What does artificial intelligence default difficulty level mean?

[I Am Jeff]

It could mean two things:
1. The first is that when you go to make a new game, that is the default option. So if it were set to chieftan, then when you made a game it would show the difficulty to chieftan. If it were set to Deity, then when you went to make a game it is set to Deity.

2. It is totaly independent of what difficulty you chose. But instead determines how smart the AI is.

I did search the forums for this but came up with nothing.

[Soren Johnson]

It determines the "difficulty level" for the AI civs. For example, on regent, cities start with 2 content citizens. When the default AI difficulty level is set to Regent, their cities will start with 2 content citizens because they are playing at "Regent."

Thus, for the standard bic file, the AI always plays at Regent, regardless of whether the human plays at Chieftain through Deity.

[God]

So putting defeault difficulty at diety will make it harder for the AI?

[zulu9812]

really? That's interesting! Thus, you could actually play on a level playing field at Deity, if you ignore all those extra units. Just imagine playing on Deity with the default set to Chieftain!

[I Am Jeff]

Thanks a lot, that clears everything up.