Change Difficulty Level Mid-Game

[timberwolf4545]

I think it would be interesting to be able to switch the difficulty level of the game as the game progressed. Like if you you are whipping everyone, you can switch to Demigod level up from Monarch. Of course, you can go the other way as well. The game would be recorded as the lowest level you played at. This would be a great trainer for when you want to move up.

 

[warpstorm]

Overall, not a bad idea. The one hitch that I see is that some of the things that determine the difficulty are done on the first turn (bonus settlers, etc.).

 

[timberwolf4545]

That's right. It wouldn't be a pure thing. I'm thinking you would have effects on hapiness, production, barbarians and increased curruption.

 

[sealman]

but you should only be able to move up. Not down.

 

[timberwolf4545]

why not down?

 

[bob rulz]

I think this is a good idea.

 

[Fundamentality]

why not down?

Duh!You would start on deity switch to chieftain,dominate everyone and go back to deity.

 

[timberwolf4545]

See first post: "The game would be recorded as the lowest level you played at." so switiching from diety to chieftain to diety wouldn't make any sense. Even if it did, I would switch to "Sid".

 

[Black_Hole]

i dont like this idea, its not really fair....
u could start at chieftan then near the end u change to diety and say u won on diety

 

[timberwolf4545]

That would be lying. I could say that I've won every game on diety and it would just be a lie. Like I said, the game would be recorded on the lowest level played at.

 

[sealman]

why not down?

It much easier to exploit the situation when you were starting to lose.

 

[judgement]

It much easier to exploit the situation when you were starting to lose.

If, as timberwolf suggested, your score was recorded at whatever the lowest level played was, then I don't see what the exploit would be...

If you were starting to lose on Monarch (for example), and you switched down to Regent to see if you could recover from being behind, then when you won, your score would show "Regent", but in reality the game would have been harder than if you had played the whole thing on Regent. Especially so if you switched back to Monarch after catching up: your score would say "Regent" but you would have actually played most of the game at Monarch.

The "exploit" of switching down to Chieftan in order to dominate the AI wouldn't really be any more of any exploit that playing on Chieftan in the first place.

 

[timberwolf4545]

Yeah - that's what I was going for. So you can kind of train your way up to playing at higher levels. I sometimes don't want ot invest the hours into a game at a higher level than what I usually play just to get my ass handed to me and my time wasted. There could also be a history detail that flagged the results page. It would have the lowest level played and then read: "altered level" and be a link. It would then read something like:

Turns 1 - 78 Monarch
Turns 79 - 99 Regent
Turns 99 - 304 Monarch

WoRd to all your mothers.

 

[sealman]

If, as timberwolf suggested, your score was recorded at whatever the lowest level played was, then I don't see what the exploit would be...

If you were starting to lose on Monarch (for example), and you switched down to Regent to see if you could recover from being behind, then when you won, your score would show "Regent", but in reality the game would have been harder than if you had played the whole thing on Regent. Especially so if you switched back to Monarch after catching up: your score would say "Regent" but you would have actually played most of the game at Monarch.

I am not talking about the score and other such nicities (afterall, if you mod one little thing in the editor, the scores are not recorded anyway).

I am talking about exploiting the whole situation. Say you are playing an emperor level game and you are making a run at some wonder that could make or break your empire and it is a race between you and England. Since you are on Emperior, the AI gets production bonus so you may not get the wonder. Suddenly the lightbulb in your head goes on and you switch your game down to chieftien where the ai is give production penalties. Boom, you get the wonder and then switch back up to emperor.

That sounds to me like it would be a HUGE exploit.

The "exploit" of switching down to Chieftan in order to dominate the AI wouldn't really be any more of any exploit that playing on Chieftan in the first place.

Starting a game on Chieftan is not an exploit.

 

[warpstorm]

In that case it should score your game as a Chieftain game as that is the lowest level you played it as, sealman.