New Difficulty Level Between Emperor and Immortal

[Hawaiian]

What do you all think? I think the most enjoyable difficulty level to play would be somewhere between Emperor and Immortal. Emperor is just a plain cakewalk where you can build every wonder and do whatever and still win the game any way you want very early, while Immortal becomes quite a different game where you're lucky to get a few wonders and are faced with exaggerated AI bonuses. I think they should make a difficulty level between Emperor and Immortal and I bet people would love it! Think about it, most people kill Emperor and play a vastly different game in Immortal.

The way I think they should do it is to keep the difficulty level names as they are, but just scrap the lowest settings. (I'm sure beginners can win on several of the lower levels without even trying very hard, so who needs the current difficulty settings for Settler?.)

So they could simply insert the brand-new "Emperor-Immortal" difficulty level and name it "Emperor." The difficulty level that is currently emperor would be renamed "King," and so on down to the easiest setting which would be scrapped.

Like this:

OLD NAME----------------NEW NAME

Settler--------------------*deleted*
Chieftain------------------Settler
Warlord--------------------Chieftain
Prince----------------------Warlord
King-------------------------Prince
Emperor---------------------King
*newly created difficulty*----Emperor
Immortal--------------------Immortal
Deity------------------------Deity


Pretty please?

 

[StormEye]

How the hell do you build every wonder in the game on Emperor...

 

[Pouakai]

I think new players to the game will be put off by no settler

 

[DaveMcW]

Emperor is just a plain cakewalk where you can build every wonder and do whatever and still win the game any way you want very early, while Immortal becomes quite a different game where you're lucky to get a few wonders and are faced with exaggerated AI bonuses.

Your wonder build order is optimized for emperor, try learning something new.

 

[PreLynMax]

So what's the difference? They are the same difficulty, only slightly harder.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Settler shouldn't necessairly be considered "difficulty level" as it is more of a non-advised tutorial level, it's easy, so you could get a great hang of the game, and you could play as many game as you want with it.

 

[Hawaiian]

LOL OKAY, maybe not EVERY wonder but pretty well the majority (if you choose to do so) as you pull away from everyone else early.

The point is: Emperor is real easy to win even on large maps and once you've played enough you know very, very early it's game over. But go to immortal on a large map, and you have a real tough game on your hands. I am so sure that a difficulty level between Emperor and Immortal would be very enjoyable because it wouldn't be such a cakewalk like emperor and yet not such a stiff match like Immortal.

Has anyone ever played Settler difficulty? Can Chieftain be that much more difficult that a newbie wouldn't be able to have a good go at it? I'd like to hear, because the bottom levels of the game seem overloaded to me, while the top levels have too steep of jumps between them. I mean, has anyone ever beaten deity on a large map?

 

[André Alfenaar]

I support an extra level of difficulty between emperor and immortal. Emperor is getting easy once you have had a good start. But immortal is for me too difficult.

But maybe it wouldbe a good idea to give the AI larger bonuses the farther the game progresses?

 

[TheGreatImber]

I can't help but agree with the OP. Emperor does allow for the building of just about every wonder you want and more than a few that you should not be able to get.
Infact the Emperor difficulty really offers a challenge with the presence of Ramesses with Marble. and Attila, Rome and Cathy as close neighbors. I for one would welcome a difficulty between Emperor and Immortal. That doesn't mean Settler needs to be scrapped. Adding another difficulty level doesn't necessarily requisite the need to remove one.

 

[BobDole]

How the hell do you build every wonder in the game on Emperor...

Oh, it can happen. On Emperor, you can get almost every Wonder you want. On Immortal, you probably won't be getting ANY Wonders early in the game because the AI has such a leg up due to the extra techs, bonuses, etc. It feels pretty cheap, and because of it, you're practically forced to give up certain strategies involving Wonders, since utilizing those strategies involves you basically having to give up everything else you're doing to get a Wonder in Immortal/Deity, which can be a really bad idea.

 

[Gucumatz]

I play on immortal but I sometimes go back to emperor because I find it more fun. I agree with the OP's sentiment. A level in between would feel like the most "fun" level possible. Both decently difficult enough but not to the point where the AI's bonuses prevent you from certain playstyles.

