looking for a challenge

[zoommooz]

At what level do i need to set rife at to have a game that i actually have a chance to lose at (single player) i mean the general theme i get as i read the forums is that of an ai that struggles with this or that, however every update (see new magic system for 1.4) aims at new content which will only further reduce the ai's ability to challenge. The greatest weakness of rife, and indeed ever great civ mod (eg rise of mankind) is the the ai. Do not get me wrong, i love rife, and all of the new content that it has, but i would love to read "we have been working on update xxx for 6 months, we have added zero new content,but boy has the ai's ability to use our new, existing content been improved." I understand that this would probably be pretty boring for modders. Anyway, i normally get quite a good challenge on monarchy on base ffh2, (no cheating) so what level should i play rife on so as to have a chance to lose?

 

[isthmus]

Try playing at monarch with a more crowded map than usual for the mapsize (I usually have 11 civs on a standard size map). The AI fares better when it gets enough production and there aren't a billion lairs popping up to prevent them from expanding.

 

[zoommooz]

Are you sure that would be enough? In my last game (huge map, emperor level, marathon, d'tesh, 14 civs) i absolutely crushed the ai. At the mid game (turn 800) i was double the score of the second place person, ten times the last place and way ahead in techs. In fact about 10 of the 14 ai civ still had only had one city (compared to my 5-6). Any idea why the ai is struggling so bad? btw playing with latest patch.

 

[Sardauker]

I too, would like better AI. I just moved up from monarch to immortal and only noticed that it took just a bit longer to crush the world. There's a bunch of things I've noticed on how the AI does things bad, but not sure if this is the thread for it, or if improving the AI is even doable.

Zoom, the only thing I've noticed to make the game harder is to make sure to resist save/reloading.

 

[Valkrionn]

AI work will be very significant going into 1.4. It hasn't been done until now, as we had plans to significantly rebalance parts of the game (Units/promotions/buildings/civics/techs/everything), enough so that teaching the AI anything extensive would quite likely have to be redone.

Snarko had begun on some AI work that wouldn't have to be changed, but has been inactive recently. He did, however, lay a groundwork for reintroducing tech-based eras and teaching the AI to tech properly; This will be important.

 

[zoommooz]

AI work will be very significant going into 1.4. It hasn't been done until now, as we had plans to significantly rebalance parts of the game (Units/promotions/buildings/civics/techs/everything), enough so that teaching the AI anything extensive would quite likely have to be redone.

Snarko had begun on some AI work that wouldn't have to be changed, but has been inactive recently. He did, however, lay a groundwork for reintroducing tech-based eras and teaching the AI to tech properly; This will be important.

Thanks for the reply(s) and really great news for 1.4. I do not think that anyone expects the ai to be as good as a human, but at least competent would be a great start. Cheers.

 

[Yoadm]

I have found that even when the AI's score (first place) is more than double mine, and the whole world declared war on me (some 7 civilizations), I still blocked any advance into my empire with roughly a fourth of my army.

 

[ScrubbyTheKid]

Well first of all in turn 800 you should be well into lategame... most of my games are won by then... second the D'tesh are if played correctly the strongest civ in the game (imho)...
so if you want a challange changing to another civ might help

 

[Torugu]

second the D'tesh are if played correctly the strongest civ in the game (imho)...

They are, even after their nerf (Rev 20x on the SVN) they are, and he is likely playing the old D'Tesh.

 

[zoommooz]

Well first of all in turn 800 you should be well into lategame... most of my games are won by then... second the D'tesh are if played correctly the strongest civ in the game (imho)...
so if you want a challange changing to another civ might help

I thought the d'tesh might be very powerful. Also, because i like a slower paced game i alter the game speed Xml which is why at turn 800 i am only mid game.

 

[A Moon]

Don't forget to turn on the options for the ai not needing building or level requirements, and the "Always war" option is fun too.

 

[Evalis]

Turn off barbarians, lairs, and animals. The computer is significantly more challenging without them. If you are in the habit of reloading the game, stop doing so. Alternatively you could try a small map with 27 civs with aggressive AI (I think there is enough room for 1 city each). It's a rush to kill your neighbors before someone somewhere kills one of theirs and starts steam rolling.

You could of course try playing a civ that looks like it would be poor to play and see if you can find a synergy. I tried the chislev earlier and found I loved them ^^.

Err I just noticed your 'slower pace' comment.. you should really play on normal speed if you have barbarians enabled. The spawn rate doesn't change, but the build rate does, meaning every unit lost is a serious setback to the computer.. and ironically an even faster growth rate for the D'Tesh that get stronger based on the barbarians they kill.

 

[CarnivalBizarre]

The game is pretty easy even on the highest difficulty level. Though I must say I do some reloading if a hero dies sometimes. It's a disorder

Also, try to use the world editor to boost the starting position of the AI since some of them get pretty crappy starts.