Ultimate AI

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A mod aimed at improving the campaign AI, diplomacy and alliances in Medieval II: Total War

History

The current version of this mod, 1.6, was released on September 30, 2007. The first version, 1.0, was released by GrandViZ. Version 1.4/1.5 was released on May 06, 2007. The Ultimate Battle AI, a part of the mod, was first released on June 16, 2007, and version 1.2 of the Battle AI was released together with version 1.6 of the main mod.

Description

The Ultimate AI mod for Medieval II: Total War is a project that modifies almost everything about the AI's behavior and coding, in order to improve the overall game. It is very detailed, containing separate AI profiles for certain groups of countries. It contains special coding for the Papal States, Catholic factions, Orthodox factions, Muslims, Mongols (Timurids), Aztecs, and Neutral factions. It also has a separate section for a new battle AI.

Features

Campaign AI

• Total revision of vanilla AI with separate AI profiles for Papal States, Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims, Mongols (Timurids), Aztecs, and Neutrals
• Reasonable alliances, backstabbing still possible
• AI using large stacks for attack and defense - no other AI will give you these results

Diplomacy

• No more random declarations of war
• Limited alliances between historically hostile factions
• Allies will help each other, if they have the means
• Papal States will primarily act via diplomacy
• Special relationship between the Pope and Italian states (Venice, Milan, Sicily) - Pope will ask for help when attacked
• Total revision of faction standing mechanics to provide more subtle changes in relations between factions, rather than jumping from perfect to horrible.
• All your actions will affect not only the target faction, but also its allies and enemies as well
• Revised the value of all diplomatic offers and demands
• AI will make more counterproposals in negotiations

Battle AI & AI Formations

• Complete battle AI modification and mechanics for longer lasting and absolutely challenging field battles and sieges
• Massively improved flanking and skirmish behavior
• Improved pathfinding
• Realistic terrain modifiers
• Differentiated projectile and artillery settings
• Balanced unit stats thanks to the outstanding Real Combat modification by Point Blank
• Gates, walls and towers get more hitpoints with every upgrade level: higher level castles will require heavy siege equipment
• Six new AI formations for open field battles, that are all used by the AI depending on the army composition
• Total Revision of all offensive and defensive siege formations
• Naval engagements will result in more casualties

Campaign Settings

• Total revision of the starting conditions for all factions and settlements, so that all factions can build the faction specific basic militia units in cities, and basic infantry and cavalry in castles.
• The starting units have been changed to exactly match the starting recruitment buildings with the exception of Denmark, Scotland and Russia, as these factions start only with one settlement.
• Countless tweaks & bugfixes to vanilla configuration
• Complete new growth and economy model
• Increased corruption, religious unrest, distance to capital penalties
• Increased high tax penalties
• Increased income from trade, decreased income from taxation and farming
• Increased garrison effect on public order
• Increased govenors influence
• Higher population thresholds for updating cities and castles
• Settlement tax for the human player based on the settlement level - fast expansion should be more difficult now
• Settlement based money script for the AI
• AI sight and command bonus

Building Tree & Recruitment

• Total revision of vanilla building tree, the previous RBT mod is no longer used
• Balanced costs and construction times for the UAI 1t1y campaign
• Balanced bonuses and effects
• Revised the requirements for the availability of certain buildings and improvements
• Era based availability of high and late era units
• Revised manpower and refreshment parameter to ensure high-quality AI army composition throughout the whole campaign

Character Names Project

• This excellent modification fixes the fantasy names from the vanilla game, and adds a huge variety of historically used names for all factions

King's Banner

• New banners, textures and symbols from the King's Banner Mod enhance the Ultimate AI visually.

Loading Screens

• 23 new high-quality loading screens with original medieval motives

Team

• GrandViZ as developer
• Point Blank, creator of Real Combat
• joedreck, creator of King's Banner
• deRougemond, creator of Character Names Project