Question on diffuculty levels

[grappleman]

in conquests i noticed that demi-god is supposedly easier than deity and in place some other difficulties seem to have been jumbled around. For examle regent used to be right in the gray area on the bar where you would get no bonuses and the ai would get no bonuses. Now it seems monarch has taken that little area and regent is now in the blue area. So my question is, are Regent and Monarch easier now? Thanks a lot

[joncnunn]

I think that nothing from Emperor and below was touched.

Regent is still no AI production bonuses nor penalties.

Monarch is probably closer to a fair game considering that humans learn faster than the AI can possibly be patched.

Myself, in an epic game I'd fully expect to win Monarch no matter how horrid the inital start. There's several starts on Emperor that would result in me hiting the new game button, but if not one of those I'd expect to win that as well.

[joncnunn]

And BTW the AI is probably just as smart and dumb on the same situtations on Cheiftain as Sid level, with the only differences being how large the human reserach penalty is, how large the AI production bonus is, and how large the AI's collections of starting units of all types are.

[Arnelos]

Originally posted by joncnunn
Myself, in an epic game I'd fully expect to win Monarch no matter how horrid the inital start.

*Arnelos wants to see joncnunn prove that with a one-tile tundra island start with no fish or whales within reach

[Shogun Gunner]

Don't be so tough...how about a two tile desert island with fish and whales, but one tile outside of the city radius?

[Pyrkaige]

PTW vs Conquests difficulty levels

Good question, and one I was just researching myself.

There appear to be only two changes in the editable difficulty level variables between PTW 1.27 and C3C 1.0, and they are both at the Deity level. In PTW, the Deity AI to AI trade rate is at 160, while in C3C it's at 170. Also, in PTW the percentage of optimal cities is at 70, while in C3C it's at 60. Both these changes make sense when fitting Deity in between the Demigod and Sid difficulty levels added in C3C. All the lower difficulty levels look to be the same, and the two new levels fit well within the natural progression in difficulty. The Sid level looks to be exceedingly brutal: it starts with a ton of extra free units, and essentially never has to pay for unit upkeep, no matter what government it's in, because of all the free support; the cost factor and AI to AI trade give it a wicked kick as well.

Keep in mind that by default the AI civs play at the Monarch level (or they did in PTW, and most likely still do) for the purposes of the lower four variables (Citizens born content, Citizens quelled, Attack bonus vs barbs, Percentage optimal cities.) This, apart from all the other direct bonuses they receive, makes life easier on the AI civs when the human is playing against them on a higher difficulty level; they will be able to grow a bit further without worrying about unhappiness because of the citizens born content, and so forth.

Below I've listed the information directly from the Conquests editor in a chart format. The explanation below the chart is directly from the Civ3QEdit help file, and explains each of the variables. One correction to that information: despite what the help implies, in the default rules start unit type 1 is a settler and start unit type 2 is a worker, not vice-versa. So a Sid level AI civ starts with 2 free settlers and 4 free workers, not the other way around, which is no doubt a very good thing.


Civilizations III Conquests 1.0

                       Chief. Warlord Regent Monarch Emp. Demigod Deity Sid

[b]AI Bonuses[/b]
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

[b]Other variables[/b]
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.

[alva]

Ah, I always assumed the AI played on regent.
SID- level does seem insane.... (Can't wait to try it and how bad it is )

Thanks.

[grappleman]

wow awesome research pyrkaige, thats awesome. I havent even attempted Sid. It looks like suicide to me

[alexman]

Originally posted by alva
Ah, I always assumed the AI played on regent.

Yes, it does, unless you change the "AI Default Difficulty Level" in the General Settings tab.

Other than that, nice summary.

[Harovan]

Good research, but in the explanation the start unit types are mixed up. 1 is typically a settler and 2 a worker, and not vice versa.

[Uncle Thade]

Even with...

Even with the AI difficulty level, would it still be a tough game?

Haven't tried yet... will do and post...

[joncnunn]

On the Sid level, that level was designed specially for those who feel that Diety isn't challenging enough.

[Theseus]

MZ told me that in the beta only one guy beat Sid level in an epic game.

[Jamski]

Well with the AI getting everything at 40% of your costs... man that will be impossible. You build 2 settlers, the AI builds 5. This affects the AI's food box size as well, yes? You'd never be able to out-REX the AI on that level.

-Jam

[joncnunn]

Well, that would depend upon weather they'd fixed the AI wasting shields starting settlers too early on Diety and above, especally during a GA.