Has Civ6 become 3000 times more difficult?

[TheMeInTeam]

Players differ substantially in how much they enjoy the learning process of a game. I've seen numerous people stay at the same difficulty level for years, just as likely to win or die to the AI after 3 years as they were after 2-4 months.

That's not something where you just play more and suddenly you can beat deity. There are people who adapted to at least win on deity within a week. You have to actually change something about how you approach/play the game to improve.

Not everyone cares whether they improve, which is fine. What's perplexing is when someone is frustrated that they struggle, but then still don't adjust.

 

[Archon_Wing]

I thought this title was an Avengers: Endgame reference, but OP is from 2017.

This is what happens when people beeline civics.

 

[greenOak]

A lot of people detest sliding down the levels due to patches. A better approach would be adding new difficulty levels the way "Sid" was added to Civ 3.

How is adding a harder difficulty level going to help him?

 

[Archon_Wing]

How is adding a harder difficulty level going to help him?

Instead of making current difficulty levels harder, make new difficulty levels to challenge the bored.

 

[greenOak]

So basically keep the god awful AI which everyone complains about. Doesn't seem like a great idea.

 

[Archon_Wing]

So basically keep the god awful AI which everyone complains about. Doesn't seem like a great idea.

If you can't win on Prince yet, you're not at the point where the AI issues matter yet.

Also the point is about games in general; not just this one.

 

[greenOak]

You miss the point. The argument is that since people don't like moving down in difficulty levels, we shouldn't make existing difficulty levels harder. The only difference in difficulty between vanilla prince and GS prince is the AI. Not making prince harder is equivalent to not making the AI better.

 

[Archon_Wing]

You miss the point. The argument is that since people don't like moving down in difficulty levels, we shouldn't make existing difficulty levels harder. The only difference in difficulty between vanilla prince and GS prince is the AI. Not making prince harder is equivalent to not making the AI better.

I mean, it just takes a bit of creativity. Maybe make King with no bonuses, but the AI plays with the improved AI while prince just keeps with the old stupid one. And then just reduce the bonuses for higher level AI which will be harder if the AI is smarter, and then finally introduce Sid which has the old bonuses and improved AI.

We can keep Prince and below the same, because well... it doesn't actually matter much.

 

[Nefelia]

Not everyone play the game competitively, and not everyone wants to change the way they play. Some people play Civ VI like role-playing an empire over millenia, and make decisions based on flavour and the lore they want to create. That will naturally leave them at a disadvantage.
My advice to Wiser3 would be to play around with the settings during game creation in order to create a more hospitable experience for himself.
As an example, I like to play China on Giant Earth Map with only 18 civs. With only 18 civs present I'm usually lucky enough to have only one or two neighbours to contend with while I city spam and wonder spam. If I want to warmonger instead, I'd play a strong military European power and specifically include several European rivals during game creation to ensure plenty of targets for my early conquests.
Larger maps are better for peaceful games, smaller or more crowded maps are better for conquerors. Experiment with various settings and civs to see what gives you the best experience.

 

[CPWimmer]

I mean, it just takes a bit of creativity. Maybe make King with no bonuses, but the AI plays with the improved AI while prince just keeps with the old stupid one. And then just reduce the bonuses for higher level AI which will be harder if the AI is smarter, and then finally introduce Sid which has the old bonuses and improved AI.

We can keep Prince and below the same, because well... it doesn't actually matter much.

This is easier said than done. Unless a game is specifically designed up-front for stronger AI decisions at higher levels (which Civ 6 is not) maintaining those multiple code bases in the software is extremely difficult and prone to even more bugs. As far as I am aware, for Civilization they have always gone with a more bonuses = more challenging AI approach. That is why when they patch and improve the logic of the AI (which a large % of us on this forum have been asking for) it has impacted all difficulty levels of the AI.

 

[Archon_Wing]

This is easier said than done. Unless a game is specifically designed up-front for stronger AI decisions at higher levels (which Civ 6 is not) maintaining those multiple code bases in the software is extremely difficult and prone to even more bugs. As far as I am aware, for Civilization they have always gone with a more bonuses = more challenging AI approach. That is why when they patch and improve the logic of the AI (which a large % of us on this forum have been asking for) it has impacted all difficulty levels of the AI.

Yea, I know.

I mean it's been a thing for more than 20 years. This series is just not good at scaling difficulty, and it's safe to say they never will.

 

[RohirrimElf]

I wish there was a slider for AI aggressiveness. The AI is to peacefull past first 2 era’s.

 

[Aristos]

This is easier said than done. Unless a game is specifically designed up-front for stronger AI decisions at higher levels (which Civ 6 is not) maintaining those multiple code bases in the software is extremely difficult and prone to even more bugs.

It's not even that hard. Civ 5, and I take it civ 6 by extension, were designed with a weighting system when it comes to decision making. That weighting system is already there, only poorly used by the "devs". @Gazebo and @ilteroi took that very same system, and implemented a gradually "smarter" AI for Vox Populi, where it's Prince level picks between the top 4 weighted "best" decisions, while the Deity AI picks only the top weighted, "best" decision at every stage.

Obviously, they also improved the algorithms for weighting a lot, but within the same system, they achieved a "differential" AI according to level of difficulty.

It can be done, but not by our "devs".