[Vote] (6-71) AI Difficulty Adjustment: Weaker Ancient/Stronger Renaissance

[Stalker0]

Difficulty Bonus Restructure (This part is going in, its not for voting, but it provides the backdrop to explain the rest of the proposal)

Spoiler :

We are doing away with the ABC formula bonus system in the next major version. This will be replaced with a table that lists out the exact yields given for every trigger at every era. You can see the table in the attached excel (SPONSOR NOTE: The first table is the new list of bonuses that will replicate the current bonuses. The second table is if this proposal is passed and some bonuses are changed). In addition, the ancient era will now be listed out as its own entry for bonuses (rather than using the era modifier which lumps the ancient and classical era together.

The new system gives us a lot more granular control over the AI difficulty bonuses. We can now tweak one era without impacting any others, we can tweak specific yields, and we now can make changes to ancient without impacting classical (since the two were coupled before). With this new power, the proposal below seeks to make adjustments to improve the experience.

Proposal: The AI bonuses to culture and science in the Ancient Era are being weakened by 10% and 14% respectively (Emperor Difficulty). The bonus to gold, food, culture, and science are boosted by 30% specifically in the Renaissance Era (Emperor Difficulty). The other difficulties are tailored to mirror these adjustments as closely as possible.

More Detailed Information

Spoiler :

I utilized the handicap data Vern collected for hundreds of AI only games. This is the most comprehensive collection we have of exact how much bonus the AI gets and when. I used that data to adjust the triggers below and see how much total impact it would have on the bonuses.

For the ancient, we are adjusting specific triggers (noted in Red on the big excel). The Renaissance, all bonuses are increased. Again this is specifically noted for Emperor (as that is where all of our AI data is collected), but the other difficulties have been similarly adjusted to be as close to these values as possible.

Emperor Difficulty
Era 0 (Ancient)	%Adjustment to Trigger Yield
Adopt Policy	-22%​	Science
City Founding	-11%​	Science
Research Tech	-21%​	Culture
World Wonder	-11%​	Science
Era 3 (Renaissance)	%Adjustment to Trigger Yield
Adopting Policy	31%​	all
HISTORIC EVENT: DIG	30%​	all
City Conquest	30%​	all
City Founding	30%​	all
HISTORIC EVENT: GOLDEN AGE	30%​	all
HISTORIC EVENT: GREAT PERSON	30%​	all
KILLING BARBARIAN UNIT	30%​	all
KILLING CITY-STATE UNIT	30%​	all
KILLING MAJOR CIV UNIT	30%​	all
Researching Tech	30%​	all
HISTORIC EVENT: TRADE ROUTE (CITY-STATE)	30%​	all
HISTORIC EVENT: TRADE ROUTE (LAND)	30%​	all
HISTORIC EVENT: TRADE ROUTE (SEA)	30%​	all
HISTORIC EVENT: WAR	30%​	all
HISTORIC EVENT: WORLD WONDER	30%​	all

Rationale: Over the last months and years, we hear a pretty common refrain from our players.

• The AI gets a solid lead in Ancient/Classical. It tends to peak around Medieval, and often gets medieval military a good bit before the human.
• The human starts to make a real comeback in Renaissance, often obtaining parity with the AI leaders.
• The human gains a dominant position in Industrial, and effectively "wins the game" at this point.

These changes are designed to surgically address this problem by "smoothing the curve". The AI will be a little weaker in ancient, slowing down its snowball a touch, allowing the human to potentially grab some wonders they couldn't before, and not be so far behind tech wise.

However, the AI will get a major surge in Renaissance, giving them extra staying power and make them more competitive against the human. The goal is that as the game goes into Industrial, the gap is closer, and the AI is still a worthy opponent moving into the later stages of the game.

Note that in ancient only the science and culture was nerfed. I left the gold and food alone to ensure the aI's foundation wasn't negatively affected, as that could have a major impact on the rest of the game.

Complex Proposal: DLL + Database Changes

 

[FinMc]

Excellent idea, Industrial>modern is the most interesting era I find but usually the game is decided by then.

I would love to get to information era more often as I have literally never had a game where I used modern armor as anything more than a "this will speed up the final war where I already know the outcome"

 

[rkkn]

This is good, but I don't think it'll be enough. AI needs buffs in medieval too. Catching up in renaissance is enabled by AI slowing down in medieval
but starting with a conservative change is fine I suppose

 

[Recursive]

Sponsored.