Txurce
Deity
Everyone knows the combat AI could be a lot better, and most know how hard it is to achieve that. There are also countless small adjustments that would improve AI behavior. What I'm proposing here for the fall patch are two simple core changes that have game-long impact and are guaranteed to make the game more challenging at the higher levels.
Era-based AI science bonuses
Even on Deity, where the AI normally blows the human away on science in the early going, the human starts to pull away around the Renaissance, and eventually leaves the AI in the dust. How much in the dust? As many as 100 turns, when you compare the fastest human and AI win times.
I propose making the AI's difficulty-based bonuses era-based, especially the science bonus, so that they may even start lower (say, on Immortal and Deity) but keep scaling upward with each era.
This means that by the Industrial era, when the human's bpt is really picking up steam, the AI will still be hanging in there - without having to play any smarter. Properly scaled for era and difficulty level, the AI will pose much more of a challenge throughout the game - and without requiring the current front-loaded boosts.
I focused on a science bonus because science leads to improvements everywhere else, but obviously the same approach could apply to other areas. I suggested this change to the Communitas mod a while back, and it's worked well there. That mod also applied the same principle to units, reducing the human's gradual promotions edge by making late-era AI units start with more promotions.
Increased AI focus on Victory Conditions
How many times have we seen the AI ignore a sure DV, or proceed at a snail's pace to building the SS parts for a SV? When it happens, it always cheapens my victories. I propose that the AI focus as single-mindedly as the human on a VC once one is in sight - say, with the first UN vote, or once Apollo has been researched. Doing so is sure to spike the number of hold-your-breath photo finishes. Who wouldn't want that some of the time?
Both of these proposals are very easy to do - it's just a matter of changing numbers in existing code. Again, these changes would be scaled to difficulty as well as to era, so mid-level players wouldn't face a tougher opponent - just a more consistently challenging one, at the level they most enjoy playing. I'd love to be challenged more often on Immortal. Wouldn't it be great if the best players were challenged a little more often on Deity?
Era-based AI science bonuses
Even on Deity, where the AI normally blows the human away on science in the early going, the human starts to pull away around the Renaissance, and eventually leaves the AI in the dust. How much in the dust? As many as 100 turns, when you compare the fastest human and AI win times.
I propose making the AI's difficulty-based bonuses era-based, especially the science bonus, so that they may even start lower (say, on Immortal and Deity) but keep scaling upward with each era.
This means that by the Industrial era, when the human's bpt is really picking up steam, the AI will still be hanging in there - without having to play any smarter. Properly scaled for era and difficulty level, the AI will pose much more of a challenge throughout the game - and without requiring the current front-loaded boosts.
I focused on a science bonus because science leads to improvements everywhere else, but obviously the same approach could apply to other areas. I suggested this change to the Communitas mod a while back, and it's worked well there. That mod also applied the same principle to units, reducing the human's gradual promotions edge by making late-era AI units start with more promotions.
Increased AI focus on Victory Conditions
How many times have we seen the AI ignore a sure DV, or proceed at a snail's pace to building the SS parts for a SV? When it happens, it always cheapens my victories. I propose that the AI focus as single-mindedly as the human on a VC once one is in sight - say, with the first UN vote, or once Apollo has been researched. Doing so is sure to spike the number of hold-your-breath photo finishes. Who wouldn't want that some of the time?
Both of these proposals are very easy to do - it's just a matter of changing numbers in existing code. Again, these changes would be scaled to difficulty as well as to era, so mid-level players wouldn't face a tougher opponent - just a more consistently challenging one, at the level they most enjoy playing. I'd love to be challenged more often on Immortal. Wouldn't it be great if the best players were challenged a little more often on Deity?
