Empire Total War

[jomni]

ETW vanilla. Why does the AI just stand and do nothing? Any mod that fixes AI behavior?

[Nefaro]

ETW vanilla. Why does the AI just stand and do nothing? Any mod that fixes AI behavior?

Yeah.  It's called Napoleon Total War.  But that one still has some issues - just not as many.

It's too bad CA left ETW in such a shitty state.  It would've been one of my favorites if it had been of Shogun 2 quality.  :(

[jomni]

Lol.  So no mods actually fix this behavior.

[Jarhead0331]

I play with the Darth mod and really love it. However, I enjoyed vanilla too, so YMMV.

[Gusington]

Darthmod for sure. IIRC it does not fix the behavior of the AI during sieges, or the way sieges play out (with rope ladders and other oddities). Empire is my least favorite TW game, which is a shame because it was clearly an ambitious project. You're better off playing Napoleon for less headaches and a better AI.

[Oche]

Try DARTHMOD Jomni for ETW, it sometimes crashes though.

[Boggit]

+1 re DarthMod. IIRC there is also another mod which adds lots of individual historical uniforms, ships etc - yep, the Additional Units Mod I was thinking rnamentum, but this mod includes that... 

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?250655-Additional-Units-Mod-Empire-(AUM-EMP)-3-3-updated-11-12-13

[jomni]

Yeah I know about Darthmod  but I'm more concerned about the AI which it apparently doesn't fix.

[undercovergeek]

personally never had the AI just stare at me before - reload and start again?

[Jarhead0331]

personally never had the AI just stare at me before - reload and start again?

+1. Never.

[Sir Slash]

I play with the American Revolution Mod and have enjoyed it a lot. It's very similar to Darthmod but with a lot of added units for all factions. The AI behavior is much better than vanilla but not more so than Darth. One big change is no unit can climb the walls of a fort. Instead the forts walls and gates have strength values that must be reduced by cannon fire before they collapse and make a breach. Almost any cannon will work if it's close enough but the big mortars and howitzers work best. And are more fun to watch. Battle AI is much better with either mod also. With the mods, Empire is probably my favorite TW game. I love the time period. The American Revolution Mod is an older mod and may not be supported any longer.

[Martok]

The AI in Empire suffers from a severe case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder -- worse than in just about any other Total War title I've played -- but I've not had that particular problem (where it just sits there on the battlefield and stares at you) either. 

[mikeck]

Darthmod brings the game up to an acceptable level I think. It's not Shogun 2 or Rome 2 AI but it's good enough to have fun with

[Gusington]

Slash that mod yiu mentioned is just cslled the American Revolution mod? I'd like to try it out.

[Swatter]

I want to love ETW, but I just can't. I want to bring myself to play it, but I can't. DarthMod makes the tactical battles more than acceptable IMO, but the strategic campaign is just too horrible to describe. The strategic AI is just so incredibly poor, especially playing a sea power. It all has so much unrealized potential.

Of course, having a sane strategic AI has never been a strong point of a CA game. It's kinda amazing after working on the same type of game for 15 years they can still have such crappy AI. CA is always in search of new, more shiny graphics or aesthetic improvements, which they always make progress on. Yet when it comes to AI, its always one step forward and one step back.