Total War: Warhammer 3 experiences...

[ZedClampet]

I have a love/hate relationship with Tzeentch. I love their units, but I hate their casualty replenishment, and I've always emphasized that in my games. I just can't stand slow replenishment.

So as you've probably noticed by now, I don't actually look up answers (haha). I don't go to the wiki or scour the forums or whatever. I just play the game, so sometimes I'm not 100 percent accurate in what I think is happening, but to the best of my knowledge Tzeentch can only get decent replenishment if they are garrisoned in a settlement (or maybe encamped nearby) that is part of a province that is completely owned by you or owned by you and an ally.

If you are just in a settlement that you own, you can get a very small (useless) amount of replenishment. If you are in encampment stance in a territory that is not entirely owned by you, you prevent attrition, but you don't replenish troops.

So I basically wanted to quit our co-op came. I'd already won us the first victory conditions using my normal, one province style (so I didn't notice the replenishment problem), but once I left my province I hated it. But my son was enjoying his Khorn campaign, so I decided to mod our games. I started to change the replenishment rates, but thought it would be more fun to change how many turns it takes to recruit units, so I made it so that every unit, whether local or global, can be recruited in one turn. This way I still have to deal with poor replenishment, but I have an out. Of course, the units I recruit aren't as high a level as the ones I'm losing, but that's better than the alternative.

But as I said, I love the mix of their units, even though I'm an artillery guy, and they don't have artillery. Their version of the Soul Grinders is well-rounded, though I'd rather have Nurgle's, but I love their flying cavalry. You just have to be careful with them and not leave them in the fight too long, so it's a lot of micro-management. They don't really have any low-end infantry that is respectable, but an army full of Exalted Pink Horrors is tough to beat and not that expensive to upkeep.+

But the best thing about Tzeentch is their Herald of Tzeentch (Metal) minor lord. I could listen to hie voice lines all day. He's like a very happy and optimistic Gilbert Godfried.

 

[ZedClampet]

So yesterday one of the highly anticipated updates hit, bringing mod support to the game.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to try it out. I started downloading the 56 GB update at 4 pm. The download went fast enough, but then it started patching. Then it ran out of space on my C drive. Then it ran into a drive error. Then I uninstalled the damn game and reinstalled it from scratch, which obviously worked much better, but by then it was getting late (for me), and I wasn't in the mood to play with it.

I've been casually working on a mod to overhaul the AI. So far, all I've done is remove the cheating. The AI can do things like spawn in 20 unit armies and ignore upkeep requirements, and I want it to play by the same rules that players play by. So now I'm going to see how the AI does without cheating. I have a feeling it's going to be ugly.

So after I see what happens with this, I'll start adjusting how the AI plays. Currently, they kind of play like idiots, to be honest.

One thing I think is interesting in reference to AI strategies is what the creator of the original Civilization game said about AI and players, which is that players think they want AI to act like players, but they really don't. If you are winning the game, and the AI gangs up to take you down, as real players would, people get mad. So I want to keep the AI playing within their personality profiles so that they won't do things like forming unlikely alliances simply to go after the player.

It's a big project that will take a long time for me to do, especially since I get distracted so easily. I've only managed the easy part so far, taking away the cheats. Now with every change I make I will have to play probably multiple games to get a reasonable idea of how the changes impacted play. If it were easy to make the AI competitive without cheats, I assume the game would already be that way.

The first thing I'm going to address is what the AI builds in their settlements. It will be different based on each faction's personality profile, but emphasizing the economy is something basically everyone will have to do. The game's upkeep requirements seriously hamper the player, and now it's going to hamper the AI, so if I want them to field armies, they are going to have to build the income buildings. My thinking right now is that aggressive factions will build economy first, growth second, and garrison third, so we'll see how well that works. Currently, they can't raise buildings that are no longer needed, and put something else up, so I'll have to address that (like getting rid of the growth buildings once they've maxed their province). They also need to budget their finances so that they can afford upgrades and mustering. Right now there is no budgeting for AI factions. They play by completely different rules.

Anyway, it all seems fun to play with. I may well fail at getting them competitive without cheating, but at least I'll have fun trying.

 

[ZedClampet]

By the way, all that stuff I said about the AI--like bonuses to upkeep, etc--when I was studying TWW2 is actually true, but that's only window dressing. The AI rules that really count aren't in the tables at all.

 

[ZedClampet]

I talked a little about this in another thread, but if you are having desync problems in TW Warhammer 3, it could be because the AI turn is ending for one player before it ends for the other, and that player is going ahead and starting his turn. Only solution I know is for everyone to confirm that the AI turn is over for them before anyone starts their turn.

 

[Pifanjr]

One of the reasons the AI gets to cheat so much is because their battle AI sucks though. If all of the AI factions play as well as a player on the campaign map but are still pushovers on the battle field the game will probably be far too easy.

 

[ZedClampet]

One of the reasons the AI gets to cheat so much is because their battle AI sucks though. If all of the AI factions play as well as a player on the campaign map but are still pushovers on the battle field the game will probably be far too easy.

What I don't understand is why they didn't use the TW Troy AI model for both battles and the campaign map. No, wait, I just now remembered why. People complained that it was too difficult, unfair and not fun.

If there is one thing Troy and TWW3 have proved it's that your average Total War player actually isn't very good. People got plain run over in Troy, and in TWW3 they couldn't manage the Chaos Wastes.

***********

Speaking of TWW3, they released a teaser trailer for the mode everyone has been waiting for in TWW3: the domination campaign. In fact you can play the beta now if you own all three games. I started playing Troy again yesterday, though, so I'm not in a hurry.

 

[Pifanjr]

What I don't understand is why they didn't use the TW Troy AI model for both battles and the campaign map. No, wait, I just now remembered why. People complained that it was too difficult, unfair and not fun.

If there is one thing Troy and TWW3 have proved it's that your average Total War player actually isn't very good. People got plain run over in Troy, and in TWW3 they couldn't manage the Chaos Wastes.

I do expect they'll update the AI a few more times during the next two years. The release for TWW3 seemed to be pretty rushed, but I do expect them to keep supporting it for at least as long as TWW2.

Speaking of TWW3, they released a teaser trailer for the mode everyone has been waiting for in TWW3: the domination campaign. In fact you can play the beta now if you own all three games. I started playing Troy again yesterday, though, so I'm not in a hurry.

Don't you mean Immortal Empires? Domination is the new battle mode for multiplayer I think.

View: https://youtu.be/eAuMUWYcSHc