Can I make the AI more Aggressive?

[RallyToMe]

I've been playing GCW for a few months now, and I've noticed that the AI almost never takes my planets. In both Foc and RaW, I remember the AI being more aggressive than it is now. Even when the AI tries to attack me in GCW, it rarely sends enough forces to defeat me, instead making piecemeal raids with a couple ships at a time. The Hapans are an exception to this, as they almost always attack with enough forces to roll over any defenses.

So I was wondering, is there any way for me to make the AI more aggressive, to make it thinks it needs to send double or triple as many units as it sends currently, or make their forces more powerful?

[Pali]

Play on admiral.  I promise, it will attack you.

[RallyToMe]

I only play on Admiral- and the AI is a piece of cake. Only the Hapans have consistent luck in beating me.

[Pali]

What faction, and in what GC?  If you're playing the IR in one of the multi-era campaigns, then at the start you're the big dog and it's not hard to stay that way.  The NR, EotH or PA might provide you better challenges, particularly given the wide front and weak units the NR starts out with in campaigns like Imperial Civil War.  From the Ground Up provides a unique challenge with the one-planet start, and other campaigns start the various factions at different power levels.

In the end, though, the AI in EaW simply isn't very good, and from what I understand there's not much modders can do about it (beyond such things as income and damage modifiers, which on Admiral the AI already has substantial bonuses in), so once you learn all its tricks and weaknesses it isn't likely to provide a great challenge in the long run.  It's been a while since I've lost a planet that I wasn't practically giving away myself.  That said, I can't say I've had your experience of never having big forces thrown at me - I usually play the big GCs as the NR, and I've had plenty of battles that I had to run away from in space (2 SSDs + large escort fleet, for instance).  Holding the ground is easy against the AI if you have any time to prepare, but in space I've definitely had overwhelming numbers tossed at me that I had to find ways to whittle down or evade.

[RallyToMe]

Usually the "### of war" GCs. I've given up playing as IR for lack of challenge, and while NR is a challenge, I don't want to always play as them. I'm currently EoTH in Art of War (I think- the biggest map), and the AI doesn't even seem to register me as a threat at all- the only attacks I've gotten are a couple VSDs and escorts. All three SSDs in the galaxy are nowhere to be found, and I've even rolled over Coruscant.

Is it possible to increase those modifiers even more?

[Slornie]

Do you still have RaW installed?  I'm asking because RaW is known to screw with other mods because they install their AI tweaks into the game's base folder which overrides everything else.  Of course that may not have anything to do with the issue you're having.

[RallyToMe]

I believe I have multiple copies of EaW installed, with a mod for each.

[kucsidave]

well that consumes a lot of space. I know, I did the same thing long ago, but there is a much better solution.
install them all (except RaW) into the same FoC/mods folder and download this:
http://www.moddb.com/games/star-wars-empire-at-war-forces-of-corruption/downloads/foc-mod-launcher
I love this thing. it saves a tonn of disc space.

[Pali]

Is it possible to increase those modifiers even more?

Open up the file DifficultyAdjustments.xml in the ICW\Data\XML folder and fiddle away. Just remember, though, that this won't make the AI any smarter - it will still do incredibly stupid things.

I still recommend giving some of the other GCs a shot - they tend to have fewer factions, so the AI will focus its efforts on you better.  Reunification (or whatever the Daala era one is called) is a tough one for the IR, Final Imperial Push likewise, and any campaign with only two factions will guarantee that the AI won't be ignoring you.

[RallyToMe]

Thanks a million 

I will try some other GCs, but my problem with 1v1 GCs is that after a few weeks, I've tipped the balance quite a ways in my favor, and it just keeps snowballing from there.

On a completely unrelated note, I was wondering - what did the mod team used to make the models for the new ships?