AnnoZone Forum

In germany we must learn english in school and currently even in preschool So many or most can english. Maybe unlearn it over time if you do not need it in job or so. And then many do not want to speak/write it. Because we learn to use a perfect native speaking english. All other things are wrong. So many (in my school all classmates with good grades) want not to speak/write private because of the chance to make mistakes. My opinion is: i am not a native speaker, i must not use english without mistakes. I only must can communicate (write, speak and understand) so that other english speakers can understand me.. thats all. But hey.. i had a 5 in school in english and a 4 in university (2nd worst grade and 3rd worst grade possible). But in holiday in england and italy even with the class i was the only mate who wanted to speak with the natives for example to order or to ask for the way. But hey... i was the only the worst classmate in english

And so i hope my english is ok.


In Anno it was always so that the difficult of an AI was defined by his character. So their is no option you can increase the difficulty of an designed AI.

Are you using mods? In Anno1800 its a known issue that mods can block AI from developing... maybe in 1404 too.

Also the AI will not evolve if it can not. Maybe because you have all islands they need to produce goods to evolve. If you controll every tabaco island, they can not produce it semselfes and will starve. So i am looking, if i play with AI, that i will let the AI islands with enough mines and fertilities to evolve.


Maybe the AI is slower than you. My 1404 time is long ago. But the AI evolves in steps and some AIs do not evolve more than 1 step or the same step as / above the player. So if you do not have any nobles, they will also not use them. This was in 1404 designed so that the AI will "wait" for the player. Also they have an intern timer for the steps to evolve. So they will never rush through the steps, even if it can.


Maybe other user have more suggestions. You can try to save the game and than speed it up and make something else and look what happens maybe after 10h or so.
greetings
nordstern

I don't know if the AI behaves differently between versions. If so, then this is something I never noticed. For me, playing against hard AIs really only means that I hurry up because otherwise they will notice that you're falling behind and declare war, by which point it's too late. Anyway, the AI cheats, so I consider them to be more like obstacles that hinder your progress (and time sinks for grinding achievements) rather than real players.

As far as I know, the behaviour of the AIs is defined in data1.rda/data/config/ai/aiprofiles.xml. Their names appear at the end of each entry like <Name>Kardinal Lucius</Name>. They are about 5000 lines, but a big portion is taken up by their messages like offering a trade pact, which may not be what you're after. In the <Relationships> parts you can change how different AIs treat each other. There are other things like their building behaviour, but I haven't toyed around with that. Many parameters are self-explanatory and for the other ones you can refer to properties.xml in the same folder, although maybe it's in German. Even then, they are just parameters. Modifying their behaviour any more than that is probably much harder and I have no clue how to do that. If you want a fair match, multiplayer is probably your only option.

As far as I know, there are multiple changes made to the HE that were never officially disclosed like the beggar trick. Even then, I think it would be strange if the AI somehow got broken in the HE. If I recall correctly, they were hardly able to build big cities in the original and eventually just shut off altogether. And, well, I don't really care. Anno has different facets. I think the building and economy parts are great, whereas diplomacy and military are underdeveloped and not satisfying. I still think that's better than in 2070 where the developers didn't even try, but if you're interested in the military aspect, then hopefully you have better games to play than this.

Is the harbour area bug the one where everything goes red and can't be demolished? I've had that happen once to me, I don't know what causes it, but it's strange for sure.

Thats a current problem i see too.

Most game focus on one feature. Anno for example on logistics and even this is simple. In previous anno-titles their was more war and more economic.

But other games like the new settler is much worse. The new Pharaoh also makes no real war and is focused an building monuments.

Even newer paradox titles like victoria 3 are focused an one strengh. So here building and controlling permanent the production and trades is the main focus. diplomacy or military is nearly dead.

For me this trend is a bit surprising because Europa Universalis IV has all. A bit economic, military and war, diplomacy and inner politics. And is the most selled game of the firm and also currently 10 years after release still played and supported with DLCs and updates. They made imperator rome and it was a mess (it was a good game, but to weak features in release and because of the frustration fast stopped support). On the other hand stellaris was really successfull till today and it also can make all.

And than they bring victoria 3 as production manager and not much more. You can fight, you can trade and make diplomacy but its all very... weak, especially the military part is aweful for this genre and the time period of the game.

The Problem often is, that in simulations and building games, military does need a hugh amount of work for the ai. Building up not. And in reallity ai does not sell games. Grafic and the feature list sells but ai or good military or deep gameplay do not sell... at the beginning. And as long as firms see the sucess of a game in the release and preorder sales, this will not change.

Also marketing is a problem. For example ubisoft asked youtuber how they want "the Division 1+2". But they did not ask the players or youtubers of this games. They asked youtuber of Battlefield and Call of Duty series.

The same in "the settlers". It was on the right way. And then they thought making an clone of AoE2 would be a nice idea because of the sucess of AoE4. And at the end, they redesigned it 2 years completly and released a game with stupid, useless ai, lesser economic tha aoe and without the varity of troops or tactical maps a rts should have. So they made a game which is good. But not what it should be and not what it wanted to be. It can both, but all lesser than the games of this series. And with lesser content and massive bugs...



I am playing surviving Mars, Anno1800, etc but at the end i am waiting for a new caesar II. A game from i think 1995 which made a good split between combat, development and provinces. You build up a city with more mechanics like anno. Also you must raise the province in a separate map to give your city enough emplyees, goods and trade. And this must all work to gain money. And you must defend this with an army you could command in the province and fight battles in a 3rd screen.