AI Beta 1.04

[IainMcNeil]

More fixes and improvemnts. Download from http://www.slitherine.com/files/cnaw/cnaw_patch1.04.exe

There are still a few glitches in there but its getting better all the time

Fixes in 1.04 Beta Patch (2008-11-10)
- Fixed a bug with Vassals scientists not working
- Fixed a bug with not being able to focus on Attack Columns science
- Fixed a bug where AI waiting for horses buying cavalry instead of buying something else
- France now invade Saxony and Prussia earlier instead of waiting for them to join the war
- Max labs set higher for Vassal countries
- Science is now a bit faster
- AI now reacts and assign newly deployed infantry to homeland defence duty if enemy is near
- AI now reacts and dismiss newly deployed infantry from homeland defence duty if enemy is far

Fixes in 1.03 Beta Patch (2008-11-06)
- Fixed a wagon bug that sometimes prevented wagon movements from/to Russia
- Some tweaks to the 1805 scenario setup
- AI now mass up several transports before doing naval invasion to land stronger instead of piecemeal
- AI now use leaders
- AI recruits more leaders on higher difficulty levels
- AI, Units that cannot reinforce now fall back from the front line to prevent blocking fresh units
- AI, Units assigned for homeland defence now spread out better
- Fixed a nasty installer issue where it did created 2 versions of the install in add/remove programs. This cannot retro fix previous issues but anyone applying 1.03 to 1.00 will not see the issues. It also now clears out the the installed dir when you uninstall and removes the folder cleanly from the start menu.
- Saved games are now in "my documents\Commander Napoleon at War" to make them easier to find. You will not be able to continue any old saved games unfortunately anyway.
- Added in game German language support

Fixes in 1.02 Beta Patch (2008-11-04)
- Fixed a freeze bug that occured sometimes instead of the victory screen
- France is now slightly stronger early on due to the increase from 8% to 12% from the Corps d Arme' tech
- Increased the manpower capacity for France in all scenarios by 15%
- Russia now throw in counter attacks every now and then, more the longer the war goes on eventually driving all the way towards Paris
- Great Britain now do naval invasion into France if later on if the defence is weak
- Great Britain now build slightly less navy and more ground forces
- AI, Changed some thresholds for France when deciding if protecting Austria or defending Paris
- AI, improved some distribution problems so France is now more aggressively focusing on conquests early on
- AI stops buying new units earlier, sparing manpower for repairs
- AI, France get more manpower when playing the upper difficulty levels
- AI, Only infantry units now stay put on resource hexes for defence

Fixes in 1.01 Beta Patch (2008-10-24)
- Sea Port attack penalty now 70% instead of 30%
- Map, Transportation loop removed
- Map, Cairo now set up as Ottoman Secondary Capital
- Scenario 1805, Russia has a slightly weaker set up
- Vassals now need to have at leist 4 units in order to get a chance of revolting
- Major Countries and Vassals now do not surrender as easily as before
- AI, Great Britain now build more ships not just Frigates
- AI, made several improvements to the 1805 reducing the amount of situations where the AI went defensive(=passive)
- AI naval units that are going home for repairs do no longer change their mind
- AI now devote more navy for patrolling the seas in order to maintain naval superiority and win the convoy wars
- AI now build some artillery
- AI, Portugal now set more aggressive in 1814 Scenario

[nalivayko]

It seems like a new patch each day Great job.

[McHarg]

Hello,


I downloaded this patch. When I tried to install, it gave me an error message when I put in the serial number. I bought the game from Matrix Games in US, does that maybe not work for this patch? The serial number I am using installed the base game just fine. I have not installed any patches so far. Wanted to update the AI, as it is pretty crummy:) Any thoughts are appreciated.

mgm

[pipfromslitherine]

The patch will only work on Slitherine versions. Once it has been finalised then it will be released through Matrix, have no fear.

Cheers

Pip

[Panzer]

Hi there

1st game ) Just installed the patch , starting a campaign with French.

Game froze after turn 1



2nd Game) Austrian, Russian and prussians still not building units. Ending my game after 20 turns,

going back to the original version of the game ...

[Bern]

Opening moves completed with latest patch. Play as Coalition, mod adv to French as usual.

Can I just reinforce previous comments. The Frigate unit is still moving to and fro from Toulouse just waiting to be sunk. Surely this could be put to better use.

As to land action - France is still having probs taking Vienna - I have had instances where victorious Fr units did not advance into important vacated hexes around the City. Also there are still understrength Fr units in the way of full strength ones. It may be my imagination, but there seem to be fewer French leaders in the assault this time.

