What are the differences between difficulty levels?

[Greencardman]

Does anyone know exactly what differentiates the different difficulty levels? Does the AI get an advantage, the king's forces grow quicker, etc? If anyone knows the exact advantages/disadvantages of each level, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Zhahz]

I asked this yesterday - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=292500 - although the answer wasn't that specific.

 

[Greencardman]

Yeah, the answers people wrote to your thread pretty much explained nothing.

 

[snoopy369]

The easiest way to tell is look at the Handicap XML file - it answers your question fully.

In general, the REF is a bit smaller, taxes are raised a bit less quickly (I think, on this one, but it's again not a huge difference); and the AI is a bit more sucky. It's not nearly as significant a difference as in Civ4, though, at the moment. There's quite a push for the REF depending significantly more on difficulty level, as well as possibly taxes.

 

[Lord Shadow]

From what I can tell from the XML, the easier the level, the less aggressive other Europeans and natives are, the slower they grow, build and train units. It also affects how much gold you start with, the price of hurrying (I assume immigrants) and how likely ancient ruins are to yield good results. The rate at which the King's forces grow appears to be the same at every level.

Check the XML. It's in...
Assets\XML\GameInfo\Civ4HandicapInfo.xml

 

[Zhahz]

Groovin', thanks.

The easiest way to tell is look at the Handicap XML file - it answers your question fully.

It's sort of funny. I'm a professional developer and deal with lots of xml but I have about zero desire to look thru the game's xml files. Maybe it's due to already dealing with code all day.