Smoother Difficulty 1.4

[MyopicCat]

If someone really likes the functionality of difficulty scaling over the course of the game AND wants a difficulty harder than Deity, right now they are SOL since neither of our mods have both of those features, and you can't use both mods together since one would overwrite the other and break a lot of things.

Actually, no. I wanted the smoother stuff at a level higher than Deity too, and I didn't want to work out the compatibility issues between our mods either. So I put it all into Deity++. I implemented three different rulesets: one with vanilla AI bonuses and all the starting units (but scaled higher), one with zero AI starting units and higher bonuses, and one intermediate ruleset with reduced starting units. You're very welcome to try it out.

 

[RushSecond]

Update 1.4 is live! I tried to quickly test and everything seemed to work, but so much has changed that it's possible a bug fell through. Let me know if you see anything wrong.

Actually, no. I wanted the smoother stuff at a level higher than Deity too, and I didn't want to work out the compatibility issues between our mods either. So I put it all into Deity++. I implemented three different rulesets: one with vanilla AI bonuses and all the starting units (but scaled higher), one with zero AI starting units and higher bonuses, and one intermediate ruleset with reduced starting units. You're very welcome to try it out.

Not quite what I meant. In my games I've played with Smoother Difficulty 1.0, I've found they still tended to end up being "survive until Modern and then you win". Many have suggested a fix; bonuses now increase over the course of the game. AI science, culture, combat strength, and amenities all increase as they advance through eras, to keep them competitive as the game continues.

I gave Deity++ a mention in the original post anyway, in case Omniscient is still not hard enough.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I'm guessing as of now there's no way to make the gold&production bonus also scale with eras?

 

[Atlas627]

I'm guessing as of now there's no way to make the gold&production bonus also scale with eras?

It already does?

Rush, with regards to "survive til modern then you win", that will probably always be the case unless you can drastically ramp up bonuses with each era. The worse-than-human decisions by the AI result in less snowballing until the endgame decisions, which result in never winning. Unless you can give the AI absolutely insane buffs in the Info Era (which would feel cheap to players), the AI will never win if you've tried to keep pace with it all game. It just doesn't know how to pick winning options, and there's no later era for you to buff its "snowball" with.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

It already does?

that's science and culture, based from the info available in the OP I'd say production and gold are fixed

 

[Reveurr]

Rush, thanks for the update.
But I don't find any bonus to Gold & Production for the AI, did you forget to add it in EraScaling.sql?

 

[Atlas627]

that's science and culture, based from the info available in the OP I'd say production and gold are fixed

From looking at the code in the mod, it seemed like it already worked. Rush just disabled it for some reason. I don't see any reason why that code wouldn't work, but maybe there's some weird issue with the game's back-end. I enabled it and it didn't crash at least, though I haven't done the math to make sure it's working.

 

[White Out]

I love the Amenities addition but is it possible to make the mod a little more customization? I'd like to play emperor but not with the additional units for ai. I'm also missing the ability to tweak the bonus numbers for science gold production and culture

edit: I've tried to throw together my own solution. I added the old XML file back from 1.3 in the mod info, and this is what i have:

Spoiler :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!-- Change difficulty so the challenge is to stay ahead, not catch up! -->
<!-- Data changed from Eras.xml and Leaders.xml -->

<ModifierArguments>
<!-- Current science/culture boost: 0,0,0,8,16,24,32,40 -->
<!-- change to 0,0,0,12,24,36,48,60 -->
<Update>
<Where ModifierId="HIGH_DIFFICULTY_SCIENCE_SCALING" Name="Amount"/>
<Set Extra="8"/>
</Update>
<Update>
<Where ModifierId="HIGH_DIFFICULTY_CULTURE_SCALING" Name="Amount"/>
<Set Extra="8"/>
</Update>

<!-- Current production/gold boost: 0,0,0,20,40,60,80,100 -->
<!-- can't change! turns out boosts over +100% doesn't do anything
<Update>
<Where ModifierId="HIGH_DIFFICULTY_PRODUCTION_SCALING" Name="Amount"/>
<Set Extra="5"/>
</Update>
<Update>
<Where ModifierId="HIGH_DIFFICULTY_GOLD_SCALING" Name="Amount"/>
<Set Extra="15"/>
</Update>-->

