The AI doesn't even care about it's forcelimit, it has ridiculously big armies!

[unmerged(66531)]

So limiting the AI to raise smaller armies will make the AI act much more plausible in the early game, but will at the same time unfairly limit them in the late game.

with my current 2.1 tweak system, I could easily add code that could make the forcelimit effects no longer apply to the AI after a certain year. if somebody asks me on the 2.1 tweak thread I will describe how to do it.

I wonder if a hack that is based on production and government tech would make sense. It starts at 0.4 forcelimit for AIs, and around level 30 it reaches 1.0.

IMO, this would not be a good idea (it would work probably though) because it would effect ALL nations even the player without regard of nation size. my 2.1 tweak has 4 (used to have 6) triggered modifiers. one for the player (which doesnt reduce forcelimts), three for the AI. the thre for the AI only start effecting the AI when the AI gets 25,50, or 75 provinces. each of the AI ones reduce its forcelimit. what this means is that a AI with 20 provinces will have no forcelimit reduction while a AI with 75 provinces will have a huge forcelimit reduction. This is meant to balance the gaps in army sizes a bit better so that you do not have nations with 400,000 troops conquering a nation with 25,000 troops. instead, now you might have a nation with 120,000 troops conquering a nation with 25,000 troops. This makes a huge difference in game balance. This also applies to ships. Without my 2.1 tweak you would have AI nations with possibly 300 ships at war with a nation that only has 50 ships. With my 2.1 tweak you might see that same nation with only 150 ships at war with that nation that has 50 ships.

 

[superscunk]

Perhaps 'Very Hard' should be considered the difficulty for those who like to play 'competetively' and for multiplayer, and normal should be balanced to provide a slightly more casual/fun experience...

Dito!

 

[The Witch-King]

I would like a poll done to see how many people play more SP and how many play more MP.

But that wouldn´t tell you anything about the probably large number of players who don´t even visit the forums. Presumably, there would be a higher representation of multiplayer players and also of generally more hardcore players on the forums.

By the way, I think the AI in 2.1 is fine. It´s more of a challenge now, which is good, and it´s certainly not that difficult to handle if you just bother thinking about employing good strategy and tactics when at war.

 

[unmerged(88676)]

Problem with tech

You can do that, however that means that you're inflation will rise very fast, and since the AI barely gets inflation and spends all his monthly income on research, you'll be behind in tech in no time.

EDIT: and of course you still can't maintain as big armies as some of the AI country do, even if you mint.

I am having issues with how fast the other countries get tech every game I start they move up so frigging fast I can't keep up and maitain a decent army. For Example a one state country has land of 9 I m still at 2 bordering 3. the country I was at war with had a 2 when I crushed it. Now it is at 5 OMG the entire time I have been putting all my cash into land as well in 3 yrs austria went up to 5 and france up to 7. Makes no sense to me Plus the countries I am at war with are allowed to roam the entire board even with no permission to cross the other countries. So they hide there and I can't touch them. hmmm maybe one can say bugs ? well I will try the game out one more time then i give up back to space games for me ( after i had bought the NAB addition on top of it ( was hoping that would fix the issues of tech going crazy ) How does a single country nation or state get to the crazy levels one in my game is tech land 10 and 5 government at least with 7 naval. ( borders no waters ) it is 1503 on easy setting, with inflation off so insane cause i like the premises of the game just can't handle the AI 's getting such a advantage on tech trees. I m played spain , england and france , tried not to go war much and concentrate on tech and xploring and such ( which is though cause I like war lol ) is there something I m missing something ???? had same problems in eu2 and maybe I just lack the skill to play these games ?? but from what i have seen others have problems as well ( most people don't even bother to post or check forums out they just toss games they dont' like in trash ) . Wel is there anything paradox is working on to fix these issues ??????

I

 

[Josephus I]

While I agree that the AI techs too fast compared to the human, you should be aware that one-state minors are supposed to tech faster. The smaller the country the quicker it techs, that's a design decision.

In the HRE countries are allowed to move into other HRE countries while at war without demanding Military Access...tht's probably what you see happening.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

I, personally, don't mind the challenge or blatent AI cheats so much, but it seems to me that this is the source of much of the frustration. Perhaps 'Very Hard' should be considered the difficulty for those who like to play 'competetively' and for multiplayer, and normal should be balanced to provide a slightly more casual/fun experience with at least the illusion that the AI isn't playing by a totally different ruleset.

Speaking from a general perspective here, since Paradox games are generally balanced around singleplayer, perhaps Normal should aim at presenting a decent challenge to average players, playing average majors, in singleplayer. If these hypothetical average players want to play difficult nations (typically minors instead of majors) or want to have an easier time, they can choose to play on the easy difficulty levels, just like others, who want a bit more of a challenge, can choose to play on hard or very hard.

Don't confuse difficulty level with competitive/multiplayer, since the AI and AI boosts are generally pretty much irrelevant in multiplayer. Sure, you can assign aspects to the difficulty slider that will affect how players play in MP (e.g. BB cap), but in terms of difficulty/making a competitive environment, the difficulty setting is pretty much an SP-only balance setting.