How is AI difficulty level determined in Multiplayer?

Specifically, what happens if four people start a multiplayer game:
Player 1 selects Settler.
Player 2 selects Warlord.
Player 3 selects King.
Player 4 selects Immortal.


What bonuses do the AI get? Is it just averaged out, or the lowest difficulty?

I was wondering about this recently too.

It doesn't matter whether it's AI or not. What would happen to human players if they each set those respective starting levels?

swmaniac said:

Specifically, what happens if four people start a multiplayer game:
Player 1 selects Settler.
Player 2 selects Warlord.
Player 3 selects King.
Player 4 selects Immortal.


What bonuses do the AI get? Is it just averaged out, or the lowest difficulty?

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Let says that a player starting at prince begins with 10 happiness(i think it's 9 but i don't remember) and get a 20% bonus against barbs(just an example, not real, dont have comp right now)

It goes like this :

Player 1 starts with 10+2 happiness and get a bonus of 20%+20% against barbs
Player 2 starts with 10+1 happiness and get a bonus of 20%+10% against barbs
Player 3 starts with 10-1 happiness and get a bonus of 20%-10% against barbs
Player 4 starts with 10-3 happiness and get a bonus of 20-30% against barbs

I ''think'' the AI get the bonus left from the player. So the player, who was disavantaged at immortal, let an AI way more stronger than the player itself! Player 4 at immortal let an AI with his bonuses well known from the immortal level. It's the principal reason to not play with random players at deity level!!!

Another thing : What bonuses the CS got? Seriously, how can you implement different bonuses from each level in the same game for CS? I ''think'' that CS get an ''average'' of all difficulties. I never tried such thing, but i don't know how they can adjust for each level interactions between everybody. For barbs and players i think it's pretty clear but for CS it seems much more complicated.

I never, never tried to play a game with different levels from each players. I'm not sure about CS but i'm pretty sure for other parts.

In theory, it should average out the diff. levels and choose 1.

though, I always wonder why people choose 'prince' when there's no AI in the game; outside of CSs. I'd much rather the CSs act at the Deity level than at the Prince level.

If it's just for when people quit, then menh...

Yeah, I've been wondering if me and another play at War-chief and leave the AIs as Noble if that puts us at a disadvantage. I thought because they were a higher level that it would be tougher on the AIs. However, lately the AIs seem to cheat a lot more and I am hard pressed to fight off more than one or two who declare war. Even with a buddy who is normally fighting their own wars.... We help each other out with techs and all, but we mostly try to see who gets more on the map first and then battle it out between ourselves. ( That's the plan anyways heehee)

Anyone have any information on this? I shall keep looking for answers on the forum.

MadDjinn said:

In theory, it should average out the diff. levels and choose 1.

though, I always wonder why people choose 'prince' when there's no AI in the game; outside of CSs. I'd much rather the CSs act at the Deity level than at the Prince level.

If it's just for when people quit, then menh...

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From my experience, emperor is a good level. Players are even against barbs, and if someone quits he lets an acceptable AI. And if all players are set to this level, CS are also competitive.

I've wondered this many times too, without having the time to try and deduct why.

Player advantage/disadvantages can easily be kept. AI tech cost, starting units etc must be set from one difficulty level. In theory some AIs could get bonuses and some not, based on how close they are to players at various difficulty levels, but I doubt that has been done. If they had kept multiplayer in mind, they would have made the difficulty only as bonuses/penalties to players, rather than affecting the AI.

Not surprised if AI bonuses/penalties are just calculated from some average level in multi player no matter what.

MadDjinn said:

In theory, it should average out the diff. levels and choose 1.

though, I always wonder why people choose 'prince' when there's no AI in the game; outside of CSs. I'd much rather the CSs act at the Deity level than at the Prince level.

If it's just for when people quit, then menh...

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Oh yes. Improves both the CS's and the barbarian fighting spirit as well. In NQ-Group games we usual og immortal or deity for our all human MP-games for this reason. Reduced free hapiness is also nice for a more challenging early expansion.

By the way, Madjinn, when are you going to play mp in the NQ-Group, and mayby make a LP of it as well? Bring DanQ with you, and you chaps will have something extraordinary to talk about in the next Polycast broadcast.

Oh yes. Improves both the CS's and the barbarian fighting spirit as well. In NQ-Group games we usual og immortal or deity for our all human MP-games for this reason. Reduced free hapiness is also nice for a more challenging early expansion.

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I allways wondered who came up with such ideas, he definatly didnt think enough, but was just like: HEY COOL WE ARE SO GOOD, WE PLAY DEITY!!!!

all what higher difficulty CS lvl does is offer more free workers, u REALLY think more free stuff is good???

