Best Difficulty level for the AI?

[Ares de Borg]

Hi folks,

I have a rather dumb question bugging me for a while. What are the best Difficulty settings for the AI? I once read that this setting was treated like a handicap, so if you set the lowest difficulty (Warlord), the AI will be the strongest. Is that a myth? What settings can you recommend in the editor for the AI to be as tough and mean as possible?

 

[tom2050]

IMO, I think that for a better difficulty challenge, and to avoid the massive runaway (somewhat) that AI has in tech... I like to keep AI to AI trade at a reasonable level (130-140), and to make AI directly more difficult, put the cost factor down. Sid is usually set to 4, which makes them build fast (means more units). From my experience, human player can usually take out 5+ (sometimes many many more) AI units to each that he/she loses when on even ground. So putting cost factor low will make it much more difficult (putting cost factor on 1 or 2 is bad for huge maps, unit limit can be reached fairly quickly). Keeping all the other settings on a Monarch or Emperor level will make the AI not have a runaway all-around advantage though.

Just a thought though, hope it helps

Tom

 

[Ares de Borg]

Good ideas, Tom, I never considered these. My problem is that my friends and me usually team up against the AI in MP, and too easily kill them off because they usually lag behind in technological progress.

 

[Pounder]

I only play Conquest&Time conditions, I find on Monarch I can win about 2/3's the time and Emperor about 1/10th the time, usually the AI wins because one of the civs goes amok on the other side of the hugh world, I always play 31 civs on a 175x175.

There are so many variables to your question (I guess that's a good thing).

I agree with Tom that limiting trade between AI's would be the best global variable.

 

[Moosezilla]

I play regent all the time because combat odds are supposedly even with player....even so I find the AI cheat level is just about right in most cases.

 

[MeteorPunch]

I'm confused by the question, Are you talking about the default difficulty in the General Settings of the Editor? I don't think that has to do with the AI's "brain," but what difficulty the game/scenario starts on without a preset .ini saying otherwise. If it has to do with anything smart, I'd love to know what.

I play regent all the time because combat odds are supposedly even with player....even so I find the AI cheat level is just about right in most cases.

Combat odds are the same regardless of level.

 

[WildWeazel]

I play regent all the time because combat odds are supposedly even with player....even so I find the AI cheat level is just about right in most cases.

In Regent the AI has the same production ability as you, and does not get any free units or support. Also, the default AI difficulty is usually set to Regent, which presumably means they play by the same rules that you do.

 

[Aethelend]

I like that idea. Sid level, and limit their tech trading. That should make the game a lot more balanced.

 

[wolf_brother]

Combat odds are the same regardless of level.

Chieftain through Deity levels the AI does, however, receive an Attack Bonus versus Barbarians (Which I would assume is roughly equivalent to the "Double Combat Bonus vs Barbarians" a player receives if they control The Great Wall wonder).

 

[Leobon]

The lower 2 difficulty levels (Chieftain, Warlord) will mean AI is less apt to go to war and behave aggressively than if you were to set to Regent or something higher. I remember when I used to stick to Chieftain level back when I was first playing Civ3, getting used to it, and wondering "when is the computer going to FIGHT without ME always being the aggressor?"

 

[Aethelend]

The lower 2 difficulty levels (Chieftain, Warlord) will mean AI is less apt to go to war and behave aggressively than if you were to set to Regent or something higher. I remember when I used to stick to Chieftain level back when I was first playing Civ3, getting used to it, and wondering "when is the computer going to FIGHT without ME always being the aggressor?"

Ha! I remember that. I almost miss those days. Now, I can't seem to keep them from piling on top of me.

 

[Ares de Borg]

I'm confused by the question, Are you talking about the default difficulty in the General Settings of the Editor?

I was also thinking of the settings in the "Players" section.

 

[General 666]

I once read that this setting was treated like a handicap, so if you set the lowest difficulty (Warlord), the AI will be the strongest. Is that a myth?

YES !
btw ,the lowest level should be Chieftain

What settings can you recommend in the editor for the AI to be as tough and mean as possible?

Starting in a higher difficult level brings the AI several better chances in general. And I do never forget about the AI aggression level. Both settings can be found on the player startup screen.
In custom Scenarios all depends on the settings the modder has used.