Is there a mod...

[Skallagrimson]

Or mod component that graduates difficulty by the AI getting smarter rather than rely on brute force and ridiculous cheater bonuses? They have computers now that can beat Gary Kasparov at chess without having to make every pawn a queen to cheat its way there. Why not civ?

Moderator Action: Moved to the main C&C forum.

 

[Radio Noer]

I would suggest perhaps Better Bat AI or Better BUG AI, both seem to help a bit with AI intelligence, but I don't know how significantly (I only played at noble with them earlier, the AI wasn't all that smart to begin with ).

 

[Asaf]

Civ and chess is hardly a fair comparison.
Let's start with the fact that for chess they do use brute force (most of the time, anyway). It's a much simpler game and much easier to do than in Civ (a lot less options).
Add the fact that in Civ you have to do everything in a reasonable amount of time and the fact that you want to allow different difficulty levels, and it becomes much more difficult.

And the main thing, I guess, is that for a game like Civ most people want a 'fun AI' and not a 'smart AI'. an AI that plays in character. Otherwise, diplomacy in this game would mean nothing, as it does in MP.

Just in case you're really interested, check out this talk by Soren Johnson. It's interesting.

 

[Linkman226]

The difference between chess and civ is that, ultimately, civ has an infinite or near infinite number of possible situations. In chess there are only so many. The board never changes, nor do the pieces, or the number of players, and so on and so forth. All of these things are variable in civ, making the task of programming the ai that much more difficult.

 

[NikNaks]

I believe karadoc of K-Mod is further advancing the AI, but there are a few other changes along with it. I'd imagine that they'll be in Better AI if you wait a while.