As it is I can deal with Immortal pretty easily - but it begins to feel tedious. (I play NQ-multiplayer more than singleplayer so I guess I am used to the fun difficult challenge there but where everyone has an equal start.)

 

[joncnunn]

How the hell do you build every wonder in the game on Emperor...

3 city cultural victory
Liberty first so you get that free settler city early (important because there are so many early wonders you need to be building 2 wonders at the same time)

Whenever there's no longer any new wonders, build your settler for your 3rd city.

Also play as Egypt and/or start with Marble.

But I think he really meant all the wonders you really want.

I'm also in agreement with OP. A brand new player post change wouldn't notice that their "Settler" is the old Cheiftain's difficulty.

This would of course mean that the AI would get "new Settler" happiness bonuses as it currently gets Chieftain's.

 

[Waywocket]

I think the problem with Immortal is that the AI's bonus comes (in large part) in the form of an extremely large starting advantage.

I usually find that by around turn 100 I know how the game is going to end - either I've overcome the starting disadvantage and I'll win, or I haven't, and I'll lose. Of course that's not always the case, but it's true more often than not.

Basically, the real game is the start - you have to have a good plan and execute it well, sometimes with a little luck thrown in, but as the game goes on you've either already lost or you can make more and more mistakes without problems.

It would be more fun (for me) if the AI didn't start with quite such a large advantage, but had greater bonuses as the game goes on to counter it. That way we wouldn't have the problem of a painfully difficult start followed by 150-200 turns of relatively little challenge.

 

[StormEye]

3 city cultural victory
Liberty first so you get that free settler city early (important because there are so many early wonders you need to be building 2 wonders at the same time)

Whenever there's no longer any new wonders, build your settler for your 3rd city.

Also play as Egypt and/or start with Marble.

But I think he really meant all the wonders you really want.

So basically you can't without constant re-rolling for the best possible start and playing specific civ.

As OP later elaborated that he was exaggerating.

 

[smallfish]

So basically you can't without constant re-rolling for the best possible start and playing specific civ.

As OP later elaborated that he was exaggerating.

No

What you want to do when in wonderspamming mode is to get a resource/lux tech or two first, then head for Writing to get GL. Then tech Calendar to open up Philo for GL bulb. You will also want to get workers ASAP - usually through stealing, but if you have the cash at hand (and with Tradition Monarchy, shouldn't be too hard), just buy them to save the diplo trouble from neighbors. Then after this you focus on getting NC, while you head for Engineering for the Great Wall. In the mean time for wonders to spam you can either get Hanging Gardens (AIs love this, even on Emperor, so kinda depends) or Oracle (go get 'em). Make sure you have enough workers to farm your lands, and probably rushbuy a settler or two at this point too. Finish up the Tradition tree - my favorite move at this point is to use Oracle to open Liberty, and then finish that too.

After you get this set of wonders, its time to get Mosque of Djenne/Hagia Sophia/Chichen Itza. Get happiness boosters for your religions (Sacred Waters is nice, but recommended for Pantheon belief and only if there's a lot of rivers in your area), especially the one that lets you spread them further away. Then focus on getting the Sistine Chapel and Angkor Wat. Then its the Porcelain Tower/Taj Mahal set...

 

[TheGreatImber]

As a person who gets rather annoyed by people that re-roll starts; NO, you don't need a perfect start to get the wonders you want on Emperor. You can have a rather low production start and still more than comfortably get what you need. That being said, that doesn't mean you can get all of them.

Really, you just want to get the National College ASAP and focus on being ahead in science. If you get there first, you build it first. Going tradition always helps.

 

[Goldflash]

I can't even win on warlord!

 

[StormEye]

NO, you don't need a perfect start to get the wonders you want on Emperor.

I was not saying anything about getting wonders that you 'want'. OP said every wonder

 

[Charlie_B]

Why are you being so pedantic about it? OP's point was that he finds it significantly easier to build wonders on Emperor and I agree with him. Every wonder? No, that's ridiculous. Every decent wonder? Sure.

 

[LetMyPeopleGo]

Well, that is definitely not the case with me, playing vanilla civ v on prince was hard but fun so I decided to inaugurate Gods & Kings on King level, huge mistake.