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What are the specific differences between each difficulty level?

Creosote

Chieftain
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
93
I havent been playing Civ3 for long but have progressed nicely up the difficulty levels and just won my first Emperor game.

Thing is, it seemed to me that the jump from Monarch to Emperor was a greater leap than any of the previous ones. Maybe just my imagination but Emperor seemed a LOT tougher than Monarch. The AI civs just accellerated away with techs in the early part of the game, and also seemed to build their initial empires much quicker than
So I wondered what I should expect in the next difficulty levels. Is there any info as to exactly what advantages the AI civs receive and what penalties (if any) ones own Civ receives at each difficulty level.
 
Creosote said:
Thing is, it seemed to me that the jump from Monarch to Emperor was a greater leap than any of the previous ones.

Funny you should say that:
Monarch to Emperor: the Great Leap

You can find out exactly what the AI gets by opening up the Editor, setting "Custom Rules", and looking at the rules for "Difficulty Levels".
 
There is an entry in the War Academy talking about the leap to emperor. It is http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3acad_montoemp.shtml. Yes, the leap to emperor requires a change in thinking and playing style. Trading and relationship with the AI becomes much more necessary.
 
First thing is technology- Ai advances quicker and quikcer with each level

Second is trading - Ai will give you less and take more gold from you when trading Techs or luxuries.

Third- maximum period of anarchy while Ai changes Government type...

Fourth-- unit support- ai can have free units.

Fifth-- Citizen happiness- the most annoying thing. when playing hard difficulty level you should concetrate on Tech and Economy but that becomes really hard, because your citizens start striking...

Sixth- Barbarian strenght.

There are some other stuff but I don`t remember it now... maybe i`ll write later....

kopcap88@mail.ru
 
The AI gets an advantage in both growth, science and production. As well as free unit support, free units, shorter anarchy and probably more.

Note that these advantages multiply eachother. Their growth advantage will make them have more citizens, so they will have more production to start with. On top of that, this more production is also enhanced by the bonus.
Science also goes faster of course because they simply have more citizens providing commerce. Because of this, they have more improvements available to build and they have more expensive units to build.
So for short, you could say the bonus is not really a bonus that will make them produce more, it is a bonus that makes time go faster for them.

About the changes you are going to encounter in the nest steps, i think demi and deity shouldnt be very big steps. I don't know much of a comparison between the steps up to deity though. (I didnt work my way up the skill levels like that, i just got my but kicked vanilla deity until i won it)
Where those steps are all "steps" though, i think the difference between deity and Sid is a leap, like going from monarch to deity or something.

practically, the higher difficulty levels more and more require the following of you:
-scout early and efficient, meet everyone asap.
-Learn to trade, learn when to delay trades and when not, and check diplo every turn.
-Perfectionise your early game expansion phase.
-Use politics to make your opponents fight eachother, world peace will kill you.
 
Rohili said:
On a related note, what are the other steep jumps in difficulty?

DG -> Deity
Deity -> Sid
 
i just beat my first regent game and i found that was really hard to go from warlord to regent
 
Wait till you step up to Monarch. That was so hard for me I had to mod Regent to make it harder, to make the jump to Monarch easier. Emporer is another big step up, too. Haven't tried above Emp yet.

Except for the 1vs1 Deity game....quit that one early.... Gonna retry it on a continent map.
 
jafink said:
i just beat my first regent game and i found that was really hard to go from warlord to regent
I've just won my second warlord game and feel brave enough to step onto regent (don't laugh, this is my third week playing :blush: ). Now I'm scared again. :p
 
I didn't have hard time changing difficulty up to emperor. I felt comfortable on Monarch, and when I started MM, the move to Emperor was pretty easy (won the first game). And it was Domination, without a lot of trades and diplomacy.
 
I, too, thought the step from monarch to emporer was somewhat easy. I got a tech lead in the IA which I kept until i won by domination. I was confident that I could go on to deity from there without too much trouble, but I was badly mistaken. The AI were declaring war on me and each other right and left. I just couldn't keep up.
 
Civilizations III Conquests 1.0


code:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chief. Warlord Regent Monarch Emp. Demigod Deity Sid

AI Bonuses
Def Land Units 0 0 0 2 4 6 8 12
Off Land Units 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 6
Start unit type 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2
Start unit type 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 4
Extra free support 0 0 0 4 8 12 16 24
Bonus for each city 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 8
Max gov transition 0 0 0 4 3 2 2 1
Cost factor 20 12 10 9 8 7 6 4
AI to AI trade 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 200

Other variables
Citizens born content 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
Citizens quelled 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Attack bonus vs barbs 800 400 200 100 50 25 0 0
Percent optimal cities 100 95 90 85 80 70 60 50 -----------------------------------------------------------

Number of Defensive Land Units (Additional AI Starting Units)
Determines how many extra defensive land units the AI will start with on the selected difficulty level. To determine which unit is used, the AI will determine which available unit (e.g. units that can currently be built) is its best defender.

Number of Offensive Land Units (Additional AI Starting Units)
Determines how many extra offensive land units the AI will start with on the selected difficulty level. To determine which unit is used, the AI will determine which available unit (e.g. units that can currently be built) is its best attacker.

Number of Start Unit Type 1 (Additional AI Starting Units)
Determines how many extra type 1 start units the AI will start with on the selected difficulty level. This corresponds to the default start unit 1 on the general settings page (normally a worker).

Number of Start Unit Type 2 (Additional AI Starting Units)
Determines how many extra type 2 start units the AI will start with on the selected difficulty level. This corresponds to the default start unit 2 on the general settings page (normally a settler).

