Sorry, I should have been clearer.  I didn't mean putting the AIMisc+ file in the Steam folder.  I was just trying to clarify that the contents of the AIMisc+ file contained the units that replaced those (and added new ones) in the original Core AI Units file that I remove from the Steam folder?

Got it.  So the units you have in your file provides better units than what's in CoreAIUnits so that's why we can just delete it to avoid the AI making those other units in the CoreAIUnits file.

To remove the unit designs just remove the AIMisc+ and AiMagnar+ files from the mod. I don't think you need to do this however as the designs I have added mostly overwrite really bad existing ones or fill obvious gaps. The main point of this is to force the AI to build tougher units so it's stacks are tougher and not so easy to steam roll. Thus the units they will build will tend to have more traits and upgradeable armor. Also it gives them access to some much better archers and mages with items and traits that improve accuracy and initiative, and fixes some stupid unit designs that had 8 initiative and such. So I don't suggest removing those files although if you do the rest of the mod will work fine.

I think your mostly safe compatibility wise. My mod may override some of the changes you made to improvements in the core files but that's it.

fyi

I think you have 2 "Unit_Medium_Wraith_AI" in your AIMisc+.xml file.

DsRaider-

Downloaded this and looked it over. Gonna give playing it a shot.

Just curious, how did you get rid of the old unit designs you don't like? Giving new tags to the old units by name, or effectively shutting off old units?

I use a bit of everything to get rid of old unit designs. Mostly I overwrite them and add a new prereq.

If your interested in this mod check out Blood & Mana which includes more AI tweaks I haven't got around to adding to this mod. It also features many more units that use the unique racial traits from B&M.

Been playing around with this. Overall I notice a slight increase in the AI's performance, without the game being drastically changed.

Gonna give you a more detailed opinion after a few more sample plays. But so far, this seems to be accomplishing its goals of improving the AI.

Thanks for the feedback Davrovana.

I have tweaked a lot of stuff but the two main improvements in this mod are:

-Additional unit designs and greater AI emphasis on building more expensive units. As you noticed you can really see how they build tougher units.

-Higher AI priority on reducing build times and building construction improvements. If you compare vanilla and this mod you will see that AI cities have many more improvements and upgrades with this mod.

The whole diplomacy thing is still a work in progress so feel free to comment. I'm pretty sure I didn't touch Guarded Strike although I could add a IsWorthy tag to it, if I can think of a useful one. The AI just loves slaves way to much. They rarely build anything else although they do occasionally build elite normal units later game with this mod from my experience. I have tried everything to get them to build them less with only a little luck. At least they don't spam slave archers anymore. Those were the weakest units in the entire game...

Just tried this mod (my first non-vanilla game in a year or more), and it's a step in the right direction.  A Challenging/Hard level start now better lives up to its name, though it's still fairly easy to fend off attackers (more aggressive AI that's incompetent isn't much different than AI that is passive--I guess this is something that must be addressed with core AI rather than modding, which I view much like using bandaids to "mend" a broken bone).  Great effort so far, though, with what you have to work with.  The unit designs were much more appropriate, and the AI built up their factions quicker than in vanilla, which gives the false impression of a challenging game to come.  The end game is still a letdown as the AI squanders all its resources and falls apart under even a casual assault.

Unlike what some misguided people claim, it has nothing to do with AI's inability to handle magic--it really is an optimization problem in other areas (areas that the GalCiv2 AI handles beautifully).  The only magic I used in this test game were city buffs and Arcane Monolith (I dislike using pioneers for outposts); the rest was simple exploration, exploitation, pushing research, and then ramming it down the throat of any near AI that declared war on me just because their "power" score was higher. If the AI did likewise, they be far more successful without having to figure out how to use complex magic setups.

On the off-chance that you modders have powerful enough tools to tweak behavior, I'll list what I noticed:

AI still did not optimize units for initiative, fielding mostly 15-18s against my 26-ish units; they should at least have a few units optimized as first-strikers/vanguards.  They did not coordinate attacks on anything of value (collectively, the 3 factions I wiped out captured 1 of my outposts for a couple of turns), or try any threatening tactics.

