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Fairplay AI
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Tags: Mod, Mechanics Overhaul
File Size
Posted
Updated
2.588 MB
May 24, 2023 @ 1:36am
Aug 12 @ 7:51pm
48 Change Notes ( view )
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Aten
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Fairplay AI

Description
  • Overview
    Please Note - This mod was originally for my friends and I to use together in multiplayer or single player, and I thought I would upload it so anyone else could enjoy it. This mod makes changes to the AI to play more fairly across the board, along with modifications such as removing over the top cheats/bonuses the AI receives across all difficulties. This aims to make the Factions/Races/Alignments role-play their part better alongside the player, while making the difficulty levels still matter. It won't make the game harder if you've mastered beating the AI spam in the vanilla game. Make sure to use the Advanced Options in your realm setup to adjust the difficulty to your liking.

  • Features
    • AI bonuses across all difficulty settings have been changed or greatly reduced, and the game now plays closer to the players experience while making sure the AI can still use all it's features. However, the difficulty will still help dictate certain behaviours allowed to the AI and how they try to keep pace during the game.

      The hardest of difficulties apply some of the above while giving their starting army a value boost and a income-multi based on their difficulty to make sure they don’t run into deficits at the game start, and to stay competitive without cheating against the player, nothing else is added. Unlike in the vanilla game where the AI got massive production/research/Unit XP/Imperium boosts and a lot more over the top bonuses which meant spamming stacks and worse. Higher difficulties should give a better experience for normal players, while the AI is affected by their economy.

    • Removes the difficulty based hostile AI bias against human players, the AI Rulers now treat players based on their alignment/affinity/threat level or their current likes/dislikes of the players actions regardless of whether it is another AI or human player. The highest difficulties have some changes to make it more difficult for Players in border tension.

    • Improvements to AI personality/strategies to be more in line with their descriptions. Things such as isolationists focusing less on expansion than an expansionist player are already improved, with the AI now more inclined to find higher value city sites while making more use of outposts to hold land, even in the later game stages.

    • Changes to AI personalities, this ranges from preferring to raze or migrate to enemy cities during war, along side their likes/dislikes helping making more sense and thematic as expected. The manner in which they deal with free cities is also more inline with their traits and personalities.

    • Penalties for migrating have changed, it is now is at a flat cost with more population loss and without alignment issues. This helps the AI keep their city count, military and heroes of their primary race more often while still maintaining vassals. Now, worn torn cities suffer larger pop losses as expected for the frontline, with this, influence is now put to far better use for the AI.

    • Smaller changes and tweaks in line with the above points - In non-story realms you can still add manual advantages/handicaps to chosen AI rulers for the added challenge and role playing. Battles are now more crucial for Players and AI having far more decisive ramifications, making for a far more fun push and pull during war.

    • AI Notes - There are a lot of vanilla AI nuances to be mindful off that this mod tries to make clearer, and these have been noticed with extensive testing. Long story short, play the game and play it openly and you'll find it far more fun, so, don't turtle with one stack and you'll find the AI plays better as it scales with the strongest player based of it's chosen difficulty.

  • F.A.Q
    • Load Order
      Best results by having this last in your load order, works in multiplayer games.

    • Compatibility
      I have tried to make the mod overwrite the fewest PAKs possible, so it should be compatible with most mods without issues. It is also achievement-compatible. It may not play nice with mods that also make changes to the AI, but load other mods after this to give them priority.

      Save-game compatibility between updates has been good. However, if you run multiple mods, etc. I can't guarantee they won't break saves and updates will keep coming.

    • Issues/Suggestions
      The mod gets updated regularly; unsubbing/resubbing can also fix problems with Steam Workshop or by verifying the game files. You are welcome to DM me for any bugs or balancing suggestions, and I'll do my best to see what I can do.

    • What's Next?
      Some more testing and further adjustment and changes to make the game feel abit better with the AI, and making the harder difficulties feel like more of a natural challenge, as well as improvements to the AI personalities and strategies. The latest major update and DLC have already added some great AI Adjustments in game that work nicely with this mod.

      Originally posted by Atenvardo:
      Authors Note
      This mod was made originally for me and my friends as mentioned in the overview, the icon and art are AI generated as I needed something placeholder for the mod. The mod tries creating a more thematic role-play-style game with battles been more crucial for Players and AI alike, making it have far more decisive outcomes. It becomes a far more fun push and pull during war, with defenders using the upkeep to rebuild and push back while defences matter more.

      I will keep the mod up-to-date and as compatible as possible while making any necessary changes with the upcoming DLC and patches.

      Leave a like if it's also helpful for your experience, it's appreciated!

      Age of Wonders : PlanetFall - FairPlay AI Mod
      https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2979960215
328 Comments
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Aten  [author] 6 hours ago 
@HexBugFan - I'm unsure, but it sounds like that is something for the Developers to fix or implement, this mod does not affect those type of inbuilt game mechanics.

May have to test it out, I don't recall anytime recently the AI detecting my armies when camoflaged.
HexBugFan 9 hours ago 
Will the ability for camouflage to work against ai be implemented? Would love to sneak several armies of hidden scouts and shades to surprise a random city
Aten  [author] 15 hours ago 
@Justicar - Hey thanks, awesome to hear, I didn’t expect so many people to enjoy it as for awhile before I uploaded it my little group used it just for our matches haha.

Glad it’s helped.
Justicar 23 hours ago 
I consider your mod a must have. Always hated strategy games that let the AI magic stuff out of thin air while I"m trying to run an economy to compete! Sadly that is how most of them operate.
Aten  [author] Oct 22 @ 1:13pm 
The AI gets other tools to compensate, but it’s fairer than dealing with the vanilla AI spamming stacks and worse, as now they play by what their economy and production can handle, making it feel far more fair and competitive and not a endless slog during war.

Check the description for those details.

In my opinion it makes the game feel different for the better, but if you’ve mastered beating the vanilla games hardest AI with their spam stacks, mass resources, xp bonuses and their production bonuses among others, this will be easier.
Андрей 6 тарасок Oct 22 @ 11:54am 
Do I understand correctly that since the AI no longer receives more armies and resources from increasing difficulty, the AI has become weaker? or has the AI started to play much better to compensate for this lag?
a very nice boy Oct 20 @ 7:12pm 
baby
Aten  [author] Oct 10 @ 5:01pm 
@Bonnibello - Do you mean in the base game or with the Mod? The Ai has some set variables that are different from the player, with the mod, a lot has been removed and aligned so their economy dictates their gameplay far more like the player, and to outright remove their spam of units, production and unit XP ect ect.

So most of the rules for them are the same for the player, the highest difficulties they have some changes to make sure they don't deficit in the early game and can clear their starting area without issue, as neutrals could hamstring them in.

Then you can use the game settings on making a non story realm to set more parametres for more of a challenge for certain ruler. Like a extra starting city or heroes ect.
Bonnibello Oct 10 @ 4:11pm 
The AI Cheats regardless of difficulty and boost settings? I knew something was fishy...
Aten  [author] Oct 1 @ 9:45pm 
@Eveyone - Going forward I will try and keep the mod updated with some changes too, although I cannot spend the money on new DLC.

But! Thankfully, the mod should not require me owning the DLC to continue keeping it updated, or adding any changes needed in the upcoming dev patches.