Vanilla AI vs Expert AI 4.0

[Arotished]

I have always played this game with the huge Black ICE mod which has Expert AI 4.0 mod implemented into it. Sadly, I have started to be too annoyed by the stupid AI on how they manage their army and the way they are producing (spamming) units. How is the AI performing in vanilla? Is it still challenging mid/late game or is it even worse?

Have anyone tried just using Expert AI 4.0 as the only mod without any of the other mods? I fear that these HUGE mods with all the extra add-ons make the game too complicated for the AI to handle, resulting in poor management of their army.

 

[kettyo]

I fear that these HUGE mods with all the extra add-ons make the game too complicated for the AI to handle, resulting in poor management of their army.

This might be true. It's struggling with the vanilla setup already.

Also EAI is developed for vanilla historical mode so probably works best there.

 

[Arotished]

This might be true. It's struggling with the vanilla setup already.

Sadly, many of these huge all-in-one mods have features that make the game really fun and more playable, features that should have been in vanilla from day 1 in my opinion. My question is of the AI is terrible anyway, with or without the Expert AI mod. If so, then I will just play with Black Ice.

There are around 20 000 playing HOI4 at any given time, and I'm sure many of these share my thoughts that it is not fun to just steam the game over and over and over again due to a crappy AI.

 

[Harin]

I have always played this game with the huge Black ICE mod which has Expert AI 4.0 mod implemented into it. Sadly, I have started to be too annoyed by the stupid AI on how they manage their army and the way they are producing (spamming) units. How is the AI performing in vanilla? Is it still challenging mid/late game or is it even worse?

Have anyone tried just using Expert AI 4.0 as the only mod without any of the other mods? I fear that these HUGE mods with all the extra add-ons make the game too complicated for the AI to handle, resulting in poor management of their army.

I used to play with EAI 4.0 as my only mod. It is a noticeable improvement in the vanilla AI. Recently though, I have been playing around with the larger mods, like Black Ice, as I wait for the developers to address the combat systems in HOI4.

 

[mursolini]

I have always played this game with the huge Black ICE mod which has Expert AI 4.0 mod implemented into it. Sadly, I have started to be too annoyed by the stupid AI on how they manage their army and the way they are producing (spamming) units. How is the AI performing in vanilla? Is it still challenging mid/late game or is it even worse?

Have anyone tried just using Expert AI 4.0 as the only mod without any of the other mods? I fear that these HUGE mods with all the extra add-ons make the game too complicated for the AI to handle, resulting in poor management of their army.

Expert AIs AI is a lot better than vanilla. If you crank up difficulty and AI sliders, you may even face a decent challenge as Germany.

Sadly, many of these huge all-in-one mods have features that make the game really fun and more playable, features that should have been in vanilla from day 1 in my opinion. My question is of the AI is terrible anyway, with or without the Expert AI mod. If so, then I will just play with Black Ice.

There are around 20 000 playing HOI4 at any given time, and I'm sure many of these share my thoughts that it is not fun to just steam the game over and over and over again due to a crappy AI.

BICE has plenty of things that are harder to manage for AI. That said, didn`t play it extencively.

 

[Arotished]

It is very sad that Paradox has so little focus on the AI side of the game. As far as I know, all the games from Paradox suffer the same issue. I know making an AI that behaves like a human is more or less impossible but I feel that Paradox has so many fundamental issues with their AI system which, for me, takes away all the fun from this game. Beside the AI part of the game, HoI4 is a masterpiece. However, as long as people keep buying and playing their games, they are not gonna do anything about it.

 

[Emren]

Sadly, many of these huge all-in-one mods have features that make the game really fun and more playable, features that should have been in vanilla from day 1 in my opinion.

I fundamentally disagree with this. Huge mods generally never make a game more playable. More is not always better, very often it is quite the opposite.

 

[praftd]

The difference between "Expert AI" and vanilla is minimal at best. It makes the "AI" better in some ways but worse in others. Ultimately it isn't even about improving the AI, it just Pidgeon-holes the AI to human-optimized scripts and behaviors. But the second something occurs outside of them, it stops being effective.

 

[Quantum_AI]

I agree with you OP. Expert AI is the only mod I can play the game with. Its not perfect because it cant fix certain AI behavior which is hard coded but at least it makes the templates challenging. Plus you can buff the AI in ways that actually makes a difference.

I don't mind the extra complexity of BICE, but its AI is horribly broken and its very VERY buggy. The AI just sits there and does silly things like having 3 million men surround Switzerland for 4 years without even declaring war etc. It is also unable to manage their stability and war support mini-game. And there are soooo many bugs even after all this while that just make it unplayable.