I've mentioned before the placement of Napoleon. He is still exposed. In this game start I was able to attack his art. unit with inf./art from the south, inflicting damage. The Nap art. counter was then advanced on the right of the French assault, without any support and within reach of two Aust Mil units. They promptly attacked - Nappy and his artillery retreated into the path of the south inf unit which promptly killed it. Surely more thought should be given to the placement and support of this crucial unit.

I'm starting a new game with a house rule - do not attack Napoleon

Just an observation on Research. The GB and Russian scientists seem to be making very little progress on anything important. Given the advantage the Fr now have, I wondered if, in the interests of balance, the Coalition research should be speeded up a bit.

Bern

[firepowerjohan]

hi Bern!
Yes, research will be quicker in next update as well as Napoleon will start on a infantry unit instead of artillery. The naval indetermination is also fixed, and more...

Thanks for the good feedback you all are providing here! Game has had a slow start due to the AI problems, but it is rapidly improving now and it wont be long before the official patch is out I recon

[Bern]

I agree - the game has improved beyond expectation, what you are doing with it is going to be really appreciated even I think by the harshest critics.

By the way, I did see Paul's pms - he got a flea in his ear for giving away secret plans

Bern

[wooman99]

Make sure u up date java before playing. Game was freezing up till i up dated my java.

[xriz]

I downloaded the 1.04 bete patch, it ask for the serial number and when I put it in, it says invalid serial number. Which is wrong, I downloaded and installed the game already so why is it rejecting my serial number.

[Bern]

Hello Johan

I wonder if you would allow me another observation relating to my fixation with Vienna. This relates again to Coalition v Fr AI with mod adv to Fr.

I think all would agree that it is crucial for the Fr AI to reduce Vienna at the earliest time. In my new game, it's well into 1806. Vienna has not yet been taken tho' it shouldn't be long now. However, the delay has allowed both GB and Russia to make some progress in research - if this process is to be speeded up, then progress would be even greater - and, in addition GB is beginning to build up its forces whilst the Russians have already put together a sizeable force concentrated around Kiev. In fact, it is almost equal in number, tho' not in quality, to the French and will pose a threat to the AI.

I have played and replayed the defence of Vienna over and over and looked at the issues the Fr AI has in taking the city. There seem to be three in the main.

Firstly, in this beta we still have the situation where, occasionally, a Fr unit fails to move into a vacated hex. This is much, much better than it was, but in the present game, I saw it twice - each time the AI had a unit which could have moved adjacent to Vienna but didn't do so.

Secondly, again, but to a much lesser degree, understrength units have got in the way of full strength units. As for the first issue, this situation is not nearly so bad as it was - a good improvement has been made, but if this could be eliminated so much the better.

Thirdly there is the question of Prague. I don't know where on your table of AI priorities the capture of this city lies, but I do wonder if it is given too much weight. Depending on how the Coalition player uses Prague, it attracts far too much Fr strength away from the capture of Vienna. For example, at the moment Prague is still in Austrian hands, just, but it has attracted one Fr heavy Cav, one light cav and two inf units away from the primary target. This strength could have been used to flank Vienna and the City I think would have fallen maybe two or even three turns previously. Is this worth thinking about?

Incidentally, for some reasone, the Fr fleet acquitted itself very well in the initial naval battle. GB lost considerable strength

Bern

[lordzimoa]

I downloaded the 1.04 bete patch, it ask for the serial number and when I put it in, it says invalid serial number. Which is wrong, I downloaded and installed the game already so why is it rejecting my serial number.

I see you had it solved as you needed the Matrix patch as you have a Matrix version correct?

People who have a Slitherine version, should use and download the patch from here, from this forum. Matrix users should get the patch from the Members club forum at Matrix.


Tim aka LZ

[alaric318]

greetings, well, being playing my mod instead of the main "default" campaign as keep me away of give feedback but overall the french AI opponent is doing now very better than in previous versions, give a challenge, as them take out berlin, having vienna and berlin is for a draw that can be taken as a french overall victory, the problem with vienna is lifted giving france more troops, i did it on my mod and works very well, still the austrians can do some damage but the capitol city is to be taken in around 10 turns, just after, then, saxony and berlin, to fixed out the artillery and cavalry build up AI problem i see to solve it on some degree giving extra artillery and cavalry units to all sides, so, the AI have some units to win or draw the campaign game, is a very good fix that cav. and art. is not more taken as garrisons, so, the AI use them in his operations, 1.04 is, at least in my oppinion on what you can expect from an AI opponent on most war and strategy games' simulations, very good work, i will make public my mod when test do with the french against coalition, i make some drastic technology changes that off-set the early allies rush on tech giving the french faction more technology upgrades, will make a post with the given changes and post in matrix an attached file just after i finish playtest, i think that issues will no arise that defeat the spirit of my mod but want to do the test before, great game, and great and fast patch upgrade work, thanks,

with best regards,

alarick.

