This is the planning and discussion thread for FFH2 AI Survivor, Season 1, an idea inspired by Sullla's gratifying Civ4 AI Survivor series.
Since this is the first time trying something like this, I will simply play these games at my leisure and write up reports for them that I will post here as PDF files with screenshots. If there is interest for a "Season 2," then I can replicate Sullla's system of collecting predictions, scoring them for points, livestreaming the matches, etc. for Season 2. But consider this first season "experimental."
For this season, I will be using unmodded FFH2 with the latest patch. (In doing a couple of brief test-runs, I was reminded of how much screwy stuff is in unmodded FFH2, such as how the Clan's "For the Horde" spell can recruit Sons of the Inferno). If we do additional seasons, we can talk about desired mods.
There are 36 leaders in FFH2 if you count Decius thrice (once for his Bannor version, once for his Calabim version, and once for his Malakim version).
The plan is, first, to whittle down the field in a series of four 9-player playoff games.
One slight complication is that I'd prefer not to have multiple copies of any civ in any one game. It just intuitively seems like things could get screwy with world-spells being re-used. Therefore, I've developed a spreadsheet that sorts leaders into non-overlapping categories and randomly selects them from these non-overlapping pools.
The results of my random selections are as follows:
Playoff Game 1:
Capria of the Bannor
Valladelia the Even of the Amurites
Charadon of the Doviello
Ethne the White of the Elohim
Tasunke of the Hippus
Hannah the Irin of the Lanun
Cassiel of the Grigori
Auric Ulvin of the Illians
Cardith Lorda of the Kuriotates
Playoff Game 2:
Sabathiel of the Bannor
Flauros of the Calabim
Amelanchier of the Ljosalfar
Perpentach of the Balseraphs
Decius of the Malakim
Einon Logos of the Elohim
Rhoanna of the Hippus
Falamar of the Lanun
Sandalphon of the Sidar
Playoff Game 3:
Decius of the Calabim
Arendel Phaedra of the Ljosalfar
Dain the Caswallan of the Amurites
Keelyn of the Balseraphs
Jonas Endain of the Clan of Embers
Arcturus Thorne of the Khazad
Beeri Bawl of the Luchiurp
Tebryn Arbandi of the Sheaim
Faeryl Viconia of the Svartalfar
Playoff Game 4:
Decius of the Bannor
Alexis of the Calabim
Thessa of the Ljosalfar
Varn Gosam of the Malakim
Sheelba of the Clan of Embers
Mahala of the Doviello
Kandros Fir of the Khazad
Garrim Gyr of the Luchiurp
Os Gabella of the Sheaim
The winner and runner-ups of each game will advance to the championship game, UNLESS there are multiple leaders from the same civ that are eligible for advancing. Only one representative from each civ will be allowed in the championship game. If there are multiple eligible contenders for the championship game from a single civ, then winner with the earlier victory date (if both are winners), or the runner-up with the higher score at finish (if both are runner-ups), will advance. (If one was a winner and the other merely a runner-up, then the winner will advance).
In addition, any surviving civs from the playoff games that finished lower than the runner-ups will go to a wildcard game (with the same rules applying here about only one representative from each civ being allowed in the wildcard game—the tiebreaker will be the leaders' scores at the end of their playoff games). The winner of the wildcard game will go on to the championship (unless, once again, there is already a representative of that civ in the championship; if the other representative was a winner from a playoff game, then the playoff game winner will advance; if the other representative was a runner-up from a playoff game, then the winner of the wildcard game will advance).
Thus, the championship game will have, at maximum, 9 players, although it may have fewer (if some of the winners and runner-ups of the playoff games are of the same civ, making some of them ineligible).
All games will be played on randomly-generated maps with the following settings:
Deity Difficulty
Tectonics
Pangaea
Small size
Wet rainfall
Raging Barbarians ON
Aggressive AI ON
End of Winter ON
Culture-flipping after conquest ON
Tech Trading OFF
Vassal States OFF
Tribal huts ON
Wildlands ON
Blessing of Amathaon ON
Living World ON
Last Days ON
All Unique Features ON
Starting positions will NOT be changed whatsoever, except for relocating the spectator civ from the mainland to an impregnable mountainous island.
Victory Conditions: ALL ENABLED
*HOWEVER, note that the AI doesn't really know how to pursue some of the victories, such as the Altar, Tower of Mastery, or Religious victories.
I foresee the possibility of AIs occasionally eliminating all of the opposing alignment and then falling into a late-game lovefest before any single AI reaches the domination threshold. Therefore, in order to prevent a static endgame of having to wait out the turns until a time victory, I will be making the following worldbuilder intervention:
ANY TIME AN AI LEADER COMPLETES THE RESEARCH OF STRENGTH OF WILL, I WILL GO INTO WORLDBUILDER AND GIVE THAT AI ALL FOUR OF THE LESSER TOWERS IN THAT AI'S CAPITAL SO THAT THE AI CAN START ON BUILDING THE TOWER OF MASTERY.
This basically turns the Tower of Mastery victory into more of a generic "spaceship-type" victory, but I think it is a necessary tweak to save me from potential boredom. I am NOT going to play a game through until turn 700 to observe a time victory!
=============================
One last thing: I will try to attach a PDF with screenshots of the starting positions for Game 1. I will play it and write up a report for it hopefully within about a week or so. In the meantime, feel free to speculate about the outcome!
