What difficulty do you play on?

[salty mud]

I believe this forum has a wide range of Civilisation playing abilities though I'm interested to find out which difficulty level is most common. You can vote on the poll as to what you like to play on. I play on Prince difficulty.

Regards

 

[Lexicus]

I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty lonely on Emperor.

 

[Windsor]

Mostly Immortal using K-mod. I do still occasionally play on deity but I've never really enjoyed that level except for the first few victories.

 

[rah]

K-mod. Immortal or Emp. It all depends on how much punishment I feel like.
K-mod deity is too frustrating for me because I refuse to macro to the degree that's needed. (and even then I still get kicked most of the time)

 

[Macksideshow]

I play Immortal but I have stagnated there, I win too easily now. I can't get my head around Deity though and don't think I am prepared to do what it takes to win that skill level. Recently I downloaded K-Mod but I despaired the lack of the BUG interface. I think I am getting a bit over CIV for the time being. I remember a time when I thought Prince was super tough and I didn't really think Immortal and Deity were serious difficulty levels.

Strangely enough my most successful strategy (early Hatty war chariot rampage of high commerce specials/cities into Lib race then cur or rifle/cannon domination) was the same strategy I used when I thought Prince was tough. I rotated through quite a few other strats on my way up through the difficulty levels and have returned to this, I am just much better at it now.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

You left out "none of the above." I play on prince, with the AI bonus per age modded to the values from deity.

 

[Lexicus]

Does that mean you start out at Prince difficulty but as the game progresses you end up with Deity-equivalent AI strength?

 

[Aristos]

Emperor in K-Mod.

 

[MyOtherName]

I'm at a frustrating difficulty level, since I feel like the Immortal starting bonuses are too much^*, but at Emperor level I usually wind up in a runaway position during the initial expansion phase.

*: I don't mean "too hard", I mean that it makes the game unfun -- it's hard to put into words, but I think a good description is that it completely ruins the pretense that you're playing against a stronger opponent, and makes it too obvious it's just a handicap.

 

[Windsor]

I play Immortal but I have stagnated there, I win too easily now. I can't get my head around Deity though and don't think I am prepared to do what it takes to win that skill level. Recently I downloaded K-Mod but I despaired the lack of the BUG interface. I think I am getting a bit over CIV for the time being. I remember a time when I thought Prince was super tough and I didn't really think Immortal and Deity were serious difficulty levels.

K-Mod does come with the BUG integrated, but you'll have to go in the BUG options menu (ESC -> Bug options in game) and enable the parts of the interface you'll actually want.

 

[Kid R]

I'm at a frustrating difficulty level, since I feel like the Immortal starting bonuses are too much^*, but at Emperor level I usually wind up in a runaway position during the initial expansion phase.

Same here. Emperor.5 might be ideal so I play on immortal only strong starts (not ashamed of WB an extra capital food or something nice ).

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I usually play on Warlord when I'm testing BAT, because I need to be able to play until the timer runs out at 2050 to test everything.

When I'm playing for enjoyment, or I have a stable version to play with, I play on Monarch, and lose 95% of my games. Not sure how that qualifies as enjoyment.

But then, I was the "Noble Princess" for a couple of years when I first started here at CFC. Couldn't win a game to save my life.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Does that mean you start out at Prince difficulty but as the game progresses you end up with Deity-equivalent AI strength?

No. The Deity AI gets a 40% discount to start with on most things, then that 60% of base value is discounted AGAIN depending on the age...5% per age, stacked, so a modern era deity AI production cost is 75% of 60%, ie 45% of the hammer cost seen by the player. On Prince they only get a 5% bonus to start with, so the modern era AI is only getting 75% on 95%, ie their production cost is still a little over 70% of yours. But a normal prince AI in modern era is only getting a 95% on 95% discount, so their cost is still more than 90% of yours even in modern era.

Note, you could increase this value to even higher than deity (I assume) should you be so inclined. Be aware that this acceleration affects a whole bunch of AI costs though. Production, and the food needed for population growth are the main ones, but the AI will really hit the gas through the course of the game if you set it too high. And obviously if you allow it to stack to a hundred certain mathematical functions will no doubt explode.

I experimented to find a good start/acceleration game for me, but it's been a while since I made any adjustments. I'm pretty sure I ended up with prince and 5. I also play BetterBAT AI on huge maps with 20 civs, so YMMV.

PS...if you are a cruel person and have access to a Civ playing friend's computer, modding this value on the level they normally play without telling them is good for some laughs. Most changes you might make they would notice because they show up right away, but having the game just start running away from them in the middle is much harder to deal with.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Same here. Emperor.5 might be ideal so I play on immortal only strong starts (not ashamed of WB an extra capital food or something nice ).

Emperor.5 might be easier to come by than you think. Civ4HandicapInfo.xml is pretty easy to figure out. There's a section for each difficulty level with a list of variables...same list in each section. Find the Emperor section and the Immortal section, and bump the values in the Emperor section towards the values in the Immortal section.

****AFTER making a backup copy, obviously.****

 

[6K Man]

Man, I’m not even sure how to answer that question.

I haven’t played stock BtS for a while. When I do, it’s generally on Emperor, sometimes Monarch. So, Lexicus… you aren’t entirely alone.

I play a lot of K-Mod and LoR. K-Mod on Emperor kills me, so I generally worldbuild a better start so that I can compete. I’ve done the same thing on LoR at Immortal (usually losing anyway). I’ve won K-mod on Monarch a couple of times, but Prince is more my talent level there. LoR Monarch as well – occasionally Emperor.

 

[Kid R]

Emperor.5 ... Civ4HandicapInfo.xml ... bump the values in the Emperor section...

Heh good idea! Not sure why I never thought of doing that simple solution instead of convoluted ways of "leveling the playing field" like giving my Civ OP units and stuff!

 

[Lennier]

I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty lonely on Emperor.

I'm there with you. But also huge, marathon.

 

[Lexicus]

Heh, I had the (mistaken) impression most folks still left around here were playing Immortal or Deity.

@Tim thanks for the explanation. I don't think I'll play around with the values because Emperor already accelerates the lategame enough that I have trouble keeping up in tech with the AIs in the modern era (which, to me anyway, makes for a more fun game as I love modern wars).

 

[elmurcis]

Sort of easy-Deity setup - Huge/Mara/Archip/no-tech trading Deity..

 

[Keler]

Noble noob forever/18 civs in standard or large maps. Always casual for fun plays. I mostly win but very slowly...by turn 450 lol. I rarely be the one that finds liberalism first, how pathetic
No mods or anything except official expansion packs.

Always 18 civs...
Always normal speed...