So after playing quiet a few games with the mod, I’ve found some areas where it has been lacking. The overall behaviour is definitely in the right direction, but these issues that have arisen delay the ai game a bit.
First, I’ve noticed the AI seems a bit reluctant most of the time in building fishing ships. Many times I find the AI with a defensible dock with outposts and ships, but none or maybe one fishing ship, basically leaving the player all the resources once they deal with that base. I remember I proposed some months ago that they should focus on military ships before devoting to a fishing fleet, but I feel it was toned down a lot. Its good to see they having an impressive fleet, but sometimes when watching recording, I noticed they have a lot of wood they won’t use because they are waiting to have the gold to build a military ship, when they could be building fishing ships and using the resources in the sea, that are often more plenty than land resources and infinite in the case of whales, infinite.
Talking about fishing ships, I noticed the Ai will use almost only them to transport troops, which delay their attacks to other islands A LOT. Fishing ships can only hold 10 units, and sometimes it tries to send a whole army across the sea, taking a lot of time, because they usually use just one. I think ai should have prohibited to use fishing ships as transport, or maybe only the explorer or maybe all units only during age 1. Also, many times they will have their bigger ships that can hold much more units be fishing near their docks, while on sight of an army moving in a single fishing ship. Also, it should prioritize to use bigger ships for transport when they are available, as they are more resistant, resulting in more successful landings. Transporting units with caravels in Industrial Age is inefficient and should only be done if there are no other ships available. The good side is that I’ve seen the ai moving their army to an island and then returning them to their original island when they need it or move it to another island to attack. They no longer leave a portion of their army stray anymore, but they could move faster using better ships.
About docks, I think delaying their build time is not working as intended, as they sometimes don’t build a ship until late in the game, which also contributes to the no fishing ships issue. They old behaviour of dock building worked better in my opinion, so I would argue that they should at least have one or two docks before delaying the others.
Now, for Ceylon and Swahili Coast, I think you should enable some buildings in the original island, and maybe not migrate all villagers at once or at least leave some behind in the island, as it usually has some resources that are safe from early attacks because of the TC anti ship attack. In ceylon specifically, everyone starts with a very safe gold mine, some trees and safe early food (along with docks and fishing ships), and they should not be neglected. Also, they definitively should build docks in the original island. many times I’ve left stranded a civ in their island because i sink their original catamaran before they can move anyone over to the continent and they wont move, not build docks to scape, just gather resources and then stay idle. Some defenses and docks on the original island is a must, it allows the ai to retake their bases if they are attacked.
Talking about the use of artillery, I think in maps like ceylon and swahili, they shouldn’t use all of them to protect the shore. Sometimes I see the ai leaving artillery behind on their attacks, and I think they should move some to attack to, while also leaving some behind to defend.
Lastly, I’ve noticed on Ceylon (I don’t know if it happens in Swahili too) some villagers stop doing nothing for the whole game, many times the ones that were on a mine and it gets depleted, they just stand there and wont do anything else the rest of the game.
Nonetheless, migration is working very good to be the first time the ai is able to do so, and with some tweaks it can only be better. Hope this feedback can help you with a new version of the mod!
I would also point out that in Ceylon and Swahili Coast, the AI doesn’t seems to build walls, which would help them a lot. Considering the Ai can build walls even in no water maps with this mod, I would argue it should on these maps too.
