Deity Difficulty
- Thread starter Stalker0
- Start date
IMO deity should challenge the best players. As far as I can tell, CrazyG is the best player that regularly posts and gives feedback so his opinion carries the most weight for me. A challenging deity for him probably means I should stick to Immortal for now which means my personal opinion on deity difficulty is now irrelevant.
Bascule2000
Warlord
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2017
- Messages
- 154
It's not diety. It's deity. D-E-I-T-Y. It's not what you eat. It pertains to a god.
Cokolwiek
Prince
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
- Messages
- 512
Yep, from Latin deus - god.
Also latest "tutleary" had me crying from laugh when I saw it post after post but I was relieved when I saw it was put in the correct form into the game.
But I think we should stick to the topic.
My opinion was provided recently in 3-1 thread, I don't think you want me to repeat myself.
Ah I see that perhaps this discussion was crowding the new beta thread. Apologies.
Deity is by definition the hardest difficulty. Therefore it should be hard, because well, there's nothing harder. It should be a challenge, because if it isn't, well there is no challenge. If it isn't difficult, what's the point of the highest difficulty?
It should require an extensive knowledge of the game and that you use all (or almost all) resources available to you. To give a particular example, I think this is the first beta in a while I cannot win a one-city challenge on Deity, and that's good. You shouldn't be able to consistently win a game where you ignore a major aspect of the game (settling cities) and still come out on top. It shouldn't necessarily be totally impossible, but success should be rare.
I know there was a splurge of challenges on Deity, which was a ton of fun, but really that shouldn't happen. Minh Le had a great game where he converted the whole world with just one city, which was awesome to watch, but that shouldn't happen on the highest difficulty. If you can succeed while ignoring major game features, the highest difficulty isn't doing its job.
Deity is by definition the hardest difficulty. Therefore it should be hard, because well, there's nothing harder. It should be a challenge, because if it isn't, well there is no challenge. If it isn't difficult, what's the point of the highest difficulty?
It should require an extensive knowledge of the game and that you use all (or almost all) resources available to you. To give a particular example, I think this is the first beta in a while I cannot win a one-city challenge on Deity, and that's good. You shouldn't be able to consistently win a game where you ignore a major aspect of the game (settling cities) and still come out on top. It shouldn't necessarily be totally impossible, but success should be rare.
I know there was a splurge of challenges on Deity, which was a ton of fun, but really that shouldn't happen. Minh Le had a great game where he converted the whole world with just one city, which was awesome to watch, but that shouldn't happen on the highest difficulty. If you can succeed while ignoring major game features, the highest difficulty isn't doing its job.
These are kind words, but let me say clearly that I don't win every game. There have been many great players on the forum over the years, and I've learned a lot from others.
I'm aware this patch is still very fresh, but I still want to see it first: can somebody win a deity game without the use of any force (this obviously excludes inevitably having to defend yourself), or not? If this can't be accomplished and warmongering is basically required to stand any chance, then I don't think that's a good thing.
JamesNinelives
Emperor
I think I might be able to on the settings I play (Epic Speed, Huge map size) but I'm not sure if that counts as it makes certain things easier. I could also be underestimating the challenge of course.
BiteInTheMark
Deity
I have played now a game with the newest version of the Gamecore_Expansion release and it didnt crashed even after 155 turns.
For any player with crash problems in early stage of the game. This this.
https://github.com/LoneGazebo/Community-Patch-DLL/issues/6313#issuecomment-593676515
For any player with crash problems in early stage of the game. This this.
https://github.com/LoneGazebo/Community-Patch-DLL/issues/6313#issuecomment-593676515
OK I still can't figure out how to actually see the handicap logs with the actual numbers so I resorted to monitor city-state quests for the progress.
T253 Mbanza-Kongo are looking for some techs. I'm here pulling more or less every little trick in the book to see if I can pull this. Scholars in Residence is in effect, I have some backlog of cheaper techs and am maintaining five alliances at the moment with city-states.
Dido 35
Monty (me) 32
Morocco 33
Russia 33
Indo 34
England 33
Celt 30
(I ate Rome for breakfast way back in the dawn of time)
T271 Slow start really. I was the leader with 2 techs up until this point. Then Dido goes into the industrial era and now she has 4 techs. I guess she had 2 techs to up until this point, gained one and then all the extra yields gave her a bonus tech on top.
