Is this game too easy?

[TempestDK]

Of course the game is going to be easy if you cheat.

There are three simple ways to make Crusader Kings harder, which incidentally works for all Paradox games.

1) Do not save and reload. I.E, saving and reloading until you get that perfect child or education or win a battle, whatever.

2) Do not pause the game. Make it as slow or as fast as you want in certain stages, but do not pause it unless you need to actually get up. On the lowest setting, a single month takes quite awhile, giving you plenty of time in a year of gameplay. That is more then enough to do even the finest combing of other courts.

3) I'm sorry, did I mention to STOP SAVING AND RELOADING!? The Paradox AI is actually damn decent if you don't exploit it. Granted, it takes self-control.

The hardest difficulty setting is also much better, since it makes popping out kids the most realistic. Also, be sure you have the latest patch. The AI should attack if it senses it can actually win. But if you save and reload up to the perfect Empire, obviously, it'll never have a chance.

EDIT: Having a higher aggression setting is a double edged sword. Since the AI will make more 'foolish' decisions and work itself into exhaustion more often. See for yourself with a couple test games the difference between max settings. Another tactic is later startdates.

DOUBLE EDIT: And don't forget the game is about acquiring prestige and piety for jove's sake! Conquer half the world and end up with -20,000 Piety/Prestige and you'll still be an abject failure. Half the challenge is achieving greatness while still raising your prestige and piety at the same time instead of vainglorious grabs for power.

Actually ...DO save and reload at regular intervals ...as the AI has a tendency to fall asleep after a while. A quick reload will awaken it

It is the same problem as occurred in EU2 as far as I remember

 

[Fredward]

The difference in power between a mighty kingdom and a lowly Count of Finveden is staggering.

...that's because Finnveden has 0.06(!!) base income.

 

[Chaingun]

I have said it before, and I'll say it again. The short range tactical AI is okay as far as I'm concerned. In battles where is has approximately the same amount of troops of the player it can be a real challenge. The only problems with the tactical AI is that you often can kill a lot of its trops before it manages to have its regiments formed up into armies, and also it tends to be easy pray to seaborne out-maneuvering from a human player.

The strategical AI however, sucks, period. It does not manage to hold together kingdoms. It does not manage not rebuild kingdoms (especially this is a reason to why a player is likely to not face any worthy enemies after one hundred years of play). Furthermore, it tends to keep no reserves even if it does attack which leaves it very prone to human attack. Counts and dukes do not realize the benefits to be under the joint banner of a kingdom, and instead try to become free under any circumstances possible. Once again killing independent duchies and counties is way much easier than attacking strong kingdoms. Also the concept of an 'exploitive' AI is almost non-existant because it does not attack a human player what-so-ever even if all his troops are commited in some far away country.

Oh and something which would aid both humans and the AI would be a force vassalization option in peace like in EU2. This could be implemented as either an addition in the Sue Peace window, or if that's too much the "Ask for vassalization" or whatever it's called can be shown whenever all demesne is conquered for a player. It would be automatically accepted if it was asked for by the victorius player, and it should give less BB than an outright annexation. I believe such an option in the end would have the effect of that I no longer would have to play Terminator every single time I conquer a county (that is remove the current ruler and replace him with someone from my court).

 

[Spruce]

Play as count of Karvuna, become king of bulgarian and emperor of byzantium and then come back boasting about it

well, I started out as count of Breisgau and now the game has taken me 80 years later and I've destroyed my liege the king of Germany and I'm on the road of becoming king of Germany.

How did this happen?

- first of all I was lucky to inherit my heir the title of "Duke of Meissen" trough nice marriage,
- second the tribe of Mecklenburg expanded and when I was strong enough I smashed them, 7 prov's easy target (no claims),
- a big muslim nation appeared North Germany. Don't know if that was due to muslim conquest, might be a marriage thing or whatever. But it was also a 5 prov's juicy target (no claims).
- I was envolved in some nasty wars, but the AI simply settles way too fast for a bucket of gold - even if I'm defeated,
- the greater kingdoms have many difficulty in maintaining their position - all vassals break out and the kingdom goes down,
- many vassals accepted me to be their liege, that's cool and ok as my piety was ok and my chancellor was super! In the end many counts deliver you big prestige so expanding goes on and on,

so conclusion is that tribes are a challenge to fight, but you can take their land as such and this should be reconsidered! Why do pagans automatically go to your realm and religion??? I've read about it - it was quite difficult to subjugate the pagans and to control them long enough. A handy player can double or triple his realm in only a few years time !!!

also the big kingdoms fall down too easy and don't make it back. There are good threads about this issue - so I won't go into detail,

third, the AI is not where it should be. In one case I needed to fight a duchy that got double the amount of troops - ok they had no claims on me and still they were fighting and fighting and then after a few years they sue for peace ??? Same for the muslim AI - I was attacking a muslim nation and they defeated me and still 650 troopers - that's enough to take back one prov from me. What do they do - just ask some money???

