Getting Killer AI's

[Jerh9e1k5]

Hello everyone,

I have noticed that many players enjoy the challenge of facing off against a killer AI (an AI that killed off several other AI's and became very powerful). While entering the custom game screen I noticed that there is an option to choose the difficulty level next to each player in the game. When I chose monarch all of the other difficulty level options for the other AI's blanked out. Then I thought to myself, "what if I could choose a different difficulty level for each AI?" If one could choose an AI player to be monarch difficulty and the AI's surrounding it noble, or prince, the stronger AI would probably take advantage of them and kill them off, thus creating a killer AI.

So I propose that someone figure out how to set the difficulty level for each AI inidividually.

I don't know how difficult this is to do, or whether someone has already done it, but I thought I'd point out this relatively simple solution to the Killer AI problem.

Hope this helps,
and Goodluck!

[Solver]

It doesn't really work that way. If you made one AI Monarch, then that AI would actually be the weakest one. Construction penalties of Monarch would then apply to it, IIRC.

[Jerh9e1k5]

Well in that case simply go to the other end of the spectrum. Make the AI which you want to be strong settler or chieftain level, and all of the other noble or monarch. In the end you're basically trying to make one AI with a whole bunch of weak ones as bait to strengthen it.

Thanks for the reply!

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Jerh9e1k5
Well in that case simply go to the other end of the spectrum. Make the AI which you want to be strong settler or chieftain level, and all of the other noble or monarch. In the end you're basically trying to make one AI with a whole bunch of weak ones as bait to strengthen it.

That doesn't work, because a computer player only gets bonuses at high levels. So if you want to make a killer you should set it to deity*, and the rest to settler.


* Not sure if that's actually possible

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


That doesn't work, because a computer player only gets bonuses at high levels. So if you want to make a killer you should set it to deity*, and the rest to settler.


* Not sure if that's actually possible

No, it doesn't. Deity basically means human plays at Deity, AIs play at Monarch/Noble/whatever the default AI level is.

[Senethro]

Settler Deity

[ChaotikVisions]

Unless the AI gets lucky, your only real chance to face a killer AI is to build it up yourself. Get good on relations then bribe them to join in you wars so they get a piece of the civ you wipe out. Trade tech to them for cheap and so on. You could also spark conflicts among AIs by getting them to convert to other religions or offering cities on their borders to enemies. Wether they'll actually have a war of conquest or a war where they just get behind in tech and lose a bunch of units/land improvements is a bit random though.

[Aeson]

There is a way to individually change the AI's handicap I think. Start a game of your desired difficulty level. Don't play it yet. Open up the World Builder Save in a text editor. Change the handicap for each leader, as desired. Save. Then load the WBS as a Scenario and play.

My Documents\My Games\Saves\WorldBuilder\WBQuickSave.Civ4WorldBuil derSave:

BeginPlayer
	Team=0
	LeaderType=LEADER_NAPOLEON
	LeaderName=Napoleon
	CivDesc=French Empire
	CivShortDesc=France
	CivAdjective=French
	FlagDecal=Art/Interface/TeamColor/FlagDECAL_FleurDeLis.dds
	WhiteFlag=0
	CivType=CIVILIZATION_FRANCE
	Color=PLAYERCOLOR_DARK_BLUE
	ArtStyle=ARTSTYLE_EUROPEAN
	PlayableCiv=1
	MinorNationStatus=0
	StartingGold=0
	StartingX=11, StartingY=7
	StateReligion=
	StartingEra=ERA_ANCIENT
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_GOVERNMENT, Civic=CIVIC_DESPOTISM
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_LEGAL, Civic=CIVIC_BARBARISM
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_LABOR, Civic=CIVIC_TRIBALISM
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_ECONOMY, Civic=CIVIC_DECENTRALIZATION
	CivicOption=CIVICOPTION_RELIGION, Civic=CIVIC_PAGANISM
	[b]Handicap=HANDICAP_NOBLE[/b]
EndPlayer

I think it would work best if you play at a mid-high difficulty level. Set the AI's you want to be weaker to high difficulty handicaps. Set the AI's you want to be stronger to low difficulty handicaps. If you play at low difficulty, you won't have much range to make the AI's stronger, since the default is Noble.

I don't have the game to test with. So this might not work at all... I don't think it will affect the starting units. Those will be determined by whatever difficulty level you play on. (When first generating the WBS. Not when loading the scenario, unless you delete all the units from the WBS. I think.)

[Jerh9e1k5]

Yes Aeson you've got the right idea. Even if your idea does not work the release of the SDK (if it ever gets here... :P) should make it possible to code anything into the game.

Or, one could always make a scenario and give one civ a strong military and a lot of gold from the very start of the game as an incentive to prey on the other starting civs

[Theseus]

Coooolllllll......