Stronghold 2 AI Editor - trying to add troops on added tower

[EaglePrince 218]

Hi, I have found Stronghold 2 AI Editor at Heaven Games, and I have downloaded, and I tried using it.

http://stronghold2.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=490

 

There are two Williams castles that needed to be fixed, so I did that - he had problems because of the moat (that was the issue on both castles), so I removed the moat, and he had two towers with doors to outside instead of to inside (that is on one castle), so I deleted those two towers and I put those with correct orientation.

 

Later, to this second one I decided to add two more towers, as from one side he has two round towers, and on the other one only one small gatehouse. The issue is that even though I set the rally point, he sends archers only to the those rally points on the first two towers.

 

Do you have more experience with this tool? Do you know what I could do to make him send troops on all four towers?

[Lord_Chris 234]

I've written this article on the Stronghold 2 AI editor, you may find it useful: http://www.stronghold-nation.com/article/245-stronghold-2-ai-editor

 

For other users who are viewing this thread, we also have the AI editor which is available for download here: http://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/file/39-sh2-ai-editor/

[EaglePrince 218]

Thanks for your reply. I managed to do this task. Like Doomsword at Stronghold Heaven suggested - the issue was those troop rally points weren't placed at the same time. For some reason it seems that it matters. Also, another thing is that the AI won't send equally many troops on each of those points every time, but one seems to be certain - those towers that are placed first get populated first as well, and those towers get most men.

 

Nice article, thanks for that too. :)

 

I will later submit those two castle I edited - hopefully today. :)

[EaglePrince 218]

Right now before I would submit the castles I would like to ask something... Is it normal that William often doesn't build his engineers guild, or is it something that happens only to me only for some reason? When William builds one of Doomsword's castle he would build those, but when he builds his original castle or his original which I edited he just leaves an empty space, and I am unsure if he is going to build the engineers guild at all...

 

I took a look into the castle in the editor, and in original castles it has priority 6, while in Doomsword's versions it has priority 14. Maybe this is no issue in fact, maybe he would build it in some moment, but only he doesn't need that building at the moment. :/

 

Here are the images of edited castles of William.

 

[Lord_Chris 234]

I can't see an engineer's guild in either of those pictures. Does anything else have priority 6? And does anything (e.g. other building, not wall) overlap with it or is close?

 

I can see in one picture the well is almost overlapping - try and remove or change the position of that, and see if it works.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Lord_Chris

[EaglePrince 218]

Nothing else has priority 6, only the engineers guild. And no, nothing overlaps. Maybe someone could load the game, and see if the same happens with the original castle file? I am 99% sure that same would happen with original one as well, but I'm not entirely sure. That is correct about the well, it is almost overlapping, but it is just where is was meant to be - next to the position of the guild.

[Lord_Chris 234]

Hmm. I'd try to remove the well first, just to make sure. If that doesn't work I doubt it will.

[EaglePrince 218]

Thanks. Maybe he just doesn't need it at the moment, maybe that is the reason why he doesn't build it, but it still doesn't make sense to me. Of course, he doesn't ne need it, he can recruit troops from siege camp, but still why wouldn't he build it, it's still pretty cheap. 100 gold... Maybe he would bells it at some point during the war. :/ And besides this - he does build it in Doomsword's castle. I could also try changing priority of the building to another value.

[EaglePrince 218]

It works now, now he builds the engineers guild as he should do. :) Like Doomsword suggested that it may be possible, he builds engineers one square off, so although in the editor it wasn't overlapping with the armory, in reality it was the case. First I removed the armory to see what happens, and then it was clear.

 

Now, if someone could test that with his William I would be grateful. I would like to know if this was an error with original William's castle or it was me messing up with the file... I believe that it was an error with original castle, as I made a backup, but I'm unsure if I mixed up some of the files. :)

[EaglePrince 218]

So, this is the newest version of my castles for William. :) I have added rock tippers, and I also added some man traps in front of the gatehouses and those parts of the wall which are exposed to enemy attacks, or in other words those that can be accessed without digging.

 

I believe those files are ready to be submitted, only it may need few more tests - I haven't seen how it acts when I start as a freeman. Still, I assume if everything works well this way (starting as dukes), it should work well if I start as a freeman too.

 

[EaglePrince 218]

I have tested everything, everything works well. I picked a fight against five Williams now as freeman, and it's hell of a fight. :) I still own only one estate, they are pushing really hard, though it's a lot easier to deal with them now after I dag moats around my castle and my economy. Farms and many other important building that are not inside my castle are behind the castle, and they can not reach them because of the moats which are attached to the edge of the map. It's calmer now after I did this, and now I shall collect knight and try to defeat them one by one.

 

I also tried to attack one of them relatively early - with swordsmen, but he repelled that attack unfortunately for me. That one had to be the first to fall. :)

 

So, the castles are ready and I shall submit them now.

