Does anyone know how scaling difficulty works?

[unmerged(350868)]

I am playing on the highest difficulty level, but with scaling difficulty.

I want to make the game a but more difficult,but I am wondering if turning off scaling, I need to lower the overall difficulty. I wondered if there is an explanation of when and how the difficulty worked on scaling for a comparison.

I had been playing with 8-10 ai on the largest galaxy. I thought increasing the numbers to 20-30 would make it harder, but for some reason I find myself in a better position late game. Maybe the additional pops.

 

[GloatingSwine]

IIRC The AI starts with no bonus then gets 1% of the bonus of the chosen difficulty per year until the endgame year, when it operates at maximum.

If you find it too easy try with scaling off or try bringing the endgame year forwards so the AI ramps up faster.

 

[Ryika]

Yes, it scales linearly from 0 to the difficulty bonuses of your choice between the start of the game and the endgame start date.

It generally makes the game a lot easier than just playing on the difficulty, since AIs simply do not get a snowball going. Even Grand Admiral scaling is still very easy compared to something like Admiral.

 

[OnyxAbussos]

The lowest diff ratings make the AI not do anything. Theyll get to a certain (small) size and just stop. Then when you get to the "standard" diff (captain?) They act normal.

The bonuses above that standard difficulty rating (I think its captain) aren't in how smart its strategies are. Instead, it's a bonus to all resource productivity. You can see it visually in the way that AI controlled systems will have an energy deposit that gives +10 energy, and you'll be like "wow, I gotta conquer that," but then when you do, it'll only give you +5 (or whatever numbers).

Example: I think Grand Admiral gives them a +100% resource bonus. If you have it on scaling, theyll start equal and will take 100 years for them to be operating at the full hundred. If you dont have it on scaling, theyll get the full hundred right from the start.

 

[GloatingSwine]

It would be nice to set the AI's starting level with scaling as well. Like have it start at 50% then scale to 100%.

Because mostly the AI's production bonuses from difficulty matter in the first 50 or so years before the player's optimisations have a chance to come online.

 

[unmerged(350868)]

It would be nice to set the AI's starting level with scaling as well. Like have it start at 50% then scale to 100%.

Sounds like a fantastic idea.

So I would probably be better off chosing a medium difficulty non scaling and move upward from there, as scaling grand admiral is actual the same as the easiest difficulty for the first few years (when expansion is most important).

 

[Ryika]

Sounds like a fantastic idea.

So I would probably be better off chosing a medium difficulty non scaling and move upward from there, as scaling grand admiral is actual the same as the easiest difficulty for the first few years (when expansion is most important).

Problem with non-scaling difficulties is that the game starts relatively difficult, but then drops off really quickly.
So imho there isn't really any perfect difficulty setting.

I remember there being a mod on the workshop that allows you to manually choose AI bonuses and ai scaling if you're open for