I did try out one of the new binaries that Frogboy had posted. I have to see it is a very large improvement.

Map Size: Medium

World Difficulty: Normal

AI Difficulty: Normal

Number of AI: 9 (I was pariden,  they were the other factions).

So i ran into Yithril on about turn ~30. I normally would have attacked at this point but the leader had 7 att and 3 def at that point. I just had 5 or so attack on my heroes (The enemy leader had like 30 hp so I wouldn't have faired well). At this point I decided to return to get some armor (Padded at this point). I returned and declared war. I noticed that Yithril had not produced any soldiers at this point but instead spent their money on equipping their sovereign and spouse. I ended up attacking and having to retreat because the Yithril sovereign is a beast.

Here are some city building notes on the AI

Yithril

1. They have used 3/10 available food from their capital. However, they are pop capped at their capital. Instead of building a house, they are building workshops.
2. Yithril did build 1 monument and the tower of dominance. The effectively gave them 2.4 prestige with their leaders garrisoned in the city (yay).
3. I would have expected at least 1 soldiers by turn 50 (when I launched my attack). Even if Yithril is focusing on the champions, they still would likely have materials left over (Unless they built a really late workshop).
4. They were building pioneers to settle gold and marble just outside of their influence. While this is normally a great move, when at war, colonizing should have a much lower priority.

Magnar

In my offical game save, I haven't explored them yet. However I did reload an earlier save while on their border so i could compare their city building technique. What I discovered was the following when comparing my city with theirs

Resource     Pariden     Magnar

Gold               9             8

Tech               3             2

Arcane            0             2

Prestige          2             3

Magnar's capital has a higher population than mine and is growing faster. They are getting the royalty bonus so he did find a prince somewhere in the wastes. Magnar's Queen was wielding an Oak Spear giving her 11 attack, a lot higher than my band of adventurers (at this time I had not gone back for better weapons yet.)

All in all, this is a vast improvement over what was released with 1.1. Great job frogboy. I had to retreat from a fight on normal difficulty (I normally play on ridiculous....the extra hp in this battle would have been RIDICULOUS lol). And i'm not exactly a 4x slouch (I've beaten Gal Civ II on crippling).

Anyways, have a great weekend

Jec

much the same as others:

the ai doesn't build groups

it doesn't go for the right technologies first like a human player: food increases, housing bonuses, groups, armour and weapons. perhaps we're manipulating the game because certain techs are essential (overpowered), and in the long terms this might mean a rethink of technologies, but in the short term, it needs to learn to go for these techs and build those groups.

it builds too many settlements too close together when there is no resource advantage to doing so. it is rarely wise to build a settlement when there are no resources there. if there are two resources close together it needs to learn to leave some settlements as undeveloped resource grabbing outposts, then raze them one neighbouring influence is sufficient to cover them.

it build too many pioneers altogether. i'd suggest a reactive "there's a resource: build a pioneer" approach rather than the other way round, but can see how this would be tough

elemental right now is food, housing, population, money, troops (so long as you've covered your resources) and this is the way the ai needs to play.

btw, i personally think the AI would do better with a bunch of premade units. i don't think there's really enough variation in the system at the moment to warrant unit design.

I agree. Until more variety in equipment comes out, premades would reduce the risk of odd behavior in AI equipment.

I have some suggestions on how to add some flavor to the game. Its incomplete (in a balance since). https://forums.elementalgame.com/402521

With this post, I tried to point out that we could have 10 or so weapons that would continously get better (tiers would be mat used). Each weapon would have strengths or weakness (passive stat changes).

Kenata's Weapon Mod is also an excellent example. https://forums.elementalgame.com/400876 Her(?) example gives 1-2 abilities to each weapon. I think this is an excellent idea and if combined with tiers of mats, an excellent combat system would be created. This way the "Spear" could always be effective so long as you have the "up to date" version.

For those who have not tried this mod, I would highly recommend it.

Edit: Improved Grammar (wow it was bad).

Looks like i'll have to pass this game again . 

There's going to be a lot of AI updates over the Christmas break.  I put out 1 on Friday. I took this weekend off to do other stuff but tomorrow I"m back on it.

yes, one of the problems with weapons in the game at the moment is the lack of distinction between weapon type and weapon quality. it's not just a problem with unit design, but also with adventuring: the magical sword of the sovereign for example, is inferior to many similar (yet mundane) weapons that the character can research by the midgame.

spears for example, should always be a great infantry weapon even if they are a mundane tech. their quality comes from the fact that they are great defensively, especially against charging units. similarly, a lance is always a fantastic weapon for heavy cavalry, allowing the momentum of a charge to be focused. the base stats of weapon types need to be devised and hard coded to make them effective in the situations they're supposed to be effective in (i say stats because in my opinion, real game mechanics are much better solutions than gamey special rules that people have to look up). you can then start making magical versions with slightly superior stats, but their role remains the same.

stuff like

early tech (primitive):

dagger: low damage, iniative (attack speed) bonus, but largely ineffective beyond early game

spear: low damage, low cost, strikes first vs. enemies charging from front/front diagonals

crude bow: low damage ranged weapon

moderate tech (roman era):

short sword: moderate damage, small charge bonus

short bow: moderate damage, equippable by mounted units

high tech (medieval era):

longsword: high damage, charge bonus

longbow: high damage

lance: cavalvy only, high damage, huge charge bonus

late tech (late medieval/renaissance):

pike: moderate damage, two handed, strikes first vs. enemies charging from front/front diagonals

double handed sword: two handed, very high damage, charge bonus to damage

this way almost all weapon types remain effective throughout the game, yet there is plenty of scope for magical/improved versions of the same type.

Frogboy, are we getting a new executable today, wrapped with a cute wrapping ?

Maybe like an SVN server with an anonymous login or something?..

If we see any movement on Elemental before January, I'll consider it a gift, or a Stardock employee with a mostly tested build and tons of free time over the holidays.

Eh? No, I'm saying they're mostly on holiday after the big push, but they've likely been doing something since 1.1. So there might be changes going live between now and January, if it's really minor stuff and someone is still around to roll it into a new version.

This and the AI needs to update its logistical rally points (used to form stacks of units from single units).  Basically the AI needs to have a front line.  If I break the front line it needs to re-establish a new font line faster than I can stay in its backfield picking off other units tryiong to group up.