Military salaries slider exploit?

[unmerged(52751)]

Hi,

I also posted this on the AoD wishlist.

In every game that I have played, I simply set the military salary slider to .5 or 1 for the pre-war years. Org levels drop for every unit but it saves a lot of IC. When the war is about to start I just raise the salary slider back to max.

I think the slider should be logarithmic. Salaries < x should result in partial org (AND strength!) losses increasing as the salary value approaches 0. It could be inverse for values above a certain point, providing a str and org bonus.

Low salary rates could also increase dissent (unhappy deserters) and decrease manpower (lack of interest in/avoidance of military service).

Meta-speaking, while 'military salaries' is the slider text label, I take it to mean the maintenance and funding of the active military forces. This could also relate to reinforcements and free up that slider for something more useful (diplomacy?!).

cheers,

kilolima

 

[unmerged(208610)]

I agree that military salaries should be done away with or changed to reflect more negatives should you underfund your military. I don't believe the AI decreases the slider so why should a human player get the advantage. In fact the production tab needs an overhaul. It is to messy..

 

[unmerged(36286)]

Hi,

I also posted this on the AoD wishlist.

In every game that I have played, I simply set the military salary slider to .5 or 1 for the pre-war years. Org levels drop for every unit but it saves a lot of IC. When the war is about to start I just raise the salary slider back to max.

I think the slider should be logarithmic. Salaries < x should result in partial org (AND strength!) losses increasing as the salary value approaches 0. It could be inverse for values above a certain point, providing a str and org bonus.

Low salary rates could also increase dissent (unhappy deserters) and decrease manpower (lack of interest in/avoidance of military service).

Meta-speaking, while 'military salaries' is the slider text label, I take it to mean the maintenance and funding of the active military forces. This could also relate to reinforcements and free up that slider for something more useful (diplomacy?!).

cheers,

kilolima

There already attrition effects listed in the db/misc file for low military salaries. You could just increase these modifiers.

 

[Blecky]

I agree that military salaries should be done away with or changed to reflect more negatives should you underfund your military. I don't believe the AI decreases the slider so why should a human player get the advantage. In fact the production tab needs an overhaul. It is to messy..

Actually the AI doesn´t build any infra ATM. Should we get rid of that possibility, too, because the human player has an advantage there?

 

[Kaldron]

A problem is that the human players usually know if they are in a threat of attack or not, so human players know quite well if they can set the military expenses slider to zero or should do not cause an attack of an neighbouring land is possible.

If the ai would set the slider in peacetime to zero too, players would simple overrun them quite often.

To decrease this players advantage an ai-only peace time modifier for military expenses like -50% would be not a bad idea i think.

 

[Blecky]

A problem is that the human players usually know if they are in a threat of attack or not, so human players know quite well if they can set the military expenses slider to zero or should do not cause an attack of an neighbouring land is possible.

If the ai would set the slider in peacetime to zero too, players would simple overrun them quite often.

To decrease this players advantage an ai-only peace time modifier for military expenses like -50% would be not a bad idea i think.

Yes, player´s hindsight often creates problems and exploits. But on the other hand AI already has several advantages over the human player, e.g. no retooling time. I wonder if another (minor) tweak is really necessary when there are so many other topics where AI has to be improved (e.g. building infra).

 

[unmerged(52751)]

There already attrition effects listed in the db/misc file for low military salaries. You could just increase these modifiers.

Hi, I've played with these and they only affect strength if salaries = 0. While org decreases, it's not so much that it can't be regained in a week.

Actually, low salaries should also cost units' experience levels.

Yes, player´s hindsight often creates problems and exploits. But on the other hand AI already has several advantages over the human player, e.g. no retooling time. I wonder if another (minor) tweak is really necessary when there are so many other topics where AI has to be improved (e.g. building infra).

It's not just an AI issue - it's a huge exploit for a human player. As I usually give the AI hefty IC bonuses anyway, the IC the AI spends on military salaries is not a big deal. And it is further modified by diplomacy and national ideas, so it would be possible to give the AI government types an decreased salary cost. But for the player this game feature offers a huge advantage with no penalties.

And I don't think making the salaries slider logarithmic would involve any complicated fixing.