I think that the AI's habit of mass developing any potential coal developing provinces ASAP is not only unrealistic but also game breaking. Provinces like Auvergne, Asturias and Metz become sprawling metrolpoli by the late 1500s all the while countries like Austria, Bohemia, France and Spain ignore their capitals and trade centres to dump all possible development to future coal mines. Needless to say, this is impossible to play around and makes many countries in Europe needlessly difficult to play, since the AI's obsession with theoretical coal development gives the unnatural levels of development way too early, increasing their economic and military capacity while making conquering these otherwise less than stellar provinces practically impossible if they're within the HRE and an absurd challenge without.
I am a fan of the AI learning to develop it's economy and provinces. I love that the game is more difficult because of the challenge the AI provides and not because of some cheap buffs on them or handicaps on the player. I think it is necessary for the AI to be able to manage its economy before it can learn to manage a military. But this isn't that. This is the opposite of a smart AI. This is the AI knowing that it will eventually benefit from an investment without losing much in the process and abusing that fact to its highest limit. This isn't interesting or fun to play against, it's just frustrating and makes the game a race to capture any potential coal provinces near your border before the AI gets them to +40 development and makes them almost impossible to conquer without creating a coalition.
TL;DR: the AI develops its coal provinces too much, which is impossible to play against without development spam, destroying the balance of the game and making it very unfun to play.
I am a fan of the AI learning to develop it's economy and provinces. I love that the game is more difficult because of the challenge the AI provides and not because of some cheap buffs on them or handicaps on the player. I think it is necessary for the AI to be able to manage its economy before it can learn to manage a military. But this isn't that. This is the opposite of a smart AI. This is the AI knowing that it will eventually benefit from an investment without losing much in the process and abusing that fact to its highest limit. This isn't interesting or fun to play against, it's just frustrating and makes the game a race to capture any potential coal provinces near your border before the AI gets them to +40 development and makes them almost impossible to conquer without creating a coalition.
TL;DR: the AI develops its coal provinces too much, which is impossible to play against without development spam, destroying the balance of the game and making it very unfun to play.
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