*sigh*
I don't know if I'm not speaking English or am being too unclear, but I have said now on MULTIPLE OCCASSIONS that my comment about the AI cheating was NOT regarding my current play style. That was, and is, a general criticism of ALL of the Civ games, as instead of making the AI smarter, they chose to instead give the AI advantages. And while some are ok with that, I don't like it. It's like two players playing the game with different rules, and that's not fun.
That has NOTHING to do with my "complaint" about the jump from Warlord to Noble, which I think I've also said MULTIPLE TIMES I don't think the AI cheats on. My OP was, and is, about how I find it so hard to fathom how in one difficulty jump it went from way too easy to seemingly way too hard playing with this play style. Not a word about the AI "cheating", simply a comment about the one level jump being so drastic USING THIS PLAY STYLE. And then I questioned whether other things were going on in addition to the usual advantages/disadvantages of level jumps, such as resource allocation or placement.
Yes, I've beaten the game on Noble, I've beaten the game on two levels above Noble, but haven't much tried above that because as I've said multiple times that's when it gets frustrating to me to be playing with two sets of rules instead of playing against a better opponent.
So, I chose to "turn the concept around" and instead of making it more difficult by giving the AI advantages, I chose to try making it more difficult by giving myself more disadvantages, in this case losing the ability to determine order of techs.
I then dropped back down to Warlord because I already KNOW this is not the play style meant for the higher difficulties, and played about 13 to 16 games this way. I was winning each time far too easily. So I bumped it back up one level to Noble, and now after 6 games have found it too hard (although I'm still not sure it's "too hard" as I may have just been really unlucky in the combination of tech draws and resource placement).
I am NOT complaining the AI cheats on Noble, it doesn't (IIRC), and yes I know on Warlord I get advantages. I dropped it back to there because it was a new plays style and I wasn't sure how it would go.
After LITERALLY hundreds of games (and LITERALLY thousands of hours) it became somewhat clear to me that no matter how differently one set up a "standard" game, it was really the same game over and over again, with the tech order selection being so strategically important that it made the order almost repetitive (not exactly since different Civs and leaders would change things up a LITTLE) and so I wanted to try playing it in an entirely different way.
Again, this thread (the OP) was about the large jump I'm seeing from Warlord to Noble PLAYING WITH THIS PLAYSTYLE. The criticism about how the developers chose to increase difficulty was a general one that had NOTHING to do with the large jump from Warlord to Noble.
I apologize if I'm still being unclear, but I just don't know how to make it more clear than that. OP Issue - Big jump in difficulty in only one level jump playing it this way. Side Issue - I don't like the way the developers chose to increase difficulty in the game. I mentioned the side issue ONLY to explain my decision for playing this play style. I get frustrated playing on the higher difficulties because of the cheating. Again, I would be just as frustrated playing chess against an AI that had 4 queens and 6 rooks, and it wouldn't matter that were hundreds of chess players out there that could beat that particular AI even when they had 4 queens and 6 rooks. To me that's not chess, and neither is to me any longer still CIV when the AI plays using different rules than me. Others disagree, that's fine.
I don't like it, and that's been my number one complaint about the entire CIV series, and I wish they would take an entire "release" and instead of focusing on new features, just build a better AI and then let both the AI and player play by the same rules and have the jumps in difficulty be because the AI gets smarter, just like in chess games right now. (And before anyone starts jumping in and talking about how unrealistic that is to wish for because X, Y, and Z, first of all, the EXACT SAME THINGS were said about chess when the first chess programs came out AND second of all yes, I understand it may be too much to expect that completely, but IMO they can certainly do a better job of just making the AI smarter and therefore toning down the advantages necessary for the higher levels. IMO they don't really "try very hard" (which is not to say they don't try at all), they have "settled on" the concept of making the game more difficult by giving the AI advantages rather than making it smarter as the easier option. And that makes them like almost 99% of other gaming developers, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
Oh, and I'll make this my last post here. As I can see this is just like every other gaming site I've ever been to. Make any sort of complaint at all, and the defenders come out of the woodworks to criticize the complainer rather than take a look at the complaint/issues themselves. My bad, I should've known better before even bringing up the general criticism.
tile.