T278 I'm at 3 techs. Dido is now at 6. She has been wonder spamming lately as if there was no tomorrow. In the last six turns she cranked out Globe theater, Sistine Chapel and the Summer palace. Nice era bonuses you got there.
T282 I'm at 4 techs thanks to espionage. But Dido is now at 7 so no gain.
T283 Dido builds Uffizi. My normal research kicks in taking me to 5 techs. Dido is still at 7.
T285 Dido now as 8 techs in the contest.
T286 Dido builds Neuschwanstein.
T289 Dido builds Porcelain tower. Dido now at 9 techs, i'm still at 5.
T291 My normal research takes me to 6.
T294 I steal a tech, it's 9 vs 7.
T295 My normal research takes it to 9 vs 8.
T296 I steal again, enter industrial era (behind Dido and England). So it's now 9 vs 9. According to the tooltip I'm apparently winning ties since it says I'm in the lead.
T297 Dido the **** fudge pulls another tech and wins on the last processing segment. I was the leader before I hit enter for the next turn but that didn't last. So while I'm pulling all I got she is sitting there sucking down bonuses like there is no tomorrow. So now she gets a litteral fudgton of great people points and the snowball keeps on rolling.
So she era changed once, built six wonders, and also managed to do every thing else she does.
Tech count at the end of the contest (order by ingame score)
45 Dido
40 Morroco
40 Russia
41 Monty (me)
39 Indo
38 Celts
41 England
A similar thing but more easy to follow are the culture city-state quests. Where it updates pointwise every turn. Total kick in the teeth from Dido again, she pulls in 47k from her normal game and then some fat bonuses ontop of that while I doing play manage to get 16k. If they are an indicator of the kind of free yields they are getting it's pretty significant to get an extra say 30k culture during 40-45 turns. I didn't keep much of a record on that one.
T253 Mbanza-Kongo are looking for some techs. I'm here pulling more or less every little trick in the book to see if I can pull this. Scholars in Residence is in effect, I have some backlog of cheaper techs and am maintaining five alliances at the moment with city-states.
Dido 35
Monty (me) 32
Morocco 33
Russia 33
Indo 34
England 33
Celt 30
(I ate Rome for breakfast way back in the dawn of time)
T271 Slow start really. I was the leader with 2 techs up until this point. Then Dido goes into the industrial era and now she has 4 techs. I guess she had 2 techs to up until this point, gained one and then all the extra yields gave her a bonus tech on top.
T278 I'm at 3 techs. Dido is now at 6. She has been wonder spamming lately as if there was no tomorrow. In the last six turns she cranked out Globe theater, Sistine Chapel and the Summer palace. Nice era bonuses you got there.
T282 I'm at 4 techs thanks to espionage. But Dido is now at 7 so no gain.
T283 Dido builds Uffizi. My normal research kicks in taking me to 5 techs. Dido is still at 7.
T285 Dido now as 8 techs in the contest.
T286 Dido builds Neuschwanstein.
T289 Dido builds Porcelain tower. Dido now at 9 techs, i'm still at 5.
T291 My normal research takes me to 6.
T294 I steal a tech, it's 9 vs 7.
T295 My normal research takes it to 9 vs 8.
T296 I steal again, enter industrial era (behind Dido and England). So it's now 9 vs 9. According to the tooltip I'm apparently winning ties since it says I'm in the lead.
T297 Dido the **** fudge pulls another tech and wins on the last processing segment. I was the leader before I hit enter for the next turn but that didn't last. So while I'm pulling all I got she is sitting there sucking down bonuses like there is no tomorrow. So now she gets a litteral fudgton of great people points and the snowball keeps on rolling.
So she era changed once, built six wonders, and also managed to do every thing else she does.
