Emperor+X?!

[krille]

Hey!

I've read people saying they play at Emperor+2 before. But it didn't quite register ("I mean, c'mon, that's impossible..."). Now I just read this:

If you change byte 10 (0x0a) of the save file to a 7, you'll be
playing at a difficulty level 3 steps harder than Emperor.

So what difficulty levels are there? How do I enable them? And what do they do?

Thanks!

 

[Whelkman]

It's been a while, but I thought Emperor + 3 was impossible to play. The problem is that the base level of "born content" citizens is six and each subsequent difficulty level subtracts from that. Chieftain has zero penalty but, by Emperor, you're down to two. Emperor + 1 still yields one content citizen, but + 3 should put you in negative territory.

 

[krille]

I don't see why that would matter to be honest? Especially considering there are double-discontent citizens colored red.

There are other reasons Emperor + 3 shouldn't be played, however (AI cities continue to grow indefinitely).

 

[Whelkman]

If your first citizen is born discontent, then you'll need at least three food on your home tile (under Despotism) to grow at all since your second square must be allocated to an entertainer. If your first citizen is born double discontented then you're just boned since there's absolutely nothing a level 1 city can do about that.

Edit: I'm wrong. Changing a level 1 city's citizen to an entertainer erases the double discontentedness, but building an empire under these circumstances would be nigh impossible. Then add near-infinite city growth and near-instant technological acquisitions to your CPU competition for a real exercise in futility.