Please reduce the aggressiveness of the Numidians in the Caesar vs. Pompeius scenario

[pantsukki]

I had to restart the scenario a couple of times due to different reasons, but during the first couple of playthroughs I witnessed them making landings in force in Italy, but the latest one was the worst so far: about 50 000 troops in Illyria. I doubt that would've ever happened. Even landing in Italy seems silly to me, especially during the first year of the war.

[pantsukki]

And in any case, shouldn't the total abandonment of Numidia by the Pompeian faction lead to a DOW from Mauretania?

[ulysses]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to reduce the agressivness of the pompeian faction over all after Pompey goes to Greece? In my last playthrough as Caesar they pompeyians bothered me some time in italy. But after I completed my build up there (while destroying the numidians and some and other legions) and went to Greece there was nothing to oppose me - Pompey stood in Illiria with three legions. I would have thought that they were waiting some eastern legions for my caesarian forces in Macedonia, but they did not.

[pantsukki]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to reduce the agressivness of the pompeian faction over all after Pompey goes to Greece? In my last playthrough as Caesar they pompeyians bothered me some time in italy. But after I completed my build up there (while destroying the numidians and some and other legions) and went to Greece there was nothing to oppose me - Pompey stood in Illiria with three legions. I would have thought that they were waiting some eastern legions for my caesarian forces in Macedonia, but they did not.

I agree. The landings (of Roman troops in addition to Juba's) did cause some trouble for me, but nevertheless were eventually overwhelmed. Because of this I'm currently marching through Macedonia and Greece unopposed, and Asia Minor looks empty too. Also, as expected, Numidia was totally empty of defenders. Why would the Mauretanians have remained on their side of the border?

[PJJ]

Couldn't the AI be forced to follow certain rules that forbid it from making totally ahistorical and unrealistic moves, like the Numidians sending a huge invasion force into Europe?

[Franciscus]

Working on it.

Have any of you per chance a save of the turn of a Numidian invasion with a few backups ?

[pantsukki]

Have any of you per chance a save of the turn of a Numidian invasion with a few backups ?

Sorry, not anymore. But I'm almost 100% sure you could get the same result by playing the scenario as Caesar and wait a few turns after the Numidians have been activated. Like I mentioned, I saw them committing the invasion three times in three playthroughs during year 49.

Edit: what are the actual requirements to activate the Mauretanians?

[Franciscus]

Edit: what are the actual requirements to activate the Mauretanians?

Mauretanians activate by a player selectable option, beginning in -47, that appears if Caesar is in Africa and Pompeus signed alliance with Numidians.

Regards

[Zebedee]

Someone needs to put bromide in Pompey's tea - he's authorised an invasion of Parthia whilst fighting the civil war in my current campaign after I got a message that he'd done some sort of deal with them. Looking forward to seeing if his troops manage to get down to Babylon from their current base at Dura Europos.

This is a Numidia related question; they didn't seem to activate when Caesar landed in North Africa to quickly grab Utica and environs, even though I received the message from Juba saying 'stay out of Africa'. The message should indicate that the alliance was made, so wondering how easily it is to derail the script for this and whether it's possible (and indeed worth) trying to bulletproof it?

[Franciscus]

Hi

Save and backup (if Caesar invades Africa and Numidians locked) ?

Thanks

[Zebedee]

Yeah, one of those where by the time I'd realised Juba was still at home, I was knocking down his front door. Willl check script to see if I broke it when I've had a couple of chances to be surprised, as from what you say it seems like he shouldn't be avoiding me. Caught between wanting to poke beneath and not expose the whole decision tree for myself yet

[Franciscus]

Hi

I tested and the Numidians are unlocked if the warning was made previously and sufficient Caesarian forces are in Africa. They may have a defensive behavior, though, specially if Pompeus is not there too.

This because we added some tweaks to the Numidian AI to prevent them from mounting Anphibious invasions of Italy

IMHO their behavior (as AI) is now more rational, but any input on this is welcomed

Regards

[Zebedee]

Juba overly ambitious? Just on overambitious AIs though, if a few start reporting that Pompey's using his Eastern Legions to vanish into Parthia (well sending Marcellus with them into Parthia), that may be one thing to look at on a long rainy day for this scenario. Athena's decided to go to Babylon in my game, though I'm not sure if that's a result of me not putting enough pressure on her to force her to pay more attention to the Roman Civil War. Maybe she gets easily bored? Or just impatient for the new expansion...

Will have a proper play with conditions when I've stopped having so much fun with what's there. May definitely have been the defensive behaviour you suggest. Need to properly rule out other errors too which might impact upon scripts. Just needed to know that he was meant to activate really. The long scenarios are just so well done I doubt that I'll be diving behind the scenes to poke about any time soon. Really can tell how much care and thought has gone into them. Have that bit of tension between wanting to know how something works and not wanting to know precisely how it works, if that makes sense - that difference between knowing that bad things happen if you move X from a certain island, and knowing precisely what happens when X leaves the island before you do it for the first time.

[Franciscus]

FYI, in 1.02b official, both Numidian alliance option (for Pompeus) and Mauretanian alliance (for Caesar) will be available from March -49 onwards (if conditions are met, obviously).

Regards

[Highlandcharge]

Hi Franciscus, just a check in, any rough ETA on the patch?

Thanks

[Franciscus]

Hi

We would like if possible some more player's feedback on the beta patch and need to do some internal tests; we are also experiencing some technical issues on the FTP site to upload the patch; anyhow I think that the 1.02b "official" shall be released end of July (2013)

Regards

[Highlandcharge]

Thanks for the update, does that coincide with the Regnum Parthia release?

Thanks

[Franciscus]

Not yet