A proposal for a simple mod that would mostly solve the difficulty issue

[PkK]

Many players are complaining about the game not being difficult enough, especially in the later game. At high difficulties, surviving initially is hard, but once a few cities are there, the AI no longer is a real challenge.

But there is a solution to this problem (which I've used manually by sending gifts from the diplomacy interface), that seems like a very good candiate for a mod: Income tax.

Depending on the difficulty setting a certain fraction (I've tried both 25% and 50%, both of which resulted in interesting games, the latter rather challenging) of the human players income is taken from the human player and distributed among the AI players. This makes the later game more of a challenge since AI income rises with the human player becoming more powerful.

Philipp

 

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It would be a very artificial limit, though, which wouldn't be particularly fair. What really is surely desired is an AI that is genuinely harder, not just a huge penalty to the player and bonus to enemies, which is quite artificial and just a way to straight up buff the enemy directly.

 

[PkK]

It would be a very artificial limit, though, which wouldn't be particularly fair. What really is surely desired is an AI that is genuinely harder, not just a huge penalty to the player and bonus to enemies, which is quite artificial and just a way to straight up buff the enemy directly.

Sure, a better AI would be ideal. But that takes a lot of effort to implement. My proposal provides a quick fix to the most annoying issue. And it works much better than a fixed bonus, as the benefits to your enemies rise with you becoming stronger.

 

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Guess I'm sort of necro'ing here but I'd hope to catch the attention of you modders. This income penalty suggestion here could work for a simple fix, but it isn't what the game needs. Take a look at the thread I just posted on the main forum: It is obvious that the number one problem with the AI is that it isn't clearing lairs, even right outside its base. If anybody is capable of modding the AI into more aggressively attacking lairs, I guarantee the AI will become far more difficult to beat.