Flaws in the system

[lordshardik]

In the original game, countries that had no player were controlled by another player. What I am finding out is that the AI has serious limitations. Namely, it rarely goes to war against France.
This makes it extremely difficult to defeat France, as any one nation doesnt have the strength to fight on level ground with the French. And I have no idea how to get an AI controlled country to ally, and then try to arrange a coordinated attack.

[pzgndr]

I see you just joined us. Welcome. I'd like to verify some things with you. Are you playing the latest v1.27.04 official update? What AI difficulty settings have you been using - easy, medium, or hard?

So, first, the AI rarely goes to war against France? Usually, France is the one declaring war and beating up its opponents, leaving them with at least 18 months enforced peace or longer per surrender condition. Once enforced peace ends, the AI major power evaluates major DOWs based on a variety of conditions. These evaluations are intended to restrict reckless DOWs that tend to reward France with another easy victory and further penalize an already wounded major power. Is this a serious limitation or just prudent strategy? FYI, for human France, the AI does get modifiers for human opponents and for human opponents in the Dominant zone and/or currently winning the game, so you should see some increased aggression on the part of the AI.

How to get an AI country to ally? In the Diplomatic Reactions screen, check the boxes for nations you want to request/accept alliance for. If the AI also wants to request/accept alliance with you, then it happens. Again, there are evaluations for the AI to determine who to ally with, based on the Natural Alliance table, national objectives, and a variety of conditions. Speaking of these conditions, AI difficulty setting does have an effect on AI decision-making, so Hard AI is generally more aggressive than Easy AI for most things.

For making coordinated attacks, there are two options for a human player. Try Talk to Allies to request an attack/defense for a selected area. The AI may or may not accept, but if it does then it would be during its turn. The other option is to Talk to Allies and request a unit or units in range of your target. Again, the AI may or may not accept, but if it does and it lends you the desired unit(s) then you can use them in a coordinated attack/defense during your turn. If you play long enough, you may also see AI nations lending units to other AI nations for coordinated attacks.

BTW, I am the guy who has been working on the AI for Empires in Arms for the past 10 years or so. LOTS of improvements and enhancements along the way. And there are more coming. Marshall Ellis is back and we're currently up to a v1.50.022 beta version. Lemme say with regard to AI development, it ain't trivial and trying to get the AI to play like a human in most all respects has been very challenging. And this particular game is a code development nightmare with major nations, minor nations, kingdom nations, ceded provinces, allied units, loaned units, who's at war with who and who's not, etc., etc., etc. So, yeah, the AI continues to be a work-in-progress and it ain't "brilliant" and ain't ever going to be. But IMHO it's pretty good, certainly better than 10 years ago or 20 years ago at game release, so saying that it has "serious" limitations is a tad bit over the top. If you have some constructive ideas or specific suggestions for improvements, please provide your feedback. Helpful feedback is always welcomed. Thanks!