Luddite AI

[Nostalgium]

So I was playing a casual MP session as Bohemia, and shaking down Russia for money as I am wont to do, when I noticed that they were melting. Now, admittedly, I've invested heavily in Military ideas, and Russia's infantry-heavy armies tend to be quite easy to mow down as it is, but this felt a bit too easy. So I checked their tech, and...

... they have completely failed as a state. They have no significantly larger cities, so they clearly haven't been deving. They haven't filled out their idea groups, so they haven't been doing that either. They didn't expand outside the usual pace - in fact, quite a bit less; I can only imagine that's because their military is weaker than the Kamchatkan tribes. Obviously, they're in a complete collapse now, but there was nothing unusual about this Russia except their catastrophic tech. It's like the AI just brained itself in the 1500s. Has anyone seen anything similar to this? Does anyone know what might've happened? In 3k hours of play, it's the first time I've seen the AI mismanage their everything this catastrophically, so I'm at a loss for theories.

 

[Mindel]

This might be worth posting in the bug forum, if only to find an explanation.

 

[Nostalgium]

This might be worth posting in the bug forum, if only to find an explanation.

I even loaded them up in SP to see if I could find anything unusual, but no - nothing. They're clearly spending their points at something, as they didn't have more than 300 in any category, but they have negative stability, revolts close to firing, and not spilling diplo from vassals or something. It's like they're just pouring them into the Volga.

Oh, and their preferred cavalry was worse than what they had access to, but that may be because they've been constantly at war, and I don't think the AI changes unit types during war to avoid stackwipes from low morale. At least I've never seen them do it.

 

[Mindel]

I even loaded them up in SP to see if I could find anything unusual, but no - nothing. They're clearly spending their points at something, as they didn't have more than 300 in any category, but they have negative stability, revolts close to firing, and not spilling diplo from vassals or something. It's like they're just pouring them into the Volga.

Oh, and their preferred cavalry was worse than what they had access to, but that may be because they've been constantly at war, and I don't think the AI changes unit types during war to avoid stackwipes from low morale. At least I've never seen them do it.

No use complaining to me. Go report it to the devs!

 

[Reni Malaj]

The AI is more reluctant to hire advisors in 1.32, especially if theyre poor. And Russia tends to always be strapped for cash. They loose so many points during a campaign by foregoing advisors.

 

[LukasYork]

Could be they went bankrupt, even multiple times? That would lose them a lot of monarch points and could easily set them back

 

[JacobiteJames]

So I was playing a casual MP session as Bohemia, and shaking down Russia for money as I am wont to do, when I noticed that they were melting. Now, admittedly, I've invested heavily in Military ideas, and Russia's infantry-heavy armies tend to be quite easy to mow down as it is, but this felt a bit too easy. So I checked their tech, and...

View attachment 781390

... they have completely failed as a state. They have no significantly larger cities, so they clearly haven't been deving. They haven't filled out their idea groups, so they haven't been doing that either. They didn't expand outside the usual pace - in fact, quite a bit less; I can only imagine that's because their military is weaker than the Kamchatkan tribes. Obviously, they're in a complete collapse now, but there was nothing unusual about this Russia except their catastrophic tech. It's like the AI just brained itself in the 1500s. Has anyone seen anything similar to this? Does anyone know what might've happened? In 3k hours of play, it's the first time I've seen the AI mismanage their everything this catastrophically, so I'm at a loss for theories.

What patch did game start on

 

[iClipse]

They've probably been in a bankruptcy loop.

Go bankrupt -> Get rebels -> Spend all money to beat those rebels -> Lose to them, since you have no competent soldiers -> Go bankrupt again.

How's their autonomy? If it's 100 everywhere, that's probably what's happening.

 

[Nostalgium]

Could be they went bankrupt, even multiple times? That would lose them a lot of monarch points and could easily set them back

That might be it. I think I'm just mystified that it's gotten this bad. I've seen AI in debt crisis before, but never to the point where they lag behind New World natives for tech.

 

[MarshalDray]

The AI is more reluctant to hire advisors in 1.32, especially if theyre poor. And Russia tends to always be strapped for cash. They loose so many points during a campaign by foregoing advisors.

Not just reluctant, they flat out refuse to hire advisors even when they're running a large budget surplus. See here.