe out an enemy unit or two. With A citadel I could probably beat of most of anything. Its also annoying that the garrison will only make up the difference in units to twenty if an army is in the city.

I nearly lost my game when my Ally decalred war on a clan on the other side of the map, which I just ignored. Untill they landed a full stack in my rear, it took me five turns just to respond. As I said I like how managing the size of your armies vs the number or provinces and garrisons you have works and I think the borked economy is to create this difficulty but my god! I am just luckily this does not happen more often. Since then I have created two fleets which do nothing but block any ship that tries to pass my frontier. Its a massive drain on upkeep!

All in all though these changes seemed to have slowed the games pace. Its been maybe 80 turns and i only have 15 provinces and have yet to get the chance to purchase some of the higher end buildings, agents, or specialized units.

-Oh yeah and Since everyone already hates me I predict Realm Divide not being fun!

This post has been edited by Cause: 21 January 2014 - 11:09 AM

[Tapper]

Realm Divide is more of a pain in the backside if you are loved and built up your allies. Unless they patched it.
Used to be that your allies would declare war, too - if everyone is already your enemy, there's simply no change

[Cause]

Tapper, on 21 January 2014 - 12:06 PM, said:

Realm Divide is more of a pain in the backside if you are loved and built up your allies. Unless they patched it.
Used to be that your allies would declare war, too - if everyone is already your enemy, there's simply no change

Yes but at least now everyone hates everyone else too. Doesn't realm divide make them co-operate? I also think the one ally I do have will not be solid enough to stay with me. Which means I need to get rid of him before he stabs me in the back!

[Tapper]

Cause, on 21 January 2014 - 12:32 PM, said:

Tapper, on 21 January 2014 - 12:06 PM, said:

Realm Divide is more of a pain in the backside if you are loved and built up your allies. Unless they patched it.
Used to be that your allies would declare war, too - if everyone is already your enemy, there's simply no change

Yes but at least now everyone hates everyone else too. Doesn't realm divide make them co-operate? I also think the one ally I do have will not be solid enough to stay with me. Which means I need to get rid of him before he stabs me in the back!

Use his provinces to get to majority +1.
The rest of the realm (to my knowledge) doesn't start to co-operate or military access one another, iirc. The main penalty is income-wise if you relied on trade, and your troop stacks will get little rest.

[Cause]

Seems I was complaining to soon. Booted up my save and started playing again and suddenly I was a steamroller! I think the death of my Daimyo was the best thing to happen to me, his heir took the throne and everyone loves him, diplomacy stabilized and everything went my way. Suddenly I'm making decent money, hiring troops, taking regions etc. Though Of course I just triggered realm divide and now things are not so rosy! Also taking Kyoto looks like it could be a problem. A maxed out castle with a full stack, with another full stack standing next to it.

[Gothos]

Last time I played this, realm divide made everyone - including my allies - declare war on me, at which point I said fuck this shit and went to play something else. Did they change that mechanic?

[Cause]

Gothos, on 22 January 2014 - 06:49 AM, said:

Last time I played this, realm divide made everyone - including my allies - declare war on me, at which point I said fuck this shit and went to play something else. Did they change that mechanic?

Near as I can Tell Realm Divide Triggers a -40 penalty to all diplomatic relations and it grows by -5 every turn. Any relationship which drops from friendly to indifferent then seems to declare war on you immediately. So yes little has changed and I am war with every clan! Luckily they do also war with each other to a small degree. I do see how having it surprise you can end your game. I really dont know what happened buy my game just flipped a switch and Im winning so for me its not that big a problem. Im glad I stuck with it cause I thought things were hopeless a while back.

Still I find it worrying that its 180 turns into the game and I have only just started to train cavalry and still have no siege equipment!