Tech count at the end of the contest (order by ingame score)
45 Dido
40 Morroco
40 Russia
41 Monty (me)
39 Indo
38 Celts
41 England
A similar thing but more easy to follow are the culture city-state quests. Where it updates pointwise every turn. Total kick in the teeth from Dido again, she pulls in 47k from her normal game and then some fat bonuses ontop of that while I doing play manage to get 16k. If they are an indicator of the kind of free yields they are getting it's pretty significant to get an extra say 30k culture during 40-45 turns. I didn't keep much of a record on that one.
vyyt
Deity
@loorg, check this thread:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...-submitting-ctd-bug-reports-to-github.655371/
Part of the excellent 6th post by @HeathcliffWarriors explains how to turn on additional logging (which creates more log files than the default ones)
https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...-submitting-ctd-bug-reports-to-github.655371/
Part of the excellent 6th post by @HeathcliffWarriors explains how to turn on additional logging (which creates more log files than the default ones)
I'll set that up for the next game then to see how much in actual numbers the yields are but I already have a basic idea of what it looks like. I have not stopped my game as Monty yet, but for all intents it's over as there is no possible way to catch up and the other AI:s are not about to stop Dido kicking everyone in the teeth over and over again.
T330 Carthage (Dido) opens the ideology race with Orders. This is as most of the rest of us just picked our first opener in our third tree.
T333 Tech count. Dido 50, England 47, Morocco 47, Russia 46, Indonesia 46, Celt 45, Monty (me) 44. So in 36 turns Dido has gained 5 techs, while I do 3 techs (from the previous post, I think there was a tech count at the end).
T343 A city-state Culture race starts in Malacca for the next 45 turns.
T345 Already losing horribly. Have 1776 culture while Dido has 4561.
T346 Have 2317 vs 7004
T353 Have 6552 vs 25615
The city-states after a few turns are now running FOUR quests for culture. I guess Dido will enjoy her 12 free happyfaces in her capital.
T379 The first of the culture races is 3/4 done.
Malacca, 9 turns left, 128095 vs 28747
BA, 11 turns left, 123534 vs 27717
Yerevan, 23 turns left, 91578 vs 20605
Mbanza, just started so nothing yet.
Should AI civs that are so far ahead of the player and the other AI:s even get a bonus, or that size of a bonus? If the point was to keep them relevant and interesting it has now become somewhat a shift to the other side. There is a 100k culture difference here over 45 turns. She (Dido) clearly doesn't need anymore welfare bonuses to stay relevant.
Also nobody else still has an ideology except dido that gained hers almost 50 turns ago. I guess Indonesia or Morocco will unlock on in the next 10-20 turns or so.
Standing by score.
Dido 60 tech, 24 pol, 19 wonders, 18 cities, 471 pops (31 capital)
Morocco 53 tech, 17 pol, 6 wonders, 14 cities, 310 pops (32 capital)
Russia 52 tech, 15 pol, 5 wonders, 11 cities, 229 pops (27 cap)
Indonesia 52 tech, 17 pol, 7 wonders, 10 cities, 233 pops (24 cap)
Monty (me) 50 tech, 14 pol, 7 wonders, 11 cities, 200 pops (27 cap)
Celt 51 tech, 15 pol, 1 wonder, 12 cities, 228 pops (24 cap)
England 52 tech, 15 pol, 1 wonder, 8 cities, 150 pops (25 cap)
I'm running 7 out of 9 trade routes to Dido, each scoring 25 culture, 31 science and some insignificant gold. I can't really spy on her since she went Rationalism and then Order so the espionage timers are basically just to long to be relevant. Better to spy on Morocco and Indonesia. But all the bonuses are more or less insignificant, I'm not closing the gap so to speak.
After the initial war spree where I kicked Rome in the teeth before they could even settle a second city thanks to the Jaguar-power spike. I managed to keep up and be leader until about the late 200:s or and then it's just been falling behind ever since then. I was somehow almost catching up tech wise then but has since then just kept falling as they era change and keeps pooping out yields left and right like there is no tomorrow. Everyone, not only me, is now about an era behind Dido tech-wise. It was the global defensive pacts that did me in, I couldn't really declare war on anyone. I could have. I think I might have survived the wars fight-wise but not happiness wise. It would have just tanked from the first turn. So first slowly and then just faster and faster the snowball rolls as the welfare bonuses kicks in.
I guess I'll play until the end just to see how ridiculous it will become or when the army of GDR:s appear at the horizon. But basically if we could just rein in this ridiculous one civ snowball that happens over and over and over again this would actually have been fun and interesting. Everyone else is sort of relevant compared to each other from a tech, policy, cities, pops perspective. While Dido enjoys her welfare bonus shower over and over and over again. There quite clearly is a bonus feedback loop where it feeds itself over and over again.
T330 Carthage (Dido) opens the ideology race with Orders. This is as most of the rest of us just picked our first opener in our third tree.
