Is "Increasing Difficulty" working without Reload?

[calmon]

I just play a game with "Increasing Difficulty" + "High to Low" Options.

I played my second nation and found it very easy to become number 1 (from the last place) on monarch and later the most part of emperor difficulty (that is the "incresing difficulty" text means i play).

So my question: Is the "increasing difficulty" really working and the AI get all the bonuses without any reload or did i still play with "noble" difficult in which i start the game.

 

[Kael]

I just play a game with "Increasing Difficulty" + "High to Low" Options.

I played my second nation and found it very easy to become number 1 (from the last place) on monarch and later the most part of emperor difficulty (that is the "incresing difficulty" text means i play).

So my question: Is the "increasing difficulty" really working and the AI get all the bonuses without any reload or did i still play with "noble" difficult in which i start the game.

There are some things difficulty levels gives you that are only applied at the beginning of the game. Such as bonus units and techs for the human or AI player. Those are major benefits.

The rest of the stuff, like combat bonuses, health bonuses, etc actually query the handicap value when they are used so they would adjust automatically. I didnt check every value that handicaps effect, but Im pretty sure that they are being applied correctly.

 

[calmon]

There are some things difficulty levels gives you that are only applied at the beginning of the game. Such as bonus units and techs for the human or AI player. Those are major benefits.

Thanks Kael! The missing starting bonus may make the things indeed much easier.

 

[seZereth]

There are some things difficulty levels gives you that are only applied at the beginning of the game. Such as bonus units and techs for the human or AI player. Those are major benefits.

The rest of the stuff, like combat bonuses, health bonuses, etc actually query the handicap value when they are used so they would adjust automatically. I didnt check every value that handicaps effect, but Im pretty sure that they are being applied correctly.

sorry for this Kael, but as a non native speaker, trying to improve my language skills, should it read:
that handicaps affect

I am not sure and would like to learn

 

[Ahriman]

I think though that this doesn't quite answer the subtle original question. Is difficulty level a property attached to the player, or is it attached to faction?
In custom game screen when choosing factions, you choose your own difficulty level and all AI factions are displayed as playing at "Noble".

So, if playing with high to low and increasing difficulty, suppose you start the game at noble. Then the game difficulty rises to monarch, and then you switch to a new player, and then the game difficulty rises to Emperor.
Does this mean that the "old" faction that you had is now playing at Monarch difficulty, while you are playing at Emperor, and all the other AIs are playing at Noble?

Or does difficulty always and only affect the human player vs all the AIs?

 

[rusty217]

sorry for this Kael, but as a non native speaker, trying to improve my language skills, should it read:
that handicaps affect

I am not sure and would like to learn

Yeah, you're right seZereth, it should be affect.

The homophones “affect” and “effect” are sometimes confused. “Affect” conveys influence over something that already exists, but “effect” indicates the manifestation of new or original ideas or entities.

 

[orangelex44]

Yeah; affect is a verb while effect is a noun.

Hence:
"How would that affect me?" and "I liked the special effects." are grammatically correct.




Of course, since English is a cluster***ked language, this doesn't always apply. I wouldn't worry about it too much, though - native speakers get it wrong a lot, too.

 

[Nor'easter]

"Effect" can be used as a verb meaning "to bring about," and seems to be most often found in the expression "to effect change." I don't think it's that common a usage, though.

The effect/affect thing has been corrected in some parts of the game's text file, but not yet everywhere.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

back on topic ( kinda ) , the bonuses that the AI gets at the start of the game with an high difficulty are the biggest part of the handicap really.

I dislike the AI starting with free techs and the like, but now that I'm beginning to get a hang of the game I have to play at emperor in order to have fun. with Flexible Difficulty, I hoped I could just always set the difficulty to Noble and let the flexibility handle stuff to keep it fun. wrong. I get a huge upper hand very fast, the difficulty rises to deity very fast, but it's still not nearly enough to keep me from steamrolling everyone and having double the score of the second civ, even after some 200+ turns of having played at deity

 

[xienwolf]

I think though that this doesn't quite answer the subtle original question. Is difficulty level a property attached to the player, or is it attached to faction?
In custom game screen when choosing factions, you choose your own difficulty level and all AI factions are displayed as playing at "Noble".

So, if playing with high to low and increasing difficulty, suppose you start the game at noble. Then the game difficulty rises to monarch, and then you switch to a new player, and then the game difficulty rises to Emperor.
Does this mean that the "old" faction that you had is now playing at Monarch difficulty, while you are playing at Emperor, and all the other AIs are playing at Noble?

Or does difficulty always and only affect the human player vs all the AIs?

The gameoption has no function in MP Games. In MP, difficulty is per player (bonus health/happy in cities, maintenance modifiers and a few other things), and all AI play as Noble (no specific bonuses or penalties, no extra things at start).

In single player, difficulty is a global value for the player and all AI. Since this is the only location where the option is used, it will impact all players.

 

[Hanny]

sorry for this Kael, but as a non native speaker, trying to improve my language skills, should it read:
that handicaps affect

I am not sure and would like to learn

Handicaps effect, means that the many option to do with handicaps, equate to, as Kael posted, handicaps action have effect in game, its the s on the end of the word that makes effect work properly, because multiple options have many possible outcomes, these are effects.

 

[Blackmantle]

@ wienwolf: Is there any way to at least change this globaly? (So is there any way those AI all start at prince / monarch / immortal / with the respective starting perks instead? Or is it hardcoded in a way not easily changeable.)

If not that might make coop rather a bit more uninteresting. (Or is it only for competative?)

If there is a way im sure those minding a coop game or a few might appreciate if its explained how / a modmod is given out...

 

[xienwolf]

Haven't ever looked at allowing different difficulty levels in MP, but I would assume it could be done via gameoption (so a checkbox in the already huge list). Doing it by the normal dropdowns MIGHT be possible, I think the Multiplayer game screen is the one game screen we can actually mod.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I second Blackmantle's idea, that would be pretty sweet indeed for multiplayer games

 

[DarkxL0rd]

I'm almost positive that some things don't change like they're supposed to while moving up in difficulty. for example, i'm playing a standard size "Ring" map. with 8 other AI's. around turn 315 or so my research is still at 90%, with Svalt and FoL, and i have an excess of 92 gold per turn. the difficulty is up to immortal at this point when i discover the middle island and immediatly populate it with 7 cities. my gold per turn didn't change, when the maintenance should have killed me right?

 

[Blackmantle]

Thanks for the fast reply. That sounds promising.
I whould say the most sensible option might indeed be a dropdown for across the board-change which should cover most cases of need (unless individual picks are just as easy / easier to code or someone whould really like to take the time () in which case that is preferable naturally.).