An Overhaul of Missions Could Significantly Improve AI

[Pellucid]

So I've noticed that, with the occasional exception of France deciding it hates you forever because it took the "Get a Foothold in India" mission and you have one province there, missions seem to be a really good way of getting the AI to do the things it should be doing. Venice does a good job fighting for Cyprus (except when its fleets get confused); Ottomans do a good job going for Constantinople and Greece and the like; PLC tries to expand sensibly, etc. This has made me think that, if we could improve missions in general, we might be able to get other AIs behaving rationally as well.

Give German minors targeted missions to take regions necessary to form local German powers (Hannover, Netherlands) or Germany proper. Give the Italian minors targeted events to try to take the provinces to form Italy. We could probably even use missions to improve the colonization AI by giving Spain missions to focus on Central and South America, Portugal to focus on Brazil, etc.

I feel like all the generic missions primarily just give the human player a leg-up, since humans have a better idea of what they can and can't accomplish in terms of short-term goals. If we tossed all the generic missions and replaced them with targeted missions, it seems like the AI's decision-making could be channeled into effective long-term strategies.

 

[Oryxslayer]

The current missions are there to railroad the AI, because as you said, the AI responds very quickly and purposely to missions. It is used to achieve historical outcomes, not railroad the AI even more. The unnecessary missions, such as Spain colonizing Canada were removed in this patch, so PI doesn't like the fact they are railroading unhistorical outcomes. I personally don't think the AI needs any more of a mission focus, it might need to have set long term goals however. Perhaps a system to ensure a focus, rather then erratic actions would work, but missions are too effective at achieving this goal.

 

[V1ribus]

I'm with you 100% if and only if there is room for the AI to 'choose'. Portugal shouldn't always focus on Brazil, it should be able to decide on both random and factor-based conditions whether or not Brazil, Colombia or other Colonial Regions are going to be its focus; as long as we don't see Castilian La Plata and Castilian Canada existing with no Castilian CNs in the middle it will be an improvment..

 

[Pellucid]

I'm with you 100% if and only if there is room for the AI to 'choose'. Portugal shouldn't always focus on Brazil, it should be able to decide on both random and factor-based conditions whether or not Brazil, Colombia or other Colonial Regions are going to be its focus; as long as we don't see Castilian La Plata and Castilian Canada existing with no Castilian CNs in the middle it will be an improvment..

Sure. The idea here is to give the AI focus, not necessarily railroad it. The only things that should be railroaded are things that give it a significant in-game advantage, such as forming Italy, Russia, and the like.

 

[Xara]

Missions definitely need an overhaul.

They really fall into 3 categories:

1. Historical. These are, imo, generally fine, though some need rewards tweaked.

2. "Opportunities". These are the good ones, in my mind. I would think, from a design standpoint, that most missions ought to 'push' the player to consider a potential course of action.

3. I don't know what to call this except it's the "Well I was going to do this anyway, hopefully I get the mission that gives me a reward for it" category. These are things like getting a diplomatic marriage for a country you were going to do it anyway. Or "go conquer this province" that you were going to do anyway. Or "achieve religious unity" which you were going to do anyway. These are the badly designed ones, imo. These don't really push a player to pursue a course of action. The player plays around with available quests trying to get one that matches what they would do, regardless. It's backwards to how it should be.

Getting a quest to rightfully be in #2 rather than #3, of course, isn't easy.
And all of them pretty much need tweaking when it comes to rewards, too. Seriously, who here has ever picked "become curia controller" since they stopped being a noob?
Thankfully, reducing the timer for abandoning a mission was given, but there's still a sense of "well I ALMOST have it, I don't wanna abandon it now" that can come into play.
Missions with up-front rewards (conquer province gives you the claim and cb to do it) are probably fine, but a lot of the after-success rewards could use boosting, because 3-5 prestige just doesn't cut it when that's the ONLY thing you're getting.

As far as major changes, I'd like to see multiple concurrent missions available to be chosen, with the groupings split into Admin / Diplo / Military sections.
So you'd have 3 admin, 3 diplo, 3 military missions available, and you can pick 1 of each.
For extra credit, make the "Historical" missions their own, 4th grouping.

I'd also rather see many simpler quests combined into a more rewarding, more complex mission. Instead of "Marry Nation X" as whoever, make it "Obtain 4 royal marriages to secure your bloodline", and give it a bigger reward. Instead of "Attack your Rival", make it "Defeat your rival and humiliate them in the peace treaty" with a worthy reward. etc. etc. whatever. I'm ramblin.