T333 Tech count. Dido 50, England 47, Morocco 47, Russia 46, Indonesia 46, Celt 45, Monty (me) 44. So in 36 turns Dido has gained 5 techs, while I do 3 techs (from the previous post, I think there was a tech count at the end).
T343 A city-state Culture race starts in Malacca for the next 45 turns.
T345 Already losing horribly. Have 1776 culture while Dido has 4561.
T346 Have 2317 vs 7004
T353 Have 6552 vs 25615
The city-states after a few turns are now running FOUR quests for culture. I guess Dido will enjoy her 12 free happyfaces in her capital.
T379 The first of the culture races is 3/4 done.
Malacca, 9 turns left, 128095 vs 28747
BA, 11 turns left, 123534 vs 27717
Yerevan, 23 turns left, 91578 vs 20605
Mbanza, just started so nothing yet.
Should AI civs that are so far ahead of the player and the other AI:s even get a bonus, or that size of a bonus? If the point was to keep them relevant and interesting it has now become somewhat a shift to the other side. There is a 100k culture difference here over 45 turns. She (Dido) clearly doesn't need anymore welfare bonuses to stay relevant.
Also nobody else still has an ideology except dido that gained hers almost 50 turns ago. I guess Indonesia or Morocco will unlock on in the next 10-20 turns or so.
Standing by score.
Dido 60 tech, 24 pol, 19 wonders, 18 cities, 471 pops (31 capital)
Morocco 53 tech, 17 pol, 6 wonders, 14 cities, 310 pops (32 capital)
Russia 52 tech, 15 pol, 5 wonders, 11 cities, 229 pops (27 cap)
Indonesia 52 tech, 17 pol, 7 wonders, 10 cities, 233 pops (24 cap)
Monty (me) 50 tech, 14 pol, 7 wonders, 11 cities, 200 pops (27 cap)
Celt 51 tech, 15 pol, 1 wonder, 12 cities, 228 pops (24 cap)
England 52 tech, 15 pol, 1 wonder, 8 cities, 150 pops (25 cap)
I'm running 7 out of 9 trade routes to Dido, each scoring 25 culture, 31 science and some insignificant gold. I can't really spy on her since she went Rationalism and then Order so the espionage timers are basically just to long to be relevant. Better to spy on Morocco and Indonesia. But all the bonuses are more or less insignificant, I'm not closing the gap so to speak.
After the initial war spree where I kicked Rome in the teeth before they could even settle a second city thanks to the Jaguar-power spike. I managed to keep up and be leader until about the late 200:s or and then it's just been falling behind ever since then. I was somehow almost catching up tech wise then but has since then just kept falling as they era change and keeps pooping out yields left and right like there is no tomorrow. Everyone, not only me, is now about an era behind Dido tech-wise. It was the global defensive pacts that did me in, I couldn't really declare war on anyone. I could have. I think I might have survived the wars fight-wise but not happiness wise. It would have just tanked from the first turn. So first slowly and then just faster and faster the snowball rolls as the welfare bonuses kicks in.
I guess I'll play until the end just to see how ridiculous it will become or when the army of GDR:s appear at the horizon. But basically if we could just rein in this ridiculous one civ snowball that happens over and over and over again this would actually have been fun and interesting. Everyone else is sort of relevant compared to each other from a tech, policy, cities, pops perspective. While Dido enjoys her welfare bonus shower over and over and over again. There quite clearly is a bonus feedback loop where it feeds itself over and over again.
Is there something wrong (or odd) with the diplomatic calculations or abstraction since none of the AI seem to be very bothered about Dido just stomping across the world and winning the game. They are all angry with me cause apparently they think I'm the competition while they don't seem to notice the giant 9000-pound Gorilla in the room that is Dido. With her everything seems fine. Instead they are all friends with her.
OK Dido decided the world wasn't big enough for her and Elizabeth. Which Pulled in the Celts that UK had a defensive pact with. Which in turn seems to also have then dragged in Indonesia and Morocco in war vs the Celts and England respectively. So the only once not at war at the moment are me and Russia.
I guess that had a somewhat funny side-effect, the city-states offering culture race quests just went to war with Dido since they are allied to the Celts. Still this really highlights the difference between the civs even better and how Dido is just flat out winning.