Since this is the first time trying something like this, I will simply play these games at my leisure and write up reports for them that I will post here as PDF files with screenshots. If there is interest for a "Season 2," then I can replicate Sullla's system of collecting predictions, scoring them for points, livestreaming the matches, etc. for Season 2. But consider this first season "experimental."
For this season, I will be using unmodded FFH2 with the latest patch. (In doing a couple of brief test-runs, I was reminded of how much screwy stuff is in unmodded FFH2, such as how the Clan's "For the Horde" spell can recruit Sons of the Inferno). If we do additional seasons, we can talk about desired mods.
There are 36 leaders in FFH2 if you count Decius thrice (once for his Bannor version, once for his Calabim version, and once for his Malakim version).
The plan is, first, to whittle down the field in a series of four 9-player playoff games.
One slight complication is that I'd prefer not to have multiple copies of any civ in any one game. It just intuitively seems like things could get screwy with world-spells being re-used. Therefore, I've developed a spreadsheet that sorts leaders into non-overlapping categories and randomly selects them from these non-overlapping pools.
The results of my random selections are as follows:
Playoff Game 1:
Capria of the Bannor
Valladelia the Even of the Amurites
Charadon of the Doviello
Ethne the White of the Elohim
Tasunke of the Hippus
Hannah the Irin of the Lanun
Cassiel of the Grigori
Auric Ulvin of the Illians
Cardith Lorda of the Kuriotates
Playoff Game 2:
Sabathiel of the Bannor
Flauros of the Calabim
Amelanchier of the Ljosalfar
Perpentach of the Balseraphs
Decius of the Malakim
Einon Logos of the Elohim
Rhoanna of the Hippus
Falamar of the Lanun
Sandalphon of the Sidar
Playoff Game 3:
Decius of the Calabim
Arendel Phaedra of the Ljosalfar
Dain the Caswallan of the Amurites
Keelyn of the Balseraphs
Jonas Endain of the Clan of Embers
Arcturus Thorne of the Khazad
Beeri Bawl of the Luchiurp
Tebryn Arbandi of the Sheaim
Faeryl Viconia of the Svartalfar
Playoff Game 4:
Decius of the Bannor
Alexis of the Calabim
Thessa of the Ljosalfar
Varn Gosam of the Malakim
Sheelba of the Clan of Embers
Mahala of the Doviello
Kandros Fir of the Khazad
Garrim Gyr of the Luchiurp
Os Gabella of the Sheaim
The winner and runner-ups of each game will advance to the championship game, UNLESS there are multiple leaders from the same civ that are eligible for advancing. Only one representative from each civ will be allowed in the championship game. If there are multiple eligible contenders for the championship game from a single civ, then winner with the earlier victory date (if both are winners), or the runner-up with the higher score at finish (if both are runner-ups), will advance. (If one was a winner and the other merely a runner-up, then the winner will advance).
In addition, any surviving civs from the playoff games that finished lower than the runner-ups will go to a wildcard game (with the same rules applying here about only one representative from each civ being allowed in the wildcard game—the tiebreaker will be the leaders' scores at the end of their playoff games). The winner of the wildcard game will go on to the championship (unless, once again, there is already a representative of that civ in the championship; if the other representative was a winner from a playoff game, then the playoff game winner will advance; if the other representative was a runner-up from a playoff game, then the winner of the wildcard game will advance).
Thus, the championship game will have, at maximum, 9 players, although it may have fewer (if some of the winners and runner-ups of the playoff games are of the same civ, making some of them ineligible).
All games will be played on randomly-generated maps with the following settings:
Deity Difficulty
Tectonics
Pangaea
Small size
Wet rainfall
Raging Barbarians ON
Aggressive AI ON
End of Winter ON
Culture-flipping after conquest ON
Tech Trading OFF
Vassal States OFF
Tribal huts ON
Wildlands ON
Blessing of Amathaon ON
Living World ON
Last Days ON
All Unique Features ON
Starting positions will NOT be changed whatsoever, except for relocating the spectator civ from the mainland to an impregnable mountainous island.
Victory Conditions: ALL ENABLED
*HOWEVER, note that the AI doesn't really know how to pursue some of the victories, such as the Altar, Tower of Mastery, or Religious victories.
I foresee the possibility of AIs occasionally eliminating all of the opposing alignment and then falling into a late-game lovefest before any single AI reaches the domination threshold. Therefore, in order to prevent a static endgame of having to wait out the turns until a time victory, I will be making the following worldbuilder intervention:
ANY TIME AN AI LEADER COMPLETES THE RESEARCH OF STRENGTH OF WILL, I WILL GO INTO WORLDBUILDER AND GIVE THAT AI ALL FOUR OF THE LESSER TOWERS IN THAT AI'S CAPITAL SO THAT THE AI CAN START ON BUILDING THE TOWER OF MASTERY.
This basically turns the Tower of Mastery victory into more of a generic "spaceship-type" victory, but I think it is a necessary tweak to save me from potential boredom. I am NOT going to play a game through until turn 700 to observe a time victory!
=============================
One last thing: I will try to attach a PDF with screenshots of the starting positions for Game 1. I will play it and write up a report for it hopefully within about a week or so. In the meantime, feel free to speculate about the outcome!
I am curious to see how it goes.
