Questions on difficulty levels and mods

[Kirov]

Hello everyone,

I'm new around here at civ4 although I used to participate a lot in SMAC forums a couple of years ago. For a while I put games on the shelf until just recently I've got a hold of Civ4. Probably not exactly a piece of news for you guys, but my god, is the game fantastic! I've always preferred SMAC to Civ, both for gameplay and general feel, and never hoped it could change after that abomination called C**3, but this time the Civ team truly delivered. Gone is ICS, gone are those pesky riots, game-breaking wonders and tech beelines, while the new features are simply awesome. Now I see how the game can be addictive. For me it's fine, I can stop any time I want. And I will never oversleep to work again... Ever. Promise.

Anyway, I've got two questions. The first one is about the dificulty levels. Being no newbie to the civ brand I climbed from Warlord to Prince in no time and with the Vel's guide and some lurking here to Monarch. There I got stuck for a while, although I'm starting to achieve some successes (that is, won my first game, with a little help from lady Fortune). While I know I still have a lot to learn, by now I took a good look at AI bonuses and wonder how it looks at Deity. As you may know, in games like SMAC, Civ2, or MOO2 for that matter, the last diff level is not exactly what we could call "very hard". Once you've spend some playhours and learnt a trick or two, you could easily make all the AI's your... "ronald richies". Vet SMAC players usually had to go to great lengths to handicap themselves and give the AI's a sliver of hope, while OTOH people who could not smash the game at "Transcend" blindfold were not really a significant threat in MP games. How does it look like here? How many of you can, on a regular basis ,mop the floor with other civs at Deity? At what point of the ladder a player is considered "decent"?

Just to prove that's not just a theoretical question - in SMAC I never pillaged the enemy's territory as I always considered it "soon to be mine". Do you do any pillaging in civ4 just to soften the foe, improvements be damned?

And another question - I've just got the Complete edition from Steam. I wanted to get a good grasp of vanilla before I move on, but that BTS mod looks so promising (vassals, espionage..). What could you tell me about vanilla vs. mods? What's the standard here in MP? Does "Beyond the Sword" stand for "we've enhanced aspects other than war" or rather "we've enhanced gameplay after the Medieval era"? And Warlods, Colonization, Total Realism - I'd really be grateful for a short rundown.

Nice to be back at poly again. I'm looking forward to learn sth and be a match for you in MP, unless it all dies out when Civ5 arrives, that is.

[Blaupanzer]

One quick answer, I don't pillage as a rule since, as you noted, "it will soon be mine."

As to versions, play BTS, well worth it , lots of new features. Most changes are for the post-swordbearing era, hence the name. But theis version is the best ever to include SMAC and its follow-on.

[Ming]

When I'm on the offensive, I like to have some obsolete mounted units follow up my hordes and pillage all the towns and villiages in areas that I'm not going to be keeping. I generally don't keep more than half the cities I take, and just raze the rest. Since the AI is well known for building cities in the worst places, many of them aren't worth keeping. Any towns/cottages around razed cities that will fall out of the BFC of other cities I'm keeping provide some nice additional revenue for upgrading units.

And Yes, BTS is the way to go. Not only does it have a lot of great features, it corrects for some bad game mechanics that were part of the original game.

[Kirov]

BTS it will be, then, looks interesting enough. I only wonder about siege units. In the vanilla I use tonnes of them, but this damage limit in BTS seems to change things a lot.

I assume you both guys play Deity? I was asking about the levels as at the moment, with all those bonuses AIs get, I can hardly imagine how you can be so good that you bully other civs since day one, which is how many games before looked like once you put some heart to it. Unless the difference between Monarch and Deity is not that big after all, which I kinda doubt.

Blaupanzer, the Maniac's SMAC "Downfall" mod has already caught my eye and I will definitely pay a new Chiron a visit, once I feel comfortable with the regular game enough.

[trev]

Very few people play deity, a good player often struggles at emperor level, immortal is very difficult and deity much harder again. I generally play emperor or immortal myself depending on settings, have won once at deity just to prove the point that I can, needs a certain amount of luck and things going your way and favourable settings.

[Kirov]

Which settings and in what way affect the game difficulty? Do "no tech trading" and "not brokering" help you or the AIs? (I guess it largely depends on how heavily they trade with each other).


Are there any particular weather, geography or planet size settings that the AIs flourish/struggle in?

[rah]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?t=188228

Kirov,
The above thread Has a lot of discussions in it that we need not rehash here. Good reading.