Reduced happyness?? Deity makes a difference of like 2 happy faces, hardly gamebreaking ..

And if u really need a good barb fight in your game u should MAYBE think about getting more challenging human opponents ...

Overall I have had way best experiences with prince ai in games:
few workers to steal from CS, u might therefore be even better of not to steal at all --> less abuse = good
barbs - who cares for barbs, just a random thing anyway ..
AIs when are takken over dont have lot to offer, at least players who conquer ais dont get highly developed cities but some crappy size 3 ones ..

tommynt said:

I allways wondered who came up with such ideas, he definatly didnt think enough, but was just like: HEY COOL WE ARE SO GOOD, WE PLAY DEITY!!!!

all what higher difficulty CS lvl does is offer more free workers, u REALLY think more free stuff is good???

Reduced happyness?? Deity makes a difference of like 2 happy faces, hardly gamebreaking ..

And if u really need a good barb fight in your game u should MAYBE think about getting more challenging human opponents ...

Overall I have had way best experiences with prince ai in games:
few workers to steal from CS, u might therefore be even better of not to steal at all --> less abuse = good
barbs - who cares for barbs, just a random thing anyway ..
AIs when are takken over dont have lot to offer, at least players who conquer ais dont get highly developed cities but some crappy size 3 ones ..

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Nah, it's far better and balanced in MP if the CS's can stand up and fight for themselves. It's limited how many workers u need from CS's, and if they manage to survive it's possible for those that not bully them to ally them. Alot more balanced indeed.

When it comes to 2 less happyness, that's actually a big deal early game.

Heavier barbs can also halt down early expansion a little bit.

If you leave the city states on Prince AI they become waaay too easy to bully and they fall to humans way too easily. With Emperor/Immortal CS Ai in MP, a player if he/she wants can at least defend a city state.

And yea there is a huge difference between 2 or 3 early happy in the early game

Thread necro... but has this actually been answered anywhere, how AI difficulty is handled in multiplayer? Do we know in any more detail or is it just "take the average of human choices"?

saboteur_ said:

Thread necro... but has this actually been answered anywhere, how AI difficulty is handled in multiplayer? Do we know in any more detail or is it just "take the average of human choices"?

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AI difficulty is same as difficulty which Game Host plays. So if Host has Deity all AI and City States have Deity bonuses and Game Host have Deity handicap.
If Game Host chooses Settler then AI and City States have Settler handicap and Host Has Settler Bonuses.

I'm not sure what happens when some human player who has diffrent level than host disconnect.

I have not had that experience, BlackWizard. In my games, the AI seems to play at the lowest player level. If I create the game on deity and another player joins as a settler, the AI is on settler difficulty.

Squidmaster said:

I have not had that experience, BlackWizard. In my games, the AI seems to play at the lowest player level. If I create the game on deity and another player joins as a settler, the AI is on settler difficulty.

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I was pretty sure difficulty is determined by host difficulty and I also read it from somewhere. Seems I got it wrong or was it differenet before BNW? Though I have had multiplayer games only with one level difference between human players (king-emperor and emperor-immortal)

I'm surprised this information isn't available in the game documentation. It seems like we all have different experiences!

So, if we set the player's difficulty all to Emperor, is the AI getting all the Emperor benefits? Or are players just losing some bonuses?

Since, one situation we wondered about, was what happens if 3 players are Emperor and one player is Prince, for example?

Thanks.

I would be nice to get an authoritative answer to this question.

If the price is right, I am hoping to get a few family members CivV Gold for xmas. I can try and play nice with them, but, at least for starters, it would be helpful if the game mechanics let me play with a handicap.

In a similar vein, does team play (say two humans versus some number of AI) feel like coop mode? If there were 3 AI civs, can it be 2 vs. 3 or 2 vs 1 vs 1 vs 1? If the AIs are on the same team, how well do they cooperate well together?

Thanks!

You can play in any team configuration you like, even or odd. I will warn you that the AI does not really cooperate with itself on teams, but it would at least share technology, even if each team member is researching something different.

I have recently been organizing team games with family and friends while leaving the computer opponents on their own. To compensate, I have everyone set the difficulty a rung or two higher than normal. The reason we are doing this is because it opens up many more trading partners, and any wars that are declared are less global in nature.

We have found that diplomacy can be problematic when the computer is in teams, especially if the human players are of different skill levels. If I want to declare war on my neighbor, I might not be able to do so safely if my mom is next to that neighbors ally somewhere else on the map. Furthermore, relations generally tend to be worse when the computer is in teams because any wars declared in either direction will affect the entire team, even if one player has friendly relations with one member from a different team.