Customisable Difficulties

[GeneralZift]

I had a thought the other day which had me baffled why they haven't implemented it already.

Essentially, customisable difficulties:
- Up to Deity on the AI's reasoning
- Up to Deity on the AI's cheats
- Up to Deity on the Player's debuffs (or vice versa)

 

[pjotroos]

When did you last start the game?

 

[Leucarum]

I do like the customizable difficulty. Deity makes warfare a boring grind but the bonus to yeilds is a neccessity for the AI to even come close to a Human's snowball. This lets you square the circle.

 

[GeneralZift]

When did you last start the game?

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Sorry I should have specified I'm talking about Civ in general. This is very cool that Civ7 has this

 

[Krikkit1]

I had a thought the other day which had me baffled why they haven't implemented it already.

Essentially, customisable difficulties:
- Up to Deity on the AI's reasoning
- Up to Deity on the AI's cheats
- Up to Deity on the Player's debuffs (or vice versa

Also note: AI Reasoning is the usually the same for all difficulty levels.

 

[GeneralZift]

Also note: AI Reasoning is the usually the same for all difficulty levels.

In Civ7 or all the Civ games? Because Deity AI usually plays far more aggressive than regular AI when all other things considered equal. Or maybe it's uhhh placebo.

 

[Kwami]

In Civ7 or all the Civ games? Because Deity AI usually plays far more aggressive than regular AI when all other things considered equal. Or maybe it's uhhh placebo.

That might just be a result of the additional bonuses, though. Given the same situation, the deity AI with its extra bonuses might decide to attack when a lower-level AI wouldn't.

 

[Aldor]

I am probably blind...but where can those options be found? I looked under advanced options when starting, but did not see them there!

 

[pjotroos]

I am probably blind...but where can those options be found? I looked under advanced options when starting, but did not see them there!

It's a little clunky. They only appear if you set difficulty to custom - which comes after Deity.

 

[Aldor]

That explains it. Thank you!

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

In Civ7 or all the Civ games? Because Deity AI usually plays far more aggressive than regular AI when all other things considered equal. Or maybe it's uhhh placebo.

Defeniately a placebo, or an Illusion

Deity Ai gets a lot of production bonuses, aloowing them to have bigger armies, which makes them see themselves as more powerful than you, which in turn makes them aggressive because the AI sees you as a weak target. So it kinda just stacks with the agression.

 

[Berrern]

There is a very useful mod called Military Power Ribbon which tells you the military strength of yourself and the AI. It's really helpful for planning, whether you want to play peacefully or wage war!

 

[Siptah]

There is a very useful mod called Military Power Ribbon which tells you the military strength of yourself and the AI. It's really helpful for planning, whether you want to play peacefully or wage war!

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I‘m always a bit torn by such things. On one hand, it‘s interesting info to see how much yields, gold, and troops someone has. And in some games (e.g., EU4), I always view this as vital information that I consult often. For some reason that I can‘t fully point towards, I always preferred not to know beforehand how strong exactly an opponent is in civ and relied on my scouting and estimations for making decisions. But it‘s also a bit of misleading info. AI has huge yields but doesn‘t know to use them properly, and can have a lot of military strength, but they can be naval units or far away in the distance. On top of that, high level AI can pump out a lot of troops after a war declaration, but for some reason often doesn‘t… ah, the joy of information.

 

[GeneralZift]

I have been a strong proponent that the fact that the yields of Gold, Culture, Science, Military Strength, Faith, and so on are entirely public (at least in Civ6) is a mistake on behalf of the design team.
Score, at least is opaque. I also don't mind if the game shows you who is leading but not necessarily by how much.

Since you know everything all the time, it gives almost no use for Spies, who would logically be used to obtain this type of information.

Also it removes any tension. So usually the fog of war hides how much army an opponent has.
But if I pull up the data tabs, I can tell for example that I have twice the army they do. This makes war too easy and favours the 'winning' player -- and players cannot bluff at all.

 

[Berrern]

@Siptah @GeneralZift You both make good points regarding the visibility of army strength, and I do agree with you that it isn't always great to have too much info - it can even be viewed as cheating.

However, in this case, the military strength is very misleading. It's only good for giving you an indication of whether the enemy has more or less military than you - and as such whether you risk them declaring war or you or not.

When it comes to you declaring war on an enemy, this info is not very useful... Like Siptah mentioned, their military strength may be tied up in ships halfway across the map! I've sometimes declared wars on enemies with nearly twice my military power, and expecting to struggle (but at least get a city) - however sometimes it's a breeze. Meanwhile, their boats around the map keep trying to attack my distant land towns...

Basically: Use this mod to evaluate the likelihood of an enemy declaring war on you. Do not use it to gauge the actual strength of your enemies!