Also something I've noticed is the multi-wars. There are sometimes so many wars that i might guess the AI is simply not coping with it. In one occasion they don't see that they are winning and settle for some money,

I agree when you have some luck your realm is simply too fast to expand, I've played on hard/normal,

not one reload, Damocles,

 

[unmerged(490)]

Its a game of 2 halves. It is too easy before the mongols and too hard after. Fixing the AI would make a huge difference.

 

[Sikker]

You don't need luck. Just careful, skillful play ... well, bad luck CAN ruin it for you - I'll grant that - so some luck IS needed.

But if you are careful and patient the right time will always come, and in the end you can take most counties (well, I haven't played most counties but this what I THINK is possible from experience) and make yourself king of 4 or 5 titles without being all that lucky.

The game is too easy in that way. However I am not sure it would be all that entertaining, if it wasn't. Imagine having to play the entire game (almost 400 years) and only make it to duke (as the aforementioned count) ... or even worse: the game was realistic and half the time your dynasty would crumble because of one poor/unlucky decision. Having played for perhaps 40 hours combined, and then see everything disappear because your king dies without heirs from disease at the age of 25 ...

Perhaps the game could be made a bit harder without harming gameplay ... but honestly if it becomes realistically hard, how fun would the game be?

 

[Chaingun]

That's why you have the option to play kingdoms...

Difficulty by an improved and more intelligent (read not cheating) AI is something which makes any game better. Making certain gameplay features harder to obtain is not as often as solution. Many people here suggest that "limit expansion further" artifically by for example increased BB or similar ideas. The problem with that is that you really decrease the fun of the game; the difficulty of a "more than one player game (P > 1)" should always derive from the difficulty of the opponents and not in the individual gameplay features to the extent where it's advisable to perform them less often. This is why the AI is terribly important in strategy games.

 

[unmerged(26888)]

Try playing in christian iberia, and face the automatic-rifle armed muslims with your sticks&stones army... that will add difficulty a bit .

I will!

But I still think that the muslim kingdoms surrounding my 500 man armies in Egypt should be a bit angered by seing me there

 

[Seen]

Well, beforehand i say that i acctually only play this game MP....

But I guess, which is the same with EUII, Human players are always best. They will gang up if you are taking to much territory or Power/titles/claims. They will assasinate tactical. They will look for that perfect bride just at the same time as you look for it (funny 1 january massive proposals ) And they will hardly look at AI nations, because they know the danger comes from Humans, not AI

Conclusion, All play MP

 

[Chaingun]

Well, beforehand i say that i acctually only play this game MP....

But I guess, which is the same with EUII, Human players are always best. They will gang up if you are taking to much territory or Power/titles/claims. They will assasinate tactical. They will look for that perfect bride just at the same time as you look for it (funny 1 january massive proposals ) And they will hardly look at AI nations, because they know the danger comes from Humans, not AI

Conclusion, All play MP

This is what Paradox could change with better AI , right now MP is only a temporary solution for a bad AI. Although I admit I would still prefer MP over SP any time, it's not fun to have +10 house rules in MP just because the AI shows very limited resistance to total domination.

 

[unmerged(12680)]

Well, I for one (I'm quite certain I'm not alone) CAN'T play MP due to several issues, so I'm stuck with the idiot AI...

 

[Seen]

Well, I for one (I'm quite certain I'm not alone) CAN'T play MP due to several issues, so I'm stuck with the idiot AI...

I can only say im sorry for you, but solve those issues and get any permanent Inet connection you can get your hands on!! (i for one tricked my housemates in a far to fast and expensive inet connection so i could play EU2, and now CK ) Of course they are glad to download there email very fast as well........

 

[Hyzhenhok]

This is what Paradox could change with better AI , right now MP is only a temporary solution for a bad AI.

The AI will NEVER be able to compete with competent humans. Ever. Ever. Never. Ever. And the last thing we need is for Paradox to buff up CK AI with special benefits as it has in EU2.