AI too weak.

[Falconiano]

Hey guys, I was wondering is there any way to make Civ harder?

I play Deity/Epic randomized, and I rush science, beeline Oil then Flight so I get GW bombers early, in the while I just play attrition with Archers/Gatlins and Cavalry robbing Workers and destroying Siege.

The moment I pop my army of bombers game ends, because AI can't counter bombing.
I've had only one time where AI finally owned me, they had made a good number of anti-air stuff (I think it was Germany), the rest I just pop 20 bombers and it's all over for them.

I'd also like to remove Fallouts in some ways because the AI can't clear them and I believe units inside fallout tiles get some malus to defense so it's even easier.
Or perhaps find a way to make the AI clear fallouts but I fear that goes beyond what modding can do?

 

[Unresolved]

Play on a faster speed. Slower speeds lower the difficulty of the game.

 

[Falconiano]

Play on a faster speed. Slower speeds lower the difficulty of the game.

I actually found Standard/Quick to be easier
I'd really love to make AI garrison all cities with SAMs and intercepting with Fighters...

 

[Vohbo]

I've played a lot and the lower speed makes the game really dramatically easier. That's because some things do not scale in the same way as others when the game pace changes.

Regardless of that, I do agree: we need better AI and less silly flat bonus points.

 

[Polisurgist]

I'm sure if anyone on this forum wants to program a better AI, it'll be a very popular mod.

 

[BrokTheFanatic]

There's a couple mods that help the AI some, and are you vanilla or G&K? G&K was a bump up from really poor ai in vanilla. It is still poor, hopefully BNW gives it another bump.

Anyways, you can try to make the game harder by choosing great plains (less rough terrain, AI has an easier time with flat and no/few mountains) and picking more agressively military and scientific AI civs. Choose no huts, no barbarians. Don't use nukes (unless nuked), the ai is wierd about using nukes. Cut number of city states in half. Large maps. Continents can also give some tough games since sometimes an AI will take over a continent by mid-game. Don't use babylon or korea as your civ, make em an enemy AI civ if you have them.

 

[Antiphon]

AI improvement would be helluva fun. I don't know how to create an AI, but we could have like a tournament pitting different AI against each other! And an AI that can compete against good players on Prince (no AI cheating) would be awesome! You could use such an AI to create difficulties that are more difficult due to computer being smarter instead of cheating more, that would definitely get me motivated to try highest difficulty possible.

 

[Falconiano]

It's not that the AI is bad mind you, I've seen the AI behave in much more intelligent ways than anything I've seen in strategy games.

On land and water AI does pretty well, and they usually have 20+ bombers as well, but little to no early interceptors, little to no early AA, no garrisoned AA.

Overall AI is great at offense but poor in defense.
It needs to garrison AA stuff in cities, and use plenty of interceptors.

 

[Civking5]

Play on a faster speed. Slower speeds lower the difficulty of the game.

I agree with this. game is more difficult in higher speeds and bigger maps.

 

[Corruption]

Hey guys, I was wondering is there any way to make Civ harder?

I play Deity/Epic randomized, and I rush science, beeline Oil then Flight so I get GW bombers early, in the while I just play attrition with Archers/Gatlins and Cavalry robbing Workers and destroying Siege.

The moment I pop my army of bombers game ends, because AI can't counter bombing.
I've had only one time where AI finally owned me, they had made a good number of anti-air stuff (I think it was Germany), the rest I just pop 20 bombers and it's all over for them.

I'd also like to remove Fallouts in some ways because the AI can't clear them and I believe units inside fallout tiles get some malus to defense so it's even easier.
Or perhaps find a way to make the AI clear fallouts but I fear that goes beyond what modding can do?

I don't really believe that you find the Deity AI's easy....
Rushing science doesn't work. The AI's will always out-tech you unless you are using some form of mod. (And will always spawn in the superior spot)

although if you are telling the truth, here are ways to completely sabotage your victory:
Play from the Ancient Era.
Play One City Challenge.
Enable All Victory Types.
Turn Barbarians off.
Play on Marathon.
Play on Epic.
Change all AI's into aggressive AI's like: Mongolia, Greece, etc.
Use Songhai only.

Note* I have beaten Deity 4 times and lost several times. (Never lost a multi-player game versing another player.) I have played over 20 multi-player matches, and all players end up quitting.

On Deity fast speeds make the game easier, because the AI's will always out-tech you unless you have future tech.

 

[Vohbo]

The mischief eyes are a bit out of place since the positive starting bias for the AI is in the documentation

But yeah, there are plenty of times when just beelining Flight just doesn't work. Lacking oil, problematic terrain, too far behind in tech, enemy cities too far away, low gold output so you can't rush buy 6-7 planes, or an AI gone wild winning before turn 250 or so (usually this means you just don't have enough time to conquer everything).

I don't think that your sample size or variation is high enough to make the conclusions you make. In addition, culture gameplay or defensive Science Victories or Diplomatic victories require a completely different approach from the ground up.

 

[rushin]

I've found it is easiest in longer games. It gives me enough time to build up a larch enough force to steam roll the entire map.

 

[Buccaneer]

It's easy to make the AI weak by cooking the settings to where the AI cannot win, as the OP did.

Remember, marathon deity = standard emperor and so on down the line.

 

[Vintage Port]

I was thinking that if the OP enabled all victory conditions it would ensure the AI could compete and not be so "weak".