Multiplayer 'difficulty'

[Munch]

Hi,

When arranging a hotseat/direct IP etc game with some AI players, each human player can select their own difficulty - what exactly does this achieve?

The AI are always set to 'noble', with the drop-down menu greyed out, does this mean the AI are permanently stuck at noble difficulty?

I set my difficulty to say 'monarch', and another genuine carbon-unit sets their difficulty to 'warlord': what is the effect of this? How hard is the AI? Am I going to get a 'tougher' start position? Will the AI treat us differently?

 

[Sueff]

I actually played like this with 2 friends of mine (vanilla). One of my friends and I played on monarch and he played on noble, since it was his first game. First thing I realized that the AI didn't get their bonus archers and worker(s) at the start of the game. Otherwise I'm pretty sure we got less +health and +happiness from difficulty than my friend who was playing noble. So it's actually a bit easier to play with someone who has a lower difficulty since the AI doesn't get bonus starting units, but the nerfs/bonuses should be right for each difficulty. I don't know if the AI treated us differently and I'm not really sure if AI actions/reactions are actually different in different difficulties (to all fairness, I have to say that I only ever played noble in my first game and from than on I played prince and monarch).

PS: As I've already stated, this was only tested (OK, it was a long test, since we played 3 or 4 games like this in vanilla.

 

[Dan Quale]

If you both set your difficulty to the same level, then the AI will be at that level, but all humans must be set as the same level. I play 2 man games with my brother against, immortals/deity AI, and it definately gets all the starting bonuses, but nothing near what a 2 player team gets, even at diety its a slaughter.