@Everstill
I like your point of view, I also like to play the way you're playing, it's just more fun
(no offence cmowla, you know I don't have anything against you, you helped me a lot!)
What Campaign can I play right now that is not broken like TPR that Vatrix said?
On Foreign Lands and An Empire Destroyed, sadly Federation of Neryn have mission 6 broken I think.
Yes, I think it's more fun, you made a good point here:
but you still could use that time to your advantage and sneak in the cities and destroy them - that's NOT how these campaigns were supposed to be played (at least from my point of view)
No one design a mission where you can sneak in the city and destroy the Storehouse, School and Barracks while the entire army stand still in the front and later die by starvation. Like I said, I agree with everything you do that improve the experience (except no auto build AI, because it's a downgrade, but you already explained why you did and it's a good reason
), i'm playing the Remake because I want a better KnM (otherwise I would just play the original).
And shit, I started Deferation of Neryn, good thing I only played one mission, I will switch to the others
Oh, so you knew every tactic I used, eh. Hmm didn't seem like you did since you specifically said that this AI is smarter than the old AI, but I just proved to you that they can be interpreted as being "dumber".
Think of it this way. If the AI was actually smart like you want them to be, you would have no chance with any of the missions because you are always outnumbered and outgunned, period. So I don't know why you're against my type of play when my type of play is in fact the optimal way to play this game for what it is. All you want to do is "mildly abuse", but you're still "abusing", so don't act like you're not.
As another example, we (humans) are like the hare and the AI is like the tortoise when it comes to IQ. We are both racing each other. You (and others like you) who play KaM without running at full speed (when you actually know how to run) are like the hare standing in front of the tortoise walking backwards. You want to maintain the lead, but you don't want to leave your opponent in the dust because "it's not as fun as a tease".
Well, I did not know that you could literally run the entire map luring the enemies like you did going in the middle, then in the right village, then in the west of your base and sending them to the Barbarian Doom Area. I was sure the enemy would retreat once they where too far from the defensive position by X amount of time.
The Tower movement preventing is what I did in the original to beat Mission 8 that I lost a lot, killing barbarian by barbarian. And in most of the missions I just sneaked with Scouts and destroyed the main buildings and they died by starvation, you could win entire missions with just 2 scouts... But this don't give me satisfaction, I like epic battles where I have to reposition my archers, send pikeman to wipe cavaliry, send cavalary to kill the Archers, etc... What fucks things up is the Watch Towers, they force you to not fight in front of the enemy base and the only way to kill, Archers, take ages to bring it down, so you have to lure the enemy away from the Towers. If I had a long range catapult, you can bet I would stand my troops right in front of the base and fight the enemy the closest as possible.
That's why in this my new run in the TSK campaign I don't sneaked in any town of the enemy and i'm glad in most of them you cannot even sneak anymore. I even defeated Mission 8 without preventing the Barbarians movement!
But yeah, I think this AI is smarter than the original, I remember in mission 20 I just keep a group of archers, suicided some Axe fighters while the archers attacked and them retreated. Now the AI seem to have a bigger Defensive Range (they call units far away to join the fight) and they follow you to hell (well, I did not know they literally folowed you forever), I had to make a big army to defeat them in one attack in the Remake. Plus, all attacking Archers would simple move to your troops and die without attacking, now I see them attacking much more. Being Smarter than the original don't mean they are still not dumb :/
And well, the AI outnumber you and outgunner you because it is dumber than you, that's why AIs in RTS, when you set the difficult to "hardest", they start to get double resources and no fog in the map, they don't get 'smarter', they just get cheats to become 'harder'. I don't want a perfect AI for Campaign, perfect AIs are suited for Multiplayer games, like the Berkeley Overmind in Starcraft that can stand even againt human players without any cheats. (of course the AI cannot beat a Pro player, but it's a good challenge, plus it can beat normal players). I just want a AI in the Campaign that make proper attacks and proper defense. What this means?
When they attack they will not retreat after destroying one of your buildings for no reason, they will not do dumb stuff like fighting againt the 300 spartans blocked by towers, they will attack the towers, it's in front of them and will not follow units beyond range, they are attacking, there is no reason to break the attacking wave just to follow something. But they will keep the classic "wave" format, they will not be like a Multiplayer AI and attack with everything, they will simple send waves like 3 knight groups and 1 archer group, the attack strategy just need to be smarter.
When defending, they will send troops to kill enemies attacking their storehouses and serfs that sneaked their defenses, they will not follow single units beyond their base and will realocate his troops imediately to where is most of the enemies (this is based in a Treat Map, a scout alone will have a Treat of 2 for example, so the AI send a 'defending power' of 4 to kill him (2 pikemen), an entire army will have a treat count of 200 for example, the AI will ignore secondary forces and will just send troops in defensive range there). If a scout passes in their base, they send 2 pikemen to kill, because it's more than necessary, if the pikes end in a ambush very far, the machine learning part of the AI will not fall for the same trick twice and will retreat the pikemens once they calculate it's dangerous to be ambushed.
