I was reading through the Handicap XML file, and I came upon one entry that seemed particularly troubling. On Immortal difficulty, it had the entry:

<iAIUnitUpgradePercent>10</iAIUnitUpgradePercent>

Does this mean that the computer is allowed to upgrade their units at 10% of the usual cost? Based on the rest of the file, I think it does! If this is true, then the computer has a huge advantage militarily...

Did you expect anything else on Immortal difficulty? That is the second hardest difficulty in the game.

At Immortal level, what would you expect? This is the ultimate challenge level of the game, and "fairness" never enters into the equation. If you can win at that, you can presumably win at anything. I strongly doubt most people here want to beat themselves over the head with a club, but for those that do, there's always the macho thrill of saying, "Hey, I beat Civ4 at Immortal!" :D

This is the thing i find most frustrating on the higher levels , the extra units and cheaper techs / units etc dont matter that much.
But the moment they get any war tech all their units pretty much instantly upgrade for a measily 300 gold where it would cost the player 3k+ gold .

Attacking a civ that only has inf and cav with mass tanks and bombers and 1 turn after all of the sudden they got 50 gunships -_- and mass SAM's .

I guess... but even on the easiest difficulty level the computer still upgrades at 50% of the usual cost (assuming that is what the statement in the XML file means) All those upgrade costs seem so unreasonable to us are never that bad for the AI.

So if they do get to upgrade at a tenth of the cost at Immortal, there is virtually no reason why they wouldn't, and their armies would almost always consist of the top tech units available to them.

Well, part of the problem from Civ3 was the AI wouldn't spend the gold to upgrade units due to the cost so they'd have a bunch of obsolete units running about.

Well, part of the problem from Civ3 was the AI wouldn't spend the gold to upgrade units due to the cost so they'd have a bunch of obsolete units running about.

Just like me in Civ4! (but that's from my always forgetting to upgrade them... :rolleyes: )