[Bern]

One more game - same conditions as previous. This time played up to end 1806. Couple of glitches in this I haven't seen before. One minor, and probably fixed - after the fall of Saxony at each turn, the box that France declares war on Saxony appears followed at the end of the turn by the announcement that Saxony is defeated. An odd and more serious thing was that GB 'saved up' early on and purchased Wellington and subsequently placed him with an inf unit in London. At that point I had to do a save game and attend the real world. When I next returned, Wellington had vanished from the inf. unit and re-appeared in the production queue. It set GB back a bit This is the first time this has happened.

Vienna held out until Jun 1806. After that the AI made an excellent job of crushing Saxony and then taking Berlin along with a considerable Prussian strength. What followed was not quite so good. The French seemed hesitant to move away from Berlin - most activity seemed to centre around units moving back west and around Paris. What little was left of the Prussians was at Fr's mercy but so far there has been little movement.

Presumably I'm now going into the 1807 phase of the Fr AI plan and as yet the objectives are not clear. Possibly it also is to do with the fact that because of the delay in taking Vienna, the Russians have by now built up a substantial force, both in strength and quality which is moving to recover a number of the possessions in Austria previously captured by the French and posing a real threat. I'll play this game on when I get the chance to see further Fr reaction.

Bern

[nalivayko]

I'd like to confirm Saxony bug too - gets annoying seeing this message every turn.

As to France not moving away from Berlin... could it be that it is trying to crush Saxony? Again and again and again?

[firepowerjohan]

I'd like to confirm Saxony bug too - gets annoying seeing this message every turn.

As to France not moving away from Berlin... could it be that it is trying to crush Saxony? Again and again and again?

Thanks. This DoW Saxony thing and also a leader blocking other AI units from deploying in some difficulty levels is fixed in 1.05 so again the AI will be noticably stronger in the next beta.

[nalivayko]

No, thank you - can't wait until the next patch.

EDIT: One more problem. I thought it was happening because of modding the data files, but now with the clean re-install and patch applied it is still here:

The game freezes after French turn 1 in campaign of 1805 (did not check the other scenarios yet). Does not happen if I play as Coalition, but happens every time I play as French.

[firepowerjohan]

No, thank you - can't wait until the next patch.

EDIT: One more problem. I thought it was happening because of modding the data files, but now with the clean re-install and patch applied it is still here:

The game freezes after French turn 1 in campaign of 1805 (did not check the other scenarios yet). Does not happen if I play as Coalition, but happens every time I play as French.

Are you using a modded map or a modded scenario? In that case make sure you delete the Commander Napoleon at War folder under "my documents" so that game recreates it and compiles the scenarios again. If that does not work, please mail the autosave created (in my documents/Commander Napoleon at War/data/save) when it crashed.

firepowerjohan@gmail.com

Also, does the game have any error.log file you can also mail that one to me. Does anyoe else experience any freezes like this?

[alaric318]

hi Bern!
Yes, research will be quicker in next update as well as Napoleon will start on a infantry unit instead of artillery. The naval indetermination is also fixed, and more...

Thanks for the good feedback you all are providing here! Game has had a slow start due to the AI problems, but it is rapidly improving now and it wont be long before the official patch is out I recon

greetings, just my point of view here, the best attachment for napoleon i think is the heavy cavalry, not only gives extra attack power to the unit, too increased defense, so, decreased the valuable cavalry casualties, can be a problem however if AI make use on agressive with the cavalry with napoleon attached, in my last game (win as coalition on turn 34 against moderate french AI advantage) i see the production queue problem, seeing forces in the stats screen show numbers for france that are not in the map, being it fixed will have given me a much tough fight trough paris, as a human player i target the french cavalry all the time that situation allow me, tactics, that a computer cannot react to, looking forward for 1.05, thanks for the work on the game,

with best regards,

alarick.

[nalivayko]

Are you using a modded map or a modded scenario? In that case make sure you delete the Commander Napoleon at War folder under "my documents" so that game recreates it and compiles the scenarios again. If that does not work, please mail the autosave created (in my documents/Commander Napoleon at War/data/save) when it crashed.

No, I just modded the leader files in the data folder plus the message_eng.txt file. But then I reverted back to clean install + 1.04 patch. Let me try deleting the folder you mentioned - I did suspect it may have something to do with it. If it still does not work, I'll email you the autosave.

Thank you for quick response.