AI replenishing manpower far faster

[greatorder]

Basically the title. I build barracks in a province with jobseekers, max out my military wages, activate enlistment efforts... And gain about 10 soldiers a week. The AI nation next door, without even a single accepted pop, is gaining 500 soldiers a week instead. I'm running a shattered world mod that changes nothing except turning every nation into single states and dropping tech to nothing, so there shouldn't be any effect from that. It's like the AI's just getting a massive buff to training rate.

[Alex]

Hiring depends on a few factors. How many people qualify for officer jobs, and which training method are you using? Where do the qualified people work, and are they unsatisfied with their current jobs? The hiring tooltip should tell you more.

[greatorder]

Says nothing, just "X servicemen (used to be peasants in subsistence farm)" and hovering over the number gives me the number of literate/illiterate pops that converted.

[Alex]

Then you probably don't have enough literate pops for the officer jobs, or they are too happy at their current job. This is usually the case with nobles in subsistence farms, since in this patch version, they receive a very lucrative profit share.

[6ap6apblckaAa]

Compare your and ai's selected pm on the barracks

[greatorder]

This is the beginning of the game, all tech is equally crap so nobody has different PMs.

Originally posted by Alex:

Then you probably don't have enough literate pops for the officer jobs, or they are too happy at their current job. This is usually the case with nobles in subsistence farms, since in this patch version, they receive a very lucrative profit share.

Ah, is serviceman recruitment limited by officer recruitment then?

[6ap6apblckaAa]

All buildings can hire at most 10% more of a profession that the lowest hired (in percent).
But this will show up in tooltips as something like "couldn't hire officers"

[Alex]

Originally posted by greatorder:

Ah, is serviceman recruitment limited by officer recruitment then?

Yes, all hiring in every building is proportional. If you can't get enough pops for higher qualifications, then the lower qualification vacancies won't be filled, even if there are enough pops for them.

Basically, you need enough officers to command your soldiers. If there aren't enough literate men to serve as officers, then you can't recruit the common servicemen.

Switch to the simplest training method (no training), since that one uses the least number of officers, and work towards increasing literacy. In the meantime, use draft.

[6ap6apblckaAa]

One more thing - training rate is per barracks level, so if ai has 10 levels of barracks in a state it will hire 10 times faster than 1 level of barracks. But overall it's of course the same per betallion.

[greatorder]

Nope, the whole thing just looks like the AI's given advantages that I don't have. They build a barracks and their nobles, clergymen, whatever will dive into being officers. Mine won't. Ever. The AI has *no* system advantages here, I'm maxing out military spending, using social mobility and enlistment efforts and nobody leaves subsistence farming. The AI, they'll leave subsistence farming in droves to become officers.

I don't know if this is something that the Vicky engine has, or if the mod I'm using has manipulated the AI's job priorities (It shouldn't, but who knows?)

[Alex]

Originally posted by greatorder:

Nope, the whole thing just looks like the AI's given advantages that I don't have.

Yes, the AI cheats massively. With how primitive it is, it couldn't manage to play the game otherwise.

Originally posted by greatorder:

hey build a barracks and their nobles, clergymen, whatever will dive into being officers. Mine won't. Ever. The AI has *no* system advantages here, I'm maxing out military spending, using social mobility and enlistment efforts and nobody leaves subsistence farming. The AI, they'll leave subsistence farming in droves to become officers.

How profitable is their subsitence farming compared to yours? How much do the nobles/clergymen earn?

Originally posted by greatorder:

I don't know if this is something that the Vicky engine has, or if the mod I'm using has manipulated the AI's job priorities (It shouldn't, but who knows?)

Which mod? That shattered start one?

[endymionologist]

Originally posted by greatorder:

Nope, the whole thing just looks like the AI's given advantages that I don't have. They build a barracks and their nobles, clergymen, whatever will dive into being officers. Mine won't. Ever.

Are you seeing this effect on Day One? Because what you're describing is what would happen if you had a functional economy with alternatives to military service and your neighbor doesn't. And an experienced player can get to that difference very quickly.

[Norsia]

Rule 1: Paradox AI always blatantly cheats in all things and is completely unapologetic in doing so. Its the only way it can function because the programmers at Paradox can't be arsed to make a half decent AI. The AI in their Crusader Kings game is arguably their most robust and it's still dumber than rocks.

Rule 2: The Military relies on two things, desperation, and patriotism. if your population is comfortable where they are, they're not going to enlist. and if you have no officers to command them, then you can't sustain your recruitment.

As someone said earlier in this topic, while your peasants may eagerly join the military to get out of their subsistence lifestyle, the nobles don't regardless of your military budget because the money and standard of living they're already getting is a lot better. functional and advanced nations offset this by having more land and bigger populations. in Shattered world you don't have that. So you're feeling the effect at an overblown degree.