Difficultly - Consistent difficultly through the eras

[civfan_999]

I find the way the immortal and deity games are buffed to be annoying. The AI is given so much extra at the beginning of the game that half the time, you as good as lose on turn 40 when 5 warriors show up and take either your only city and a settler or one of two cites you have so far.

At the same time, later in the game when you finally catch up in science and culture you can still steam roll the AI because they aren't actually smart at how they play, they are just buffed in the ancient era.

I recognize that coding the AI to make them smarter with different levels of difficultly would be challenging (though that would certainly be the best fix), so I simply propose to modify the buff idea.

On deity (immortal), the AI gets 5 (4) free techs and civics in the ancient era. Instead, I suggest they get 2 free techs and civics in the ancient era and then continue to get additional free techs/civics as the eras progress. In immortal it could be 1 per era and on deity 2 per era. That way the AI stays competitive all game and isn't so far ahead in the early eras.

I also recall from beyond earth that there would be occasions where you would get a free tech and would be able to choose which from the tech web you wanted to fully develop. I think this idea should be brought over for the AI in the 1/2 free tech/civic per ear. Instead of being random (where sometimes it may be unhelpful), the AI should get to choose which free tech/civic it gets for free. The AI should also be programed to prefer higher cost tech/civics over lower cost ones to maximize the free science/culture it is getting.


Any other ideas for how to keep the difficultly more consistent as you move though the eras?

 

[civfan_999]

Anyone agree with this concern?

One of the issues that come from the difficulty defined as a massive buff on turn one is that you basically can't get any ancient or classical era wonders playing on deity. Half the time, I just barley get the tech/civic and the wonder either just was finished or is finished a couple turns later. You can't compete on a wonder if the AI has the tech for it on turn one and you can't even get the tech for quite a while.

I would love to be more competitive in the first couple eras, but I would also love the AI not to fall behind in the last couple eras, so I would like to see an AI that is consistently difficult throughout the eras.

 

[civfan_999]

I found a similar comment on a different thread, so I thought I would add it here:

Civ Improvemnts

Difficulty increases should be a more ‘staggered’ experience. As it is the AI gets the majority of their truly impactful bonuses at the beginning of the game – extra settlers/warriors/civics/techs… While the AI certainly needs some bonuses, I think the issue with frontloading so many bonuses is the game is all about surviving the early eras and then eventually steamrolling in the later eras. Early game is high tension mid-late game the tension evaporates.


Staggered Bonuses

-AI gets bonuses when attacking cities. I’m not sure the exact numbers of this but it would mainly apply to melee and siege units. Somewhere in the range of 15-33% more combat damage when attacking cities. This number would scale as the difficult scaled up 15% at king, rising to 33% at deity. As it is once walls go up the AI is virtually inept at taking cities. Also, rather than just getting bonuses at the very beginning, they would have those bonuses spread out so that at the beginning of each era they get X number of new units/techs. X would have to be balance tested.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...ol-and-better-ai-combat.660693/#post-15840070

 

[Amrunril]

The front-loading of the AI's bonuses is definitely a frustrating aspect of the game, and one of the reasons I play against myself more often than the AI. I think this is a fairly common view, and I'm not sure why Firaxis chose to/continues to structure the difficulty levels this way. Replacing some or all of the start bonuses with increased ongoing bonuses would be an incredibly straightforward update that would massively improve the single player experience. An even better option would be to allow custom difficulty levels, where you can set start bonuses, ongoing bonuses (and perhaps a new setting for AI "cutthroat-ness" vs. roleplay) independently of one another.

A partial workaround I've found is the "No AI Start Advantage" mod in the Steam workshop. I don't think this gives the AI anything to compensate for the lost start bonuses, though, so it limits the overall maximum difficulty to a level below unmodded deity (and possibly unmodded immortal- I don't play against the AI often enough to be sure one way or the other).

 

[civfan_999]

What do you mean that you play against yourself?

 

[Amrunril]

What do you mean that you play against yourself?

I set up a hotseat "multiplayer" game and take control of all the civs in the game. It has some downsides (very long games, not seeing any surprising strategies, exploring the same map multiple times)), but it also has some unique upsides (seeing how different strategies interact from multiple perspectives, using most of the city states/wonders as one of the civs rather than repeatedly focusing on a few favorites, and it avoids both the repetitiveness of the AI and the competitive pressure and the timing/logistical difficulties of true multiplayer.

 

[Entrophy]

I set up a hotseat "multiplayer" game and take control of all the civs in the game. It has some downsides (very long games, not seeing any surprising strategies, exploring the same map multiple times)), but it also has some unique upsides (seeing how different strategies interact from multiple perspectives, using most of the city states/wonders as one of the civs rather than repeatedly focusing on a few favorites, and it avoids both the repetitiveness of the AI and the competitive pressure and the timing/logistical difficulties of true multiplayer.

Dude, high-five)

Due to AI isn't able to conquer cities, I play in the same manner. But not alone - with my brother (we're automatically syncing save via google drive). So we take something like standard map/standard speed, take 5-6 civs each, and play. No min-max strategies - only roleplay (personality of our civs we design in the beginning). It's kinda fun.

Yes, sometimes I play parallel games with AI, but... It's so easy even on Deity. Even I play with restrictions like "faith focus, almost no campuses, etc". Even if you have industrial units and AI modern armors - he will never conquer you. It's sad if being honest.