Then when I counterattacked, they did not protect their cities, even with units that were close by when I entered their territory, so wiping out their manufacturing power without any losses was without satisfaction.  Even losing factions need to put up a real fight for the victory to be worth anything; pull back units to any city that has enemies close, pump out troops instead of non-relevant buildings (they are getting beat and they are building a garden?).  Truthfully, a good boost to their AI would be the distinction between peace and wartime; they should be optimized to build size and economic strength before they ever declare war, they should not declare war before they have a good handle on their infrastructure, and then they should go into full war-production mode once in a struggle with an opponent that's even close to their power rating.

As many people have noted, they still made little use of the power they built, squandering what lead I had given them by inefficient or seemingly random pathing (the AI should be taught that when they declare war on the player, they better be really serious about it, or they be made a laughing stock).

A couple of possible bugs I noticed that aren't in my vanilla games:  Sov/champions get dodged fairly often even when the creature has a 0 dodge and the attacker has over 100 to-hit (in one case I noted, my Sov got dodged with a 164 accuracy vs. a 0 dodge--this should never happen). If this is done intentionally, then it's a perfect example of artificial "challenge" that gamers hate, because it's cheap/cheaty/unsupportable, rather than being something that presents a genuine challenge.

All of the factions "met" me early in the game, even though they were far away and I never saw a unit or territory from them (I frequently use the cloth map to easily spot where they come in a vanilla game from so I can plan my expansion/defense accordingly, and in your game, they were nowhere I could see).  Insane Ceresa even declared war on me fairly early on and then never showed up--she was at least 30 movement turns from my closest territory/unit (it took me half the game to find her).  This is one of those bugs-within-a-bug problem (allowing bad diplomacy programming earlier in the game is only hurtful).  It's far better from a game tactics standpoint to not have "diplomatic" relations with a faction you have not actually met.  Unless there's something I'm missing about this, early contact benefits the AI none at all, and therefore provides no added challenge for the player (in fact, I used the early contact to more easily control the opponents and my strategy).

A couple bugs I have not encountered in the last few versions of vanilla also popped up: the build queue inaccuracy and the inaccurate move distance calculation (though I have no idea how your mod could "bring" those old bugs back).

I'm still hoping this game can produce a challenging end game, to balance out the fun exploring, amusing quests, and often tough starts (I keep terrible starting positions for the extra challenge of coming from way behind).  All the great tactical games demand sacrifices of the player (you will have to lose units to achieve overall victory rather than the "never lose a man" victory that FE has).  If you want any more feedback, let me know; I consider myself an average 4x gamer, so should be good to test ideas against.  In any case, I appreciate your efforts.  Happy modding.

ETA: To clarify, I usually play on a Challenging world setting, with a mix of Hard/Expert AI (all Expert gets annoying since they have so many boosts to money and research).  Do I need to modify these settings to get a better feel for your mod?

Yes, I seek out and mine crystal and use the boosts.  My first units built always have the boots, haste, and the belt (and later, the +2 amulet), and benefit from the air magic city buff (when possible).  Why shouldn't the AI do these things?  Don't get me wrong, your builds are superior and sufficient early on (and in combination with the Expert level "free" buffs they get, they can be scary); but endgame units with that 16-18 initiative will never present a challenge, no matter how many of them there are (on my current Expert level game, I just took out 8 full stacks with my B-team army without a loss because of initiative).  How about 1 or 2 designs that use the higher end swords, boots, belt, amulet, and horse/warg as a vanguard unit (with bunny power, of course)?  That should give them high-20s and a fighting chance against all but the best opponents.

Speaking of crystal hording, sending small hit parties to wipe out/capture crystal outposts would be a great tactic for the AI since they already field so many small armies (Tarth ought to excel at guerrilla tactics like this), especially if the AI would use the crystal.  This would make the location of your outposts/mines relative to the enemy a tactical consideration.

Frogboy at work again on AI?  That paints a big grin on my face; the game could use lots of his kind of cleverness (I feared he was too busy to spend much time on core AI).  I have many good memories of the whacky-unpredictable AI of GalCiv2, and a couple of fair-and-square losses made those victories on the harder levels all that much sweeter.

Thanks for the efforts.  I hope you agree that a challenging ending would elevate this game to a new level of awesome, and better units will help as long as they aren't misused too noticeably.  It will be interesting to see what you can do once you see what Frogboy is hatching for the next update.  I look forward to the day when the programming is tweaked so well that the "AI" won't need large artificial bonuses to compete.

Yes this will work for 1.6. Using this or B&M is up to you, it depends on what you want.