I think we all have observed that in the current build of AoD2 (v1.10) the AI colonial powers expand and develop far faster than the human player can, especially at higher difficulty levels. The AI obviously has some sort of huge bonus, either free gold or exaggeratedly low prices for galleons, new colonists, even guns & horses.
The few posts I've seen here recently mention these facts as if they were a huge problem, almost rendering the game unplayable, as if the mod were broken, and needed to be fixed.
I'm not so sure that it does - bear with me while I explain.
In previous builds of AoD2, and especially in vanilla Civ4Col, I found the AI colonials ridiculously easy to vanquish. Sometimes all it took was a canon, a soldier, a dragoon and a little patience. As I moved up to v1.09, I found I needed more and more careful preparation, and a larger, more carefully deployed force, sometimes as many as a dozen veteran soldiers, with a few canons and dragoons to boot. My first reaction is that any changes in v1.10 that beef up the AI colonials and make them a more challenging opponent are a good and much-needed improvement.
Sure, the AI colonials can now build larger, more numerous cities faster than the human player. They explore the map before the human player can rake in more than 4-6 treasure hoards, and field soldiers and dragoons in defence of their cities far faster than the human player can.
But I suspect that they still have no real idea how to attack the human player's homeland. They may have a standing force of dragoons to help defend their cities, but the usual strategy of placing your invading dragoons and canons in a wooded hills square with a couple soldiers ought to handle that. Destroying the competing AI colonials is going to be a great challenge, but not an insurmountable one.
All this is for the good, and makes the game more interesting.
With vanilla Civ4Col, as well as with the progressive versions of AoD2, we have all gotten used to playing on high difficulty levels, simply because they weren't really much more difficult. In fact at the rate of increase in difficulty I observed, we would have needed not 6 but 60 levels of difficulty in order to reach a real challenge. It's good that with the current build of AoD2, the higher levels of difficulty are *extremely* difficult. I would go so far as to say that the highest level of difficulty should be impossible to win.
So I suggest we all just back off on complaining about how fast the AI is expanding and how many galleons they can field at a ridiculously early date. I know, I too went down that road, but after giving it a bit of thought, this is all A GOOD THING. I want the game to challenge me, and if I am no longer able to pick up 85% of the FFs, that may force me to think harder about which ones I accept and which ones I reject.
Good work, Dale, keep it up! --- Wheldrake
The few posts I've seen here recently mention these facts as if they were a huge problem, almost rendering the game unplayable, as if the mod were broken, and needed to be fixed.
I'm not so sure that it does - bear with me while I explain.
In previous builds of AoD2, and especially in vanilla Civ4Col, I found the AI colonials ridiculously easy to vanquish. Sometimes all it took was a canon, a soldier, a dragoon and a little patience. As I moved up to v1.09, I found I needed more and more careful preparation, and a larger, more carefully deployed force, sometimes as many as a dozen veteran soldiers, with a few canons and dragoons to boot. My first reaction is that any changes in v1.10 that beef up the AI colonials and make them a more challenging opponent are a good and much-needed improvement.
Sure, the AI colonials can now build larger, more numerous cities faster than the human player. They explore the map before the human player can rake in more than 4-6 treasure hoards, and field soldiers and dragoons in defence of their cities far faster than the human player can.
But I suspect that they still have no real idea how to attack the human player's homeland. They may have a standing force of dragoons to help defend their cities, but the usual strategy of placing your invading dragoons and canons in a wooded hills square with a couple soldiers ought to handle that. Destroying the competing AI colonials is going to be a great challenge, but not an insurmountable one.
All this is for the good, and makes the game more interesting.
With vanilla Civ4Col, as well as with the progressive versions of AoD2, we have all gotten used to playing on high difficulty levels, simply because they weren't really much more difficult. In fact at the rate of increase in difficulty I observed, we would have needed not 6 but 60 levels of difficulty in order to reach a real challenge. It's good that with the current build of AoD2, the higher levels of difficulty are *extremely* difficult. I would go so far as to say that the highest level of difficulty should be impossible to win.
So I suggest we all just back off on complaining about how fast the AI is expanding and how many galleons they can field at a ridiculously early date. I know, I too went down that road, but after giving it a bit of thought, this is all A GOOD THING. I want the game to challenge me, and if I am no longer able to pick up 85% of the FFs, that may force me to think harder about which ones I accept and which ones I reject.
Good work, Dale, keep it up! --- Wheldrake