[MOD] Stay in Russia Rurik!

[Lambert Simnel]

After failing to make much progress with controlling AI behaviour by changing the cost of war declaration, I moved on to a more tractable bit of code, the viking_conquest_ai_score_value modifier.

This modifier, which controls who the AI will target with the Conquest CBs, includes a multiplier of 10 pulling Asatru rulers to use that CB in western Europe. This is the reason why Rurik generally starts by attacking East Francia and following it up with attacks on Britain, Ireland, Brittany and Iberia.

I have changed this modifier so that it only applies to rulers outside of eastern Europe. Asatru rulers already in the eastern Europe region instead have a different x10 multiplier that pulls them towards the rivers that link the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea and the Caspian.

Here we see that in 902 the Rurikids have avoided the temptation to sail west and are continuing to expand into Russia.

This mod includes two smaller changes to the viking_conquest_ai_score_value modifier. The preferred targets for non-Russian vikings now excludes Iberia and the French Mediterranean coast, and the factor that pulls the AI to attack settled realms now looks at tribal vs non-tribal rather than reformed vs unreformed in order to stop Ireland from being partitioned by vikings quite so quickly.

https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/mods/12466/Any

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2229095534

Hopefully this is published correctly. This is my first mod since the early days of EU3.

 

[StrategicWarlord]

Yes, yes and yes. Thank you.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Nice one Lambert!

 

[Lambert Simnel]

During one of my test runs the Rurikids and Oskyldrs both formed large kingdoms, until about 80 years into the game they got into an epic war over a border duchy that sapped both of their strength and ended with Gardariki torn apart by their northern neighbours,; while of the three sons who inherited the Oskyldr kingdoms, one was overthrown by a vassal, while another was murdered and his throne given to the Russian family that had ruled there in the beforetimes. A tale worthy of the sagas.

(At some point the Oskyldrs had converted a Mogyar count, who then took advantage of the Mogyar migration event to create an Odin-worshipping Hungary.)

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Will you do some other general AI tweaks?

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Will you do some other general AI tweaks?

Yes, next up is looking to see if I can make the AI more tempted to clean up border gore (eg use de jure CB, attack isolated provinces) and less tempted to perpetrate it (attacking overseas when you have alternative targets neighbouring you).

At the moment I'm wrapping my head around what neighbouring means for a vassal and how to implement that (If I'm a duke do provinces owned by my counts count? What about provinces owned by my king or by my fellow dukes?)

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Seems scope:target works in valid_to_start (which identifies which titles can be attacked), but not in ai_score_mult (which controls the AI's preferences). So it is not possible to say "Hey AI, you really want to attack isolated counties." Although it should be possible to say "You really want to attack rulers that have an isolated county next to you" and "If a ruler has an isolated county next to you, you can't attack any other counties in that realm"

 

[Lambert Simnel]

The latest version of my anti-gore changes is looking hopeful. After 250 years of hands-off play I no longer want to claw my eyes out.

Not long before the 200 year mark West Francia and Aquitaine were conquered by the Danes and Muwalladi Jerusalem who both quickly exploded. I was beginning to worry for the state of the world, but fifty years later that area has mostly cleared up.

Most of the changes attempt to stop the AI from attacking illogical places, without stopping plausible invasions like Byzantines vs Aghlabids over Sicily and Carthage, or new Viking invasions of Britain and Normandy. As such it generally constrains the attack anywhere CBs like conquest and holy war as conquering your grandfather's old realm can be logical even if it is in an odd place.

Some examples
If two realms share a land border, they can only use conquest and holy war CBs against titles along that border, they can't do landings in the enemy rear.
Furthermore if any of the target's counties border land that can trace back to the attacker's capital by land, then the attacker will target one of those counties - not one that border's one of the attacker's exclaves
If a realm already has an exclave then they can't use conquest and holy war CBs to start a new exclave

There are also AI weighting modifiers (similar in size to Paradox's Western European Viking modifier) to encourage attacks against realms with exclaves and against realms that are blocking you from re-uniting from your exclave.

 

[CarbrBard]

The latest version of my anti-gore changes is looking hopeful. After 250 years of hands-off play I no longer want to claw my eyes out.

Not long before the 200 year mark West Francia and Aquitaine were conquered by the Danes and Muwalladi Jerusalem who both quickly exploded. I was beginning to worry for the state of the world, but fifty years later that area has mostly cleared up.

Most of the changes attempt to stop the AI from attacking illogical places, without stopping plausible invasions like Byzantines vs Aghlabids over Sicily and Carthage, or new Viking invasions of Britain and Normandy. As such it generally constrains the attack anywhere CBs like conquest and holy war as conquering your grandfather's old realm can be logical even if it is in an odd place.

Some examples
If two realms share a land border, they can only use conquest and holy war CBs against titles along that border, they can't do landings in the enemy rear.
Furthermore if any of the target's counties border land that can trace back to the attacker's capital by land, then the attacker will target one of those counties - not one that border's one of the attacker's exclaves
If a realm already has an exclave then they can't use conquest and holy war CBs to start a new exclave

There are also AI weighting modifiers (similar in size to Paradox's Western European Viking modifier) to encourage attacks against realms with exclaves and against realms that are blocking you from re-uniting from your exclave.

Is this all included in this mod?

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Is this all included in this mod?

No, these extra changes still aren't giving me results I'm happy with.

If I can get them to behave then I'll probably publish them as a separate mod

 

[CarbrBard]

Noice. I'll be waiting!

 

[Pied-Noir]

@Lambert Simnel

You should check the 1.1 patch notes; there's a line in there about Russian vikings being less aggressive outside Europe, so it's possible Paradox implemented some form of your fixes. Hopefully you can compare files tomorrow and see what they did.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

@Lambert Simnel

You should check the 1.1 patch notes; there's a line in there about Russian vikings being less aggressive outside Europe, so it's possible Paradox implemented some form of your fixes. Hopefully you can compare files tomorrow and see what they did.

Hopefully I will be relieved of the responsibility of maintaining this.

 

[Pied-Noir]

Hopefully I will be relieved of the responsibility of maintaining this.

What are your thoughts on 1.1/1.1.2 with regards to these changes? Have you noticed improvements in vanilla or will this mod need updating?

 

[Lambert Simnel]

What are your thoughts on 1.1/1.1.2 with regards to these changes? Have you noticed improvements in vanilla or will this mod need updating?

Rurik is mostly fine. The only thing I've seen him do that I disagree with is attacking the northern coast of Bjarmia (around Archangelsk), but that's pretty minor.