T383
Malacca, 5 turns remaining. (Dido 128095) vs 32932 (me) vs 44082 (I guess it's Morocco or Indonesia -- still they are winning over me but not by a ridiculous amount as Dido is/was)
BA, 7 turns remaining, 142910 vs 31902 (still vs Dido)
Yerevan, 19 turns remaining, 110954 (still vs Dido) vs 24790
Mbanza, 41 turns remaining, 19376 vs 5073 (Dido)
T384 Indonesia is the second ideology civ and picks Order to. /eyeroll. It really is the everybody loves Dido show. That said it took 53 turns of play for someone else to even unlock an ideology after Dido did hers at T330.
T386 Dido is apparently a bit of a sore loser. If Dido can't win, Dido conquers. No more competition in Malacca as she takes the city instead two turns before the competition is about to end.
The war is going terrible for everyone that isn't Dido. But then that is expected as she is around 10 policies and techs ahead of everyone. When Dido comes a knocking cities fall in about three turns. City-states, English cities, Celt cities. She does it all. They can't even counter-attack or pressure her in anyway as far as I can see with my zeppelin scouting units.
I noticed this myself as I took Katmandu (even with my superior war religion of God of War and such -- it was odd they never did build any of the religious buildings -- they could have had Order in the city and buffed a little, or they might have been destroyed I didn't spy ahead of time) but nothing. After everyone removed their protection claims on the city-state I just took it out as I needed to strengthen my borderline for the eventual arrival of Dido. Two turns of some light bombardment (six shots or something in total) and then one melee unit attack and it was game over. That one melee unit attacked when the city was more then half strength and just crushed it and any defenders in one hit. Cities are clearly a bit on the squish side even in the later stages of the game. It wasn't even a promoted city-fighter unit (as in it didn't have the promotions for extra damage and such vs cities, I didn't expect to take it I figured I would just do some damage to shorten the fight not to end it).
T389
Malacca, terminated as Dido captured the city.
BA, 1 turns remaining, 173580 vs 38803
Yerevan, 13 turns remaining, 141624 vs 31691
Mbanza, 35 turns remaining, 50046 vs 11974
T391 Morocco picks ideology -- Freedom. Lets see if they can remain friends now ... that is once that defensive pact runs out ... eventually. 61 turns after Dido. I still have to get two more policies to even unlock the option of an ideology.
OK Dido decided the world wasn't big enough for her and Elizabeth. Which Pulled in the Celts that UK had a defensive pact with. Which in turn seems to also have then dragged in Indonesia and Morocco in war vs the Celts and England respectively. So the only once not at war at the moment are me and Russia.
I guess that had a somewhat funny side-effect, the city-states offering culture race quests just went to war with Dido since they are allied to the Celts. Still this really highlights the difference between the civs even better and how Dido is just flat out winning.
T383
Malacca, 5 turns remaining. (Dido 128095) vs 32932 (me) vs 44082 (I guess it's Morocco or Indonesia -- still they are winning over me but not by a ridiculous amount as Dido is/was)
BA, 7 turns remaining, 142910 vs 31902 (still vs Dido)
Yerevan, 19 turns remaining, 110954 (still vs Dido) vs 24790
Mbanza, 41 turns remaining, 19376 vs 5073 (Dido)
T384 Indonesia is the second ideology civ and picks Order to. /eyeroll. It really is the everybody loves Dido show. That said it took 53 turns of play for someone else to even unlock an ideology after Dido did hers at T330.
T386 Dido is apparently a bit of a sore loser. If Dido can't win, Dido conquers. No more competition in Malacca as she takes the city instead two turns before the competition is about to end.
The war is going terrible for everyone that isn't Dido. But then that is expected as she is around 10 policies and techs ahead of everyone. When Dido comes a knocking cities fall in about three turns. City-states, English cities, Celt cities. She does it all. They can't even counter-attack or pressure her in anyway as far as I can see with my zeppelin scouting units.
I noticed this myself as I took Katmandu (even with my superior war religion of God of War and such -- it was odd they never did build any of the religious buildings -- they could have had Order in the city and buffed a little, or they might have been destroyed I didn't spy ahead of time) but nothing. After everyone removed their protection claims on the city-state I just took it out as I needed to strengthen my borderline for the eventual arrival of Dido. Two turns of some light bombardment (six shots or something in total) and then one melee unit attack and it was game over. That one melee unit attacked when the city was more then half strength and just crushed it and any defenders in one hit. Cities are clearly a bit on the squish side even in the later stages of the game. It wasn't even a promoted city-fighter unit (as in it didn't have the promotions for extra damage and such vs cities, I didn't expect to take it I figured I would just do some damage to shorten the fight not to end it).
