Easier?

[ben_the_man]

Hi everyone,

I have recently gotten back into Civ4 after the horrible disaster that was Civ5, and I have been trying out all kinds of mods. This one is my favourite by far, so I would like to thank the creator(s). All the new options are extremely confusing, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Is it easier than vanilla BtS? I am playing on Emperor, and am finding it very easy. I am in the medieval period at 1500BC, and am winning by quite a bit on a huge map. Does the AI not get the same bonuses?

 

[Smikis]

found that to be the case on couple ocasions, trade is bit bugged atm so if you trading like , that makes it kinda easy, then there are random unbalanced maps , unless you play balanced map, but thats like yawn..
so you might get ubber starting location, and next time you might such terrible one you will strugle on noble

 

[BlueTemplar]

Use flexible difficulty!

How is trade bugged?

 

[Koshling]

Use flexible difficulty!

How is trade bugged?

Flexible difficulty and REV. Also check out C2C (which is an AND mod mod) - it certainly has a different set of early game challenges at least. In general (once you get to know them) the more complex mods tend to be 'easier' than Vanilla BtS simply because the AI has more trouble with the complexity than you do. However, the AI is being worked on, so watch this space.

 

[ben_the_man]

Interesting, so there's no tampering with the buffs the ai typically gets at higher difficulty in vanilla? I'm playing on a "planet generator" map, with extreme food plains, so my capital city is at 18 people in 500BC. The ai has the same advantage, but I don't think it understands how to build to maximize it, and how to spin it into great people farms or cottage span (where an entire radius of cottages are being worked before 1AD).

I saw that flexible difficulty setting in the crt+alt+o options. Does it dynamically adjust difficulty based on how well you are doing? I'll play around with that.

Thanks for the help guys. Any tips for now players would be appreciated!!!

edit - I have noticed that tile yields in general have been increased, even without the crazy food plains; mines give +4 production, and evolve into shaft mines + paved roads which yield even more. Some of my tiles have a combined 15 "things" (10 food, 5 commerce). Have research times and other costs been adjusted to account for this? My production cities put on research are generating a ridiculous amount of beakers.

 

[Koshling]

Interesting, so there's no tampering with the buffs the ai typically gets at higher difficulty in vanilla? I'm playing on a "planet generator" map, with extreme food plains, so my capital city is at 18 people in 500BC. The ai has the same advantage, but I don't think it understands how to build to maximize it, and how to spin it into great people farms or cottage span (where an entire radius of cottages are being worked before 1AD).

I saw that flexible difficulty setting in the crt+alt+o options. Does it dynamically adjust difficulty based on how well you are doing? I'll play around with that.

Thanks for the help guys. Any tips for now players would be appreciated!!!

edit - I have noticed that tile yields in general have been increased, even without the crazy food plains; mines give +4 production, and evolve into shaft mines + paved roads which yield even more. Some of my tiles have a combined 15 "things" (10 food, 5 commerce). Have research times and other costs been adjusted to account for this? My production cities put on research are generating a ridiculous amount of beakers.

There is no tampering BUT the AI never got any 'buffs'. The AI always plays at Noble and always has as far as I am aware. Beyond that it doesn't get (and as far as I know never has got at least since BTS) any advantages. HOWEVER, the AI is tuned for more normal maps so it's entirely possible it doesn't cope (relative to the human player) well in extreme cases such as this.

 

[ben_the_man]

There is no tampering BUT the AI never got any 'buffs'. The AI always plays at Noble and always has as far as I am aware. Beyond that it doesn't get (and as far as I know never has got at least since BTS) any advantages. HOWEVER, the AI is tuned for more normal maps so it's entirely possible it doesn't cope (relative to the human player) well in extreme cases such as this.

So you mean you just get penalties? There is defiantly a relative difference increase as you climb the difficulty ladder, I was just confirming that it hasn't been altered. In a vanilla game on immortal, I would be last place in score by FAR, until my superior city micro kicked in late game, and I think this is fairly typical. In this mod, I seem to be able to keep up with the AI much easier.

One more question: I played a half game of regular Rise of Mankind before I noticed this. In that game, barbs turned into minor civs, and then full civilizations. There were 20 civs in that game when I quit. That does not seem to happen in my current game, which is too bad because I thought it was realistic, unpredictable, and really fun. Was this feature removed, or did it just not happen in my current game.

Thanks!

 

[BlueTemplar]

Maybe you forgot the checkbox responsible for it?

 

[os79]

to clarify BlueTemplar:
In RoM, you just need to check BarbarianCivs on.
In RAND here, you need to check No BarbarianCivs OFF.

Not Afforess' decision but the RevDCM team (the team that make the RevDCM modcomps like Revolutions, BarbarianCivs, and Barbarian World.)

 

[ben_the_man]

to clarify BlueTemplar:
In RoM, you just need to check BarbarianCivs on.
In RAND here, you need to check No BarbarianCivs OFF.

Not Afforess' decision but the RevDCM team (the team that make the RevDCM modcomps like Revolutions, BarbarianCivs, and Barbarian World.)

That explains it, thanks. I didn't set it up any differently, it just didn't happen Is it something I can turn on after the game has started? I see all the options for barb civs, but not the on/off toggle...

 

[ben_the_man]

I take it all back, Boudica just steamrolled me. Turns out the ai was just a slow starter. I was attacked by a 200 unit stack of doom I might have to turn off dynamic difficulty and stick with Emperor.