That's it, just a more "alive" AI that appears to be smart. I don't want a Berkeley Overmind in my Campaigns just like I don't want a 600 Barbarians Attack Wave because the game is balanced around the AI being very dumb.
And i'm not against the way you play, i'm not against you, I was not trying to offend you in any way, don't get me wrong! It's just for me that it's not fun doing this kind of things, just like for the other guy here that like to Build a giant city, that's where the fun for him, for you is to use the "most optimal way". Well, in the original the "most optimal" is to simple cancel the animation of the Archers and have them attack much faster, but I really think no one design a mission based on the abuse of a bug to fight in the 'most optimal way'. Just like how in TPR with Balistas you could hold a infinite amount of AI enemies because they could not react to it.
Clearly what you want is a challenge. A map that, no matter how hard you try to abuse the AI, they can still kill you effortlessly. With this being the case, I'm not sure why Vatrix didn't mention his "Two Sides" (building and fighting map) in r6720. In addition, I'd recommend "Invasion" (fighting map). If you do decide to play these single maps (Two Sides should take about 5-6 hours, without reloading saves and Invasion should take an hour and a half without reloading saves), note that in "Two Sides", you have to use the market to get gold and iron weapons. (The coal, gold, and iron mines are there, but you cannot process their ore.) In addition, the stone mountain at the top of the map is not mine-able (so you will probably have to trade for stone later in the game).
That is, I challenge you to beat these two maps without reloading saves. No time limit. Being able to beat these two maps (especially invasion) without reloading saves will prove to you that playing KaM with all of your heart and soul in the campaigns is not bad after all because you can actually be always ready to beat a real challenge.
In addition, you can start trying to beat the campaigns as fast as possible or without losing any units like I have. That is a different type of challenge in of itself (and it's good training for efficiency for thinking ahead and reacting quickly).
Building a powerful city and actually having to TRY to survive is a beautiful thing--if and only if it's absolutely necessary--, but when you limit yourself/put weights on your potential for the purpose of being entertained, you will not be able to fight a real challenge. I've seen a pattern on this site over and over. Players claim a map is unbeatable, and I beat it. I used to be like everyone else, where I limited myself to playing in a way that's fun, but that worked against me when I wanted my skills to be developed.
Therefore, in conclusion, I believe those who do not want to limit themselves and who do not want to abuse the AI started playing multiplayer for this very reason. The reason why I stayed in single player as of this moment is because when I wanted to play multiplayer when I first started playing this game, my computer and internet was too slow, and the remake did not exist until about a decade later. I've become so use to single player that it's really hard for me to picture how this game has any meaning in multiplayer (although my perspective is slowly changing). The reason now why I haven't played multiplayer is because I'm trying to teach truths behind this game and to show other humans how to view the AI correctly. Once I'm finished writing quick-win walkthroughs for the original campaigns, I might in fact start multiplayer myself.
No no, I don't want a map where no matter how much I try to abuse the AI, they can still kil you effortlessly, I can simple play Multiplayer if I want this, that's where the best AI and hardest challenge is.
A campaign is where you get into a history, it is immersive. I want epic battles, like how I'm the king guard general and I must siege Castles and Walls with my superior tatics or missions like to protect a Village or something like that (I don't know why the original campaign don't have missions like 'make 500 food in 1 hour' or 'protect your base for 2 hours'). Village layout is important, because logistics is a great part of this game, so this is one of the 'skills' needed. Sending pikes against horses or flanking with knights too.
You see, how you talk about this two missions, it appears that it is balanced around playing "the most optimal way", if there was still the Archers faster attack bug, this maps would be based on this things too, so there is only 'one way' to win the map, just like if we had Balistas, the Map would send a Infinite Wave of Enemies to you and the only way to beat is making a balista wall. But well, they are just Stand Alone Scenarios, just challenges, it's ok for them to be a very hard challenge. I will try this maps once I finish the Campaigns, but I can't promise I will not use Saves because I don't have this much time to play. (plus i'm very unlucky, in Mission 20 I did the same thing 2 times, the first one everyone of my units died and the Yellow allied army had a lot of warriors let, the second time I did the same thing and had a lot of units left but the yellow allied army was wiped and 10 of the remaining knights attacked me, KnM is a very random game)
And I really only Tryhard in multiplayer games, I play a lot of Real Time Strategy, but I only do a German 7 minute Rush in Age of Empires 3 in multiplayer, or a Loki Hersir Rush in Age of Mythology, in singleplayer I want to have fun, and that's how I make more fun, creating the illusion that the AI is better than it is and limiting my actions to make my illusions real and creating a more epic battle. In the Battle for the Middle Earth for example, I replayed the Helms Deep mission over and over and let the Uruk Hai destroy my Wall just to force me to retreat to the Inner Walls and create a entertaining battle.
Again, sorry if I offeded you, keep making your speed runs, it's entertaining to watch, but for me, it's not fun to play this way
Maybe I should try to beat it in 30 minutes to change your mind. 