</ModifierArguments>



</GameInfo>

So I trimmed all the other stuff out and just left the scaling information. But I still would like to delete the extra unit from emperor, so would this work:
(from start units.sql)

Spoiler :

-- Remove extra builders and settlers
DELETE FROM MajorStartingUnits WHERE (Unit="UNIT_BUILDER" OR Unit="UNIT_SETTLER") AND AiOnly=1;

-- Current #military: 1,1,1,1,2,3,4,5
-- change to: 1,1,1,1,1,2,2,3,3,4

I just deleted the last part basically. Would that do the trick to eliminate the extra combat unit for emp?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I reenabled per era scaling for gold and production and it works fine, I'd recommend to do what I did: +1 per era per difficulty ( instead of +2 that was in the disabled code ) and change the high difficulty boost to 16 ( instead of 24 that was in the disabled code )

 

[RohirrimElf]

this is such a great mod. Hoping to play with it soon when the new patch reaches us.

 

[Morgawr]

According to the patch notes, there are no direct changes to AI difficulty bonuses (although AI enhancements should theoretically make AI more competitive overall). Do you see any reason NOT to use this mod post-patch?

 

[RohirrimElf]

According to the patch notes, there are no direct changes to AI difficulty bonuses (although AI enhancements should theoretically make AI more competitive overall). Do you see any reason NOT to use this mod post-patch?

just checked it. This mod works fine with latest patch

 

[NobleJms]

What's everyone's experience in using this mod? Does it allow AI to stay on par with the player in later eras? I also notice the 1.4 version of the mod does not contain any gold/production per era bonus, is there a reason why this is not included?

 

[Morgawr]

It does contain the gold/prod bonus; it's listed in the 3rd row on the overview page

The mod still works amazingly well with the latest patch and it's my favorite. Along with Settlers Retreat and Tougher City States mods, Civ 6 has finally become a challenging and engaging game for me

 

[NobleJms]

It does contain the gold/prod bonus; it's listed in the 3rd row on the overview page

The mod still works amazingly well with the latest patch and it's my favorite. Along with Settlers Retreat and Tougher City States mods, Civ 6 has finally become a challenging and engaging game for me

Oh yes however the gold and production bonus are flat bonus, and there's no additional per era bonus on top of it, like how the mod handles science/culture. I will take a look at the tougher city state mod you suggested. Thanks!

 

[Atlas627]

The gold/production bonus doesn't seem to exist in my 1.4 version? I don't know why the per era isn't there.

 

[jaget80]

Reading the description I dident notice anything on free Tech the AI gets from the start.
I wonder if there is something I could easily mod myself?
I really dislike the free Tech because it feels very unfair if you are trying to do a religious victory on higher difficulties.

 

[steelwarrior77]

Love this mod - just have the experience that the AI tends to spam units - especially with long research times and huge maps - would it be possible to decrease the building and gold bonus or make it alos more an overtime one? Otherwise I had games on higher difficulties where literally every single land tile was littered with AI units...thanks a lot for this great mod ;-D
Maybe also a smaller starting bonus and a bigger per era bonus - as if the AI runs away at start its hard to catch up again...

 

[clack]

Love this mod - just have the experience that the AI tends to spam units - especially with long research times and huge maps - would it be possible to decrease the building and gold bonus or make it alos more an overtime one? Otherwise I had games on higher difficulties where literally every single land tile was littered with AI units...thanks a lot for this great mod ;-D
Maybe also a smaller starting bonus and a bigger per era bonus - as if the AI runs away at start its hard to catch up again...

I agree with you. I would like to edit the bonus of production, but leave a big bonus to science and culture from AI.
But how to do it, I did not find.

 

[Atlas627]

It was commented out in a previous version of the code and is now removed. I think it might never have worked, so the modder may not not how to do it either.

But if they do, I hope they add it back in! The most annoying part of the game for me is how the AI beats me to early game races (wonders, religion) way too fast for even the best human.