 

For anyone who wants a challenge in Stronghold 2 I have a suggestion - pick a fight against these Williams! :D Now William is really "Richard the Lionheart" from Crusader in Stronghold 2, just what we would expect from him. :)

[Tokamaps 27]

Very cool youve fixed that :)

and cool too that youve used my map in Parts ;)

[EaglePrince 218]

Yes, I was playing your map from the position on the hill. It is interesting, it's easy position to defend, though there is very little space. On the other hand, there is enough space for farms in lower part of the estate, only it was hard for me to get down to defend it in early stages of the game while I had few archers. Some time later I managed to build a wall in lower part as well, to protect farms - after killing the William in the middle. It was an interesting game - on an interesting map! :) Only I didn't continue it later to kill other Williams, but that would be easier to do with his older castle. :P

 

And thanks, I'm glad you like it. I hope you will use those castles as well, I remember you said you like playing against William too. :)

Edited March 12, 2016 by EaglePrince

[Tokamaps 27]

Yap i Like william Most because hes Actually the best offence Player.

 

I think your Not playing on the highest resulution?

[EaglePrince 218]

That is correct. The resolution is set to lower as the computer I work on is pretty old, though I don't need I better one the moment. That is the computer which is mostly free at my house, because the rest of my family prefers the newer one. :) Still, even that newer one has a cheap GPU, so I left the lower resolution on that one as well, and that applies for all games, including Settlers 7, Stronghold 3, or Crusader 2. The resolution is 1024x768 on both computers.

 

And yes, about William, he is quote hard to handle while he attacks - especially if you don't have moats. With these castle he can be tough to be killed as well. :)

Edited March 13, 2016 by EaglePrince

[Tokamaps 27]

In my opinion the ai in All strongholds has One issue:

 

Their attacks are hard in early game, ?But the armies are weak in the end.

 

They should be bigger in endgame.

[Lord_Chris 234]

I agree with this too - perhaps one day, together we will be able to find a way to make them better! :)

[Tokamaps 27]

Hopefullyb?:D but i think its Not possible for us ?:,(

Edited March 13, 2016 by Tokamaps

[EaglePrince 218]

Well, make someone with the right knowledge shows up... :)

 

Still, have you tried fighting alone against at least five Williams? I'd say it's pretty hard in the end part of the game as well. Just like in Crusader, when you play against one AI lord it's always easy no matter how much money you give him. It can get harder only if you play with more of them, and same applies to Stronghold 2. Right now, in the game in which I was testing these Williams I was holding them back pretty effectively while he was attacking with spearmen, but later he started sending lots of swordsmen, and without moats I had full hands of work - especially as in Stronghold 2 castles are larger, and there is more you need to take care about then in Crusader where it is smaller and you can always monitor entire situation. Of course, when I make it to take down one of them, and when I get more estates it is natural that I will be stronger - I will be recruiting knights more easily, and Williams will stand no chance attacking me with swordsmen, but that's like it in almost any war. When you manage to take control over more resources and defeat some of the enemies things get easier. :)

 

Of course, it would be wonderful if they were programmed to make their attacks less frequently but with larger armies after their failures.

 

EDIT: Tokamaps, if you would like to try fighting against all Williams on your map from your usual position in north-east maybe you could consider downloading castles made by Doomsword. He made smaller castles for William (so he would be able to choose one among four castles, not only two), and he made several tiny castles which can be used by any lord. This way they are way more effective on any position, and even the William on the hill estate would handle quite well, I'm pretty sure about that. I only haven't tested that on your map, but I did on another where some castle estates were smaller.

Edited March 13, 2016 by EaglePrince

[EaglePrince 218]

Now after what we wrote here about, I hope someone of the moderators would be willing to rename this tread maybe. We were not just speaking about the first issue I had, but about some other issues, such as engineers guild being misplaced, etc... I hope the tread could be renamed to "Stronghold 2 AI editor" for example, so if anyone comes with any question, he can come here, and see if we have an answer here already, or simply ask. :)

 

ABOUT AGGRESSIVE RALLY POINT

I have also noticed one thing I wasn't speaking about in the editor at first. There is a rally point mark "aggressive troops" in the editor, and it is mostly placed on the ground inside the castle. I thought those are troops that are going to be sent into attack later, and that they just sit there until that moment. I though I could make AI lord stronger by putting that rally point on the keep, so those archers would be on top. Now while I was playing a game with my castle I have noticed that those troops are not just being prepared for attack, they are there to defend the castle as well. For that reason they are best to be left on the ground in my opinion, as if you attack William, those troops will run outside as the first line of defense, and if you climb his walls with laddermen those troops will try to stop you from entering the castle.

[kian 0]

I'm having problem with The Hawk, even though he does have access to the towers, he just doesn't put his troops in'em.

Any ideas?

[Lord_Chris 234]

Have you tried placing rally points on the tower?

[EaglePrince 218]

Or maybe he did put rally points, but too many rally points. Making more rally points doesn't make their defenses stronger, it only makes them ignore most of your rally points.