Fix AI debt spiral / alliance issues. It's been broken for weeks, and it's gamebreaking.

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Most (not all) of the budget issues with the AI can be fixed via a mod - something I have been working on and may release at some point in the near future. I've been able to get the AI to essentially always run on very low debt, actually use privileges and correctly build up an economy. What causes the issues in the first place is Paradox's lack of wanting to railroad the AI into better thought process and more efficient plays. I achieved making the AI much better mostly without adding in hidden cheats but with that being said - AI really does need more 'cheats' than whats provided in the base game, their decision making process and resource management are both horrendous.

It's a easily solved problem (like really, I removed the very hard bonus then added my own cheats - less than what PDX had - and my AI performs much better than the base game) but Paradox won't railroad the AI, it makes the game too difficult for probably the large majority of casual players - hence the countless 'Ottomans are OP' posts on the forums. An option for it would be nice but again, effort vs reward.
 
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You can see several mothballed forts in that very picture. And the country is making a profit, so it's not in that terrible a state. It's just not putting enough effort into paying off loans, or reducing inflation.
An Ottomans that only make 7 ducats of profit at peace won't be able to spam manufactories, and they'll never be able to repay loans quick enough. They'll run a deficit instantly once they get into war. That's a terrible state, and that's why they have 7k debt already. That's the standard indebted nation of 1.30. They aren't on the verge of collapsing, but their debt will rise until 1821, potentially without a single bankruptcy but with 20-30k debt by the end.
 
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Most (not all) of the budget issues with the AI can be fixed via a mod - something I have been working on and may release at some point in the near future. I've been able to get the AI to essentially always run on very low debt, actually use privileges and correctly build up an economy. What causes the issues in the first place is Paradox's lack of wanting to railroad the AI into better thought process and more efficient plays. I achieved making the AI much better mostly without adding in hidden cheats but with that being said - AI really does need more 'cheats' than whats provided in the base game, their decision making process and resource management are both horrendous.

It's a easily solved problem (like really, I removed the very hard bonus then added my own cheats - less than what PDX had - and my AI performs much better than the base game) but Paradox won't railroad the AI, it makes the game too difficult for probably the large majority of casual players - hence the countless 'Ottomans are OP' posts on the forums. An option for it would be nice but again, effort vs reward.

Can you give a shout out if you release the mod? I would be happy to give it a test, playing vs the current debt spiral AI is just awful.
 
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Today, July 9th is one month from release and a gamebreaking bug is still not fixed. I’m just stating an objectives truth. You can draw your own conclusions.
 
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Out of interest, what latitude do you live at?

Because the answer to that question may have a strong impact on your ability to understand why someone would go on their July holiday as planned (and why their manager would not object) with the software in this state.

Wouldn’t impact my ability. I was brought up on, ‘don’t leave until the job is done.’

Going on vacay with the game in this state is very disrespectful and lazy. I would be embarrassed.

edit: even more, its unprofessional as hell. In what world is it fair practice to give the consumer a goods or service in this state and then do a ‘mic drop’ and exit stage left.

I mean, you have to believe they either knew about the issue, or they did not. And neither scenario affords them a good excuse.
 
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Wouldn’t impact my ability. I was brought up on, ‘don’t leave until the job is done.
I'm not going to fault workers in a non-critical profession (like, say, gamedev) who live at 59°N for taking their already-booked July holiday even if there's work to be done.

On the other hand, I will cheerfully fault their product manager or their capitalist proprietor for (respectively) scheduling, or allowing to be scheduled, a release for the 9th of June when the company site is in a country where "nearly everyone takes a long holiday in July" is standard accepted practice.

In the end, it's a video game, one of a great many in my collection. I'd rather that Paradox treat their workers well and soak the PR hit from a long period of bugginess, than ruin their workers' summer plans.
 
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Nothing quite like giving up on an imperator rome playthrough because of a major bug that breaks navies and costs me my run then trying EU4 only to find that theres a different major bug that breaks alliances and costs me my run
 
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I'm not going to fault workers in a non-critical profession (like, say, gamedev) who live at 59°N for taking their already-booked July holiday even if there's work to be done.

On the other hand, I will cheerfully fault their product manager or their capitalist proprietor for (respectively) scheduling, or allowing to be scheduled, a release for the 9th of June when the company site is in a country where "nearly everyone takes a long holiday in July" is standard accepted practice.

In the end, it's a video game, one of a great many in my collection. I'd rather that Paradox treat their workers well and soak the PR hit from a long period of bugginess, than ruin their workers' summer plans.

That is true, often a boss/manager puts lower in an impossible or unfair situation, and in that case, yes, take the vacation, otherwise they are getting screwed.

But *someone* there needs a kick in the pants!
 