Additional Free Support (AI Unit Support Bonuses)
Determines how many extra units the AI can support, in addition to any existing governmental bonuses, on the selected difficulty level. Note that this number is cumulative with all other support bonuses.

Bonus for Each City (AI Unit Support Bonuses)
Determines how many extra units the AI can support per city, in addition to any existing governmental bonuses, on the selected difficulty level. Note that this number is cumulative with all other support bonuses

Max Government Transition Time (AI Bonuses)
Determines the maximum number of turns the AI must remain in the transition government type (default is Anarchy) before transitioning to the newly selected government type. Setting this number lower will reduce the negative effects of switching governments. The default value of zero means there is no maximum to how long this can take.

Cost Factor (AI Bonuses)
Determines the cost factor that is applied to AI growth, shields, and research. The player's cost factor is always 10. Choosing a value higher than 10 means the AI will be at a disadvantage, while choosing a value lower than 10 means the AI will be at an advantage.

AI to AI trade rate (AI Bonuses)
Determines the percentage multiplier used in AI – AI trade sessions on the selected difficulty level. This value is a percentage (acceptable values range from 100% to 1000%) which is multiplied by the total value (in gold) of the initiating civ’s offerings, which is used by the "other" AI civ to determine whether a deal is acceptable or not. For example, with a rate of 120, an AI civ offering 100 gold to another AI civ for something would actually be worth 120 gold to the other AI civ.

This rate directly affects the frequency and aggressiveness with which AI civs trade amongst themselves.

Number of Citizens Born Content
Determines how many citizens in a new city are born content for the selected difficulty level. The lower the number, the more difficult the game will be.

Number of Citizens Quelled by Military
Determines how many rioting-citizens are quelled with the presence of military units.

Attack Bonus Against Barbarians
Determines the attack bonus enjoyed by any player (human or AI) against barbarians. A value of zero means the barbarians have no combat disadvantage, thus a barbarian warrior would be as powerful as the warrior of any player in the game.

Percentage of Optimal Cities
Determines what percentage of the optimal number of cities setting (found on the world sizes page) is actually optimal on the selected difficulty level. If this value is 100%, the optimal number of cities will be equal to the default setting for the given world size. At 50%, the optimal number of cities is halved. At 200%, the optimal number of cities is doubled. This value will not match the value on the World Sizes page exactly because the corruption setting of the player's government type is also a modifier.
 
Rohili said:
I've just won my second warlord game and feel brave enough to step onto regent (don't laugh, this is my third week playing :blush: ). Now I'm scared again. :p



I won't laugh.
I'm a week more experienced than you and have gone thru the difficulty levels up to Emperor. Rashly decided that as (apart from lack of iron) that I hadn't really had any probs so far I would skip Demigod and go straight to Deity.
A humbling experience.
As far as I can tell its 100% impossible to play at Deity which just goes to show how inexperperienced and hopeless I am as people here play without trouble at Deity.
You start SO disadvantaged that I see no way to catch-up, plus as you are so far behind everyone declares war on you right from early on. There is no chance to get techs, no-one wants your paltry resources and luxuries, everyone comes to give you a good kicking and all in all its just a nightmare.
I have the largest land area conquered, more cities than anyone else but am a whole age behind on the tech tree!! So the idea was to capture Great Library to catch up on techs. But the GL is on another continent 5 sea sqaures away, so I cant get to it, and am a light year from getting Navigation. The Lighthouse is also on that continent. So I cant get the GL even in the unlikely event I could capture it with my stone age warriors against a shedload of musketeers and doubtless by the time I get there, Riflemen.
I mean, all these fab games I read about where people kick the AI on Deity and Sid, how do they overcome probs like this?
 
Creosote said:
I have the largest land area conquered, more cities than anyone else but am a whole age behind on the tech tree!! . . . a light year from getting Navigation.

You've got the largest land area on deity and you're complaining?!? That's the primary "difficulty" with playing the harder levels. You just have to get used to the fact that you won't automatically be the biggest, most powerful, and most advanced civ on the map. If you can get one of those, you've practically won.

You're the biggest nation, and there's about 2 whole eras before an AI wins by spaceship or culture. That's plenty of time to research your way back into the tech race, then research/trade/steal your way to the front. Or just use your production power and smart alliances to conquer the world. It doesn't really matter how outdated your troops are if you've got bombard units and armies.
 
nullspace said:
You've got the largest land area on deity and you're complaining?!? That's the primary "difficulty" with playing the harder levels. You just have to get used to the fact that you won't automatically be the biggest, most powerful, and most advanced civ on the map. If you can get one of those, you've practically won.

You're the biggest nation, and there's about 2 whole eras before an AI wins by spaceship or culture. That's plenty of time to research your way back into the tech race, then research/trade/steal your way to the front. Or just use your production power and smart alliances to conquer the world. It doesn't really matter how outdated your troops are if you've got bombard units and armies.



1 whole tech era behind. If I switch to Republic the best I can do is a low percentage research without getting neg cash flow. No-one wants my resources and luxuries, I cant buy any techs, I cant capture anything as I cant build sufficient forces to beat the hoards of defenders. Everyone has declared war with me at one stage or another so they are either Furious or at best annoyed. Dont have the funds to polite them. Just no way forward.

Here is the start at 4000BC, Civ3 Conquests v 1.22.
4000BC

Pls show me how YOU would play this. I am sure its a great starting position but I just am finding it so tough, if I expand like crazy I leave many weak point sthat the AI civs can capture, if I expand slower then they just come and settle "my" land area. There is a huge learning potential here for me, but I am blessed if I am learning anything, other than how to rip out my few remaining strands of hair :)
 
Still having trouble on DG when i dont play as the dutch...On emperor you should be able to keep up with the AI with trades.
 
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