Questionable AI Naval Handling

[zeress]

I've noticed the AI having a hard time comprehending the use of boats sometimes, especially when it has a fleet of a specific size and an army bigger than the fleet.

I was fighting Mauritania as a duke that controlled Mallorca (capital) and parts of Barcelona. I found it very odd that I hadn't seen their army despite them not being in any other wars. Upon further inspection I found out that their army was sitting on the coastline beside a fleet that couldn't possibly hold it. Not even placing my army beside would make the AI budge. I ended up winning that war because the AI simply didn't do anything.

I've noticed this behaviour before too. While I do not know what exactly triggers it, I do know that AI will sometime get stuck in what seems an infinite loop of "get on boat. can't get on boat. get on boat" instead of trying to walk to their target (when possible).

Sadly I have no save of this, but I will grab one the next time I see it.

I am running CK2 1.05g alongside CK2+ and my own mod.

Additionally, the AI cannot handle (for modding) disconnected naval zones at all. For example if one were to include the Red Sea as a sea zone, the AI would be completely unable to know what to do with the ships if they wanted to go the Mediterranean. The only fix for this (which CK2+ had to do) was make a fake Suez canal and allow the zones to be connected. This is especially limiting for say the creation of naval interaction on very large lakes like the Aral Sea and the Caspian, which would help mobilization in that area of the map immensely and help modding in general.

 

[K-vald]

Would be great with a save of it. Just remember that if you're running with mods that aren't limited to cosmetics, we won't be able to load the saves.

I'll try to see if I can reproduce it myself in the meantime.

 

[zeress]

It seems related to other AI troop movement issues as well. I have a save where the AI was stuck with a set of troops (not boats), however resigning from the game and loading into it fixed the issue. I can upload that (modless) if you want to see what kind of troop layout caused the AI to hiccup until a reload though. Might still prove helpful.

 

[K-vald]

Yeah, shoot. Maybe it's indeed something similar.

 

[zeress]

View attachment 56124

Here you go. The Sevillan army in the north Portugal area was stuck switching priority between the county south west and west of it and the Galician army north of them was also going SW and S swapping (they'd move in a direction for 1 day, presumably react to each other and then change direction).

It caused an endless loop until the reload (chances are they won't be stuck when you load up).

I get the feeling glitches like that are more common the longer the game goes.

Any comments on addressing AI issues with disconnected sea zones?

 

[K-vald]

View attachment 56124

Here you go. The Sevillan army in the north Portugal area was stuck switching priority between the county south west and west of it and the Galician army north of them was also going SW and S swapping (they'd move in a direction for 1 day, presumably react to each other and then change direction).

It caused an endless loop until the reload (chances are they won't be stuck when you load up).

I get the feeling glitches like that are more common the longer the game goes.

Any comments on addressing AI issues with disconnected sea zones?

Nope, they were't stuck when I loaded, unfortunately. But I'll keep my eyes out for the issue. I have seen it myself but it has only lasted for about 5 seconds going on full speed (can't remember how many days that are now..).

Regarding disconnected sea zones and islands I would say that it is a problem if the AI doesn't split the army up to fit it on the ships. I have seen the issue where the AI is stuck on an island without any ships and raised levies but in that case it couldn't split the army. I forgot to ask if this was the case in your game as well? Was the AI able to split up their army to make it fit on the ships?

 

[Wizzington]

EDIT: Nm, was covered already.

 

[zeress]

Regarding disconnected sea zones and islands I would say that it is a problem if the AI doesn't split the army up to fit it on the ships. I have seen the issue where the AI is stuck on an island without any ships and raised levies but in that case it couldn't split the army. I forgot to ask if this was the case in your game as well? Was the AI able to split up their army to make it fit on the ships?

They had an army of around ~4k and they never split that army (they just sat in front of the 4 boats for the entire war. While I didn't look at the exact composition of the army, that was Mauritania's entire army at the time so I am fairly certain it SHOULD have had the option of being able to split the army up.

In regards to disconnected sea zone, the issue is not so much that they don't get on boats when you have isolated sea zones, but that they get on a boat and just sit there because they can't figure out how to get to another sea zone they actually can't get to (AI wasn't coded, it seems, to be able to understand that there CAN be isolated sea zones). In the example of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, if you make them disconnected, as they were in that time period, and say the AI wanted to go from Mecca to Palermo, it would jump on a boat in Mecca and just float there wondering how to fly the boat over the Suez for all eternity.