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Honestly just stop releasing a huge patch before a huge vacation.
 
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How about before they go to a vacation a response just saying "we know, we will be working on it and hope to have something out in early August (or whenever).." Though, to be fair, that would probably be met with a bunch of unhappiness. But it would certainly be better than wondering if/when they are going to work on it.
 
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This Is shameful
 
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How about before they go to a vacation a response just saying "we know, we will be working on it and hope to have something out in early August (or whenever).." Though, to be fair, that would probably be met with a bunch of unhappiness. But it would certainly be better than wondering if/when they are going to work on it.
Yep, the thing that really pisses me off is that no one has made any communication about that.
 
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How about before they go to a vacation a response just saying "we know, we will be working on it and hope to have something out in early August (or whenever).." Though, to be fair, that would probably be met with a bunch of unhappiness. But it would certainly be better than wondering if/when they are going to work on it.
Yep, the thing that really pisses me off is that no one has made any communication about that.

The problem is if they go to recent form. The Two hotfixes BEFORE vacation will be considered fixing the patch. Then after Vacation they will be working on next patch or DLC.
 
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Here's a good example of the problem. A few years ago i checked and the Ottomans were not in debt, and since then they where not involved in a single war. Yet they somehow found themselves 1.7k in debt... Wth is the ai doing with their money?


Clearly this is not just a problem of the ai building to many shipyards and regimental camps and not enough workshops and manufactories. The ai is doing something stupid with their money while they are at peace.

They also have no manpower (again, they've been at peace for decades!). Where can you even spend your manpower when at peace?


Would be great if we could get a fix before the summer.

I think the AI takes out loans to embrace institutions. Honestly, I don't think the real issue here is that the AI is willing to take on massive debt so much as that debt shouldn't be a deterrent from joining a winnable war. We should be able to call allies with monetary promises just like we are able to promise land.
 
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I think the AI takes out loans to embrace institutions. Honestly, I don't think the real issue here is that the AI is willing to take on massive debt so much as that debt shouldn't be a deterrent from joining a winnable war. We should be able to call allies with monetary promises just like we are able to promise land.

The problem is it is actually taking out debt to build and disband units over and over again. Why you also see little to no manpower from many off those countries. Usually they hired mercs causing a budget vs. % of force limit desired issue, and it can't resolve it without getting into a loop of building/disbanding.
 
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I think the AI takes out loans to embrace institutions. Honestly, I don't think the real issue here is that the AI is willing to take on massive debt so much as that debt shouldn't be a deterrent from joining a winnable war. We should be able to call allies with monetary promises just like we are able to promise land.

They may just have to treat debt like sailors. Ai just ignores it, and it gets magically paid off every five years.
 
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An Ottomans that only make 7 ducats of profit at peace won't be able to spam manufactories, and they'll never be able to repay loans quick enough. They'll run a deficit instantly once they get into war. That's a terrible state, and that's why they have 7k debt already. That's the standard indebted nation of 1.30. They aren't on the verge of collapsing, but their debt will rise until 1821, potentially without a single bankruptcy but with 20-30k debt by the end.

I kicked the Ottoman's teeth in (when they had plenty of income and no debt in 1.30) twice in a row with Max Money (25 WS) and War Reparations and 65 WS to provinces.

How I did it the first time? My combat width is 27, so I added 2 x 27 stacks of artillery and called in streltsy. 100 Power Projection from farming my rivals, 100 Prestige from farming my rivals, +5% Discipline Advisor, 5% from Icon. Absolutely wrekt them. Finished the first war with 100 army tradition.

They were completely de-fanged. As nobody has allied them besides some OPMs, I have fought 2 more 100% wars against them.

Ottoman's aren't OP'd, you just have to kick their teeth in once when they're fighting HRE, Mamluks, or France when she is Catholic defender of the faith.
 
Just started a game as Ajuuraan, got a claim on Pate from the Diet, so I was able to declare on the 12/12/1444. I want to check how many troops I need to get the most flanking possible - well, none. Pate disbanded their entire army within the first month of the game.

Ten years into the game, Ethiopia is sitting at 4k troops, Adal at 2k. Another five years later, Kilwa (who has been keeping around 15k until now) finishes integrating Sofala - and goes down to 6k troops.

I'm sorry, I always try not to be too overly dramatic about things, but this is really freaking sad. There's a lot I love about the newest patch and expansion, but this makes me want to revert to 1.24 or 1.25 again.
 
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Someone said in another thread that it became better by changing the defines.lua file

"MERCENARY_COMPANY_MIN_REGIMENTS = 4
MERCENARY_COMPANY_MAX_REGIMENTS = 20,"

By changing both the 4 and 20 to 0. My game crashes after a certain time if I do it on an already running campaign, but perhaps for a new campaign it would work well.
 
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