BtS WAY to easy???

[Florian]

The way AI wars go has always had a big impact on the difficulty of a game, along with a bunch of other factors that aren't controlled by the difficulty setting.

So far I'm finding BTS to be easier. I got it right when I was ready to move up to Monarch, so I'm comparing Prince-level Warlords games to Monarch-level BTS games, and the difficulty seems about the same to me. I'm more of a builder, though, so that might be why.

 

[Breunor]

I think the "BtS is easier" changes are much more profound at Emperor+. In particular:

1) The happiness cap was raised from 3 to 4 (this is huge; it's like every leader gets half the benefit of Charismatic for free). I'm not sure if lower levels got a raised cap as well, but even if so it's proportionally less valuable.
2) Many of the AI maintenance costs have been flattened, such that they're the same at all levels instead of progressive. This obviously benefits the Deity players most.
3) AI now gets one fewer starting worker. This only applies if they had one previously, of course. I think this is a large part of why the initial land-grab is not as fast.

peace,
lilnev

Thanks Lilnev, makes me feel better!



Interesting, I'm also a builder, and I do find it harder. I think its because even though I'm a builder, I still ahve to war occasionally, and the AI just seems to be smarter. But I also think I just have to learn to 'unlearn' some of mys tandard moves from warlords.

In my last game, I didn't have horses. So I had a nice army of axemen, swordsman, spearmen, and moved to macemen. I got into a war and found myself up against loads of crossbows -- yikes, I got slaughtered!

Ok, new priority -- get horses! Note I'm NOT complaining, I applaud the cleverness of the game!

Best wishes,

Breunor

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The AI needs its stacks, or human players will just take cities easily, even with tech parity!

I would like to see better behavior too. I still play Warlords and the bonuses are ridiculous, but the AI stupid. There are still plenty of basic economic tendencies to give the AI that would not be exploitable by a human (prioritizing courthouses and economy buildings/improvements will not hurt the AI).

 

[SnowlyWhite]

tried agg ai once; even droped back ~1.5 lvls. to emperor(normally immortal is no prob., deity is hard)

de gaulle, also hc in game(according to world builder), I'm on the continent with de gaulle but checked the world builder.

I'll get the mids(checked the builder) in 100 bc. Mids built... just for the sake of it and which normally with 2 industrious ais I wouldn't ever get at that time, even on emperor. Not even in my highest production city.

I've seen the worst city placement in 200+ civ. games(yeah... was supposed to be an aggresive placement... 3 tiles away from my oracled capitol... wonder why it'll switch soon...). I look at poor saladin lagging behind with excellent land and 4 gold mines(ok, that's bs, due to the imba aggressive ai, they felt more secure in placing 2 cities ontop of the gold - probably for def. bonus... no clue). I look at his stack and I gaze in admiration... pitty that I know the code won't allow him to declare at friendly... I got glh in 460 bc with hc and de gaulle starting both coastal(don't get me wrong, when I build 3 early wonders I consider I've spammed world wonders - definitelly obsolete ain't my main style)... In the heavy culturally pressured french town, after monument/granary, despite having hinduism there and having already researched writing and meditation, de gaulle choose to build... a barrack... Anyway, as a 1st impression, agg. ai just seems worse. Much worse; and as pointed above, trying to make the ai more inclined to the section where the human shines(war) and expect the game to be harder... dubious to say the least. Worse of all, it's a game in which I had no tactic so far... just mashing buttons.

anyway, from being hard on immortal in warlords, now it's... "pretty hard"(but definitelly easier) on deity. Don't know what was the thinking behind, but... back then, when your normal city had 2 happy cap on deity charismatic just seemed... fell from heaven.

Plus - when you declare on a civ. which wasn't in wars before... you'll gaze at the big stack of perfectly outdated units which just pour and pour from them(ok, that's annoying, it increases ww, but let's be serious, ww never killed anyone - it's a pain in the a$$ and nothin' more). I sometimes refrain from bribing exactly because I know in some situations it'll just be a walk in the park defeating his outdated stack if they don't die in a previous war and then he produces the upgraded versions.

Main problems:

- the reduced upgrade bonus seems to really screw up the ai;
- they build too many units; way too many. Which was ok in warlords; however... if I'm in pacifism and the said ai builds too many units... and given how cheap change civics is... no wonder he spends half of the game in revolution... Reprice that op. - it's way too powerful.
- the espionage is a mess(no clue about addons and such, I'm playing the std. version with latest patch). Try giving yourself a gspy in the start and infiltrate him. You'll notice how the ai will turn 20% into espionage trying to catch up your 10k ep lead(on marathon) with a... 5 ep/turn production. It's really pittyful... The safest way to stall a good techer is divert all your espionage on him; he'll be kind enough to devote some % of research into espionage asap. All that in order to end up... eventually stealing a tech late game... eventually; most often then not, burning them when you declare in order to poison some border city... and that at a hideous cost of hammers from lost spies and anyway... with little success since he might have alot of eps, but he doesn't have infinite spies and since he insists in keeping them 5 turns they tend to die instead of doing their missions.
Not 1 ai ever infiltrates his gw produced spy and milk another civ.; I got bored checking the wb and see if at least once they do that... but no, God forbid.
- the priorities after liberalism(which became much safer to get now then before) are... a mess. Hardcode them to choose between rifling and mil. sci. and beeline one of them. Really.... I don't beeline rifling lately because it's just... too fail proof.