T389
Malacca, terminated as Dido captured the city.
BA, 1 turns remaining, 173580 vs 38803
Yerevan, 13 turns remaining, 141624 vs 31691
Mbanza, 35 turns remaining, 50046 vs 11974
T391 Morocco picks ideology -- Freedom. Lets see if they can remain friends now ... that is once that defensive pact runs out ... eventually. 61 turns after Dido. I still have to get two more policies to even unlock the option of an ideology.
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The only main thing I'll push back on here is how the initial city bonus for the AI affects the whole game (on Deity and on any other level). This particular aspect of the AI bonuses should be eliminated, not just minimized.
My reasoning: one of the things you mention is how you should not be capable of winning by ignoring a main feature of the game (settling). The problem with an AI founding bonus is that it can pop out early Settlers so quickly so as to not infrequently close you in quite quickly - in other words, you're unable to use a particular feature of the game, but not through any fault of your own or through bad playing. The same applies to early Wonders being impossible to build for the player.
There is quite a sharp distinction between something's being difficult and the difficulty being such that the player is unable to play the game properly or intelligently. Initial city bonuses are a major contributor to this problem.
In short: the AI should be stronger from its, but AI bonuses should not change the game per se. If you can't play the game normally or you have no opportunity to even consider the question of "optimisation," then there is by definition no game at all to be played.
I've played multiplayer before and concern of settlers being thrown in your face definently happens.
I've played multiplayer and the current version of the settler race is the closest to that experience I've gotten from AI. I'm not against lowering the AI's initial start a little bit, per se, but overall I like this beta a lot.
I think you're exaggerating. Early wonders aren't impossible, and you are able to use settlers.
I've played multiplayer and the current version of the settler race is the closest to that experience I've gotten from AI. I'm not against lowering the AI's initial start a little bit, per se, but overall I like this beta a lot.
This is making me wonder if maybe the Welfare bonuses AIs get would be better served scaling on where the AI was ranked in score. An AI at the top of the score would get few bonuses and an AI at the bottom would get large bonuses, to help condense the pack and avoid these silly runaways.
Something like that. If it, in my game, hadn't been for Dido (which can be replaced by whatever snowball AI is at the top) the game would have been even. The game would have been fun and interesting, I do admit for the first time in a fairly long time even if the february updates where also harder and fairly good in that regard. But there is just no "smart plays" or optimizations or "right choices" or "stop sucking get better l2p!" issues that can counter when one AI is just on the massive yield welfare bonus express compared to the player and all the other AI. If I look at the data I had from a few turns ago (four-five posts above this one) all the AI:s are sort of someone in a clustered bunch give a take a couple of techs and policies and such and then there is the snowball that is somehow more then an era ahead of everyone else and just keep getting more and more bonuses.
With regard to Wonders - there's plenty of posts on this, and most are not by me? You can get a Wonder if you beeline of course...sometimes. I really do emphasize *sometimes*, without exaggeration, as some of the 4-Policy Wonders (like Great Library, among others) are built as soon as I achieve the Technology for it, even when beelining - and then I still don't have the Policies for it anyways. Unless the AI has been extraordinarily lucky with Culture and Science CS *every single game I've played*, I think it's reasonable to suggest that the AI bonus may be too strong.
For Settlers - I was exaggerating about not being able to use them *at all* (and I didn't mean to imply that) - but it's not unusual in the least for me to cap out at 3 cities and legitimately have nowhere else to go. This works for a Tradition civ or an early-focused Domination civ, but it's death for anything else.
This is a genuinely fascinating suggestion. A simpler question would be: why does the person in the lead need a handicap at all?
mikes61293
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2015
- Messages
- 107
I don't think the AI handicap system should serve a rubberband mechanism. The AI get bonuses on higher difficulties to make up for the fact that it's not as good as human player. There are separate mechanics to try and help civs at the bottom catch up. This also would lead to issues on other difficulties, on prince should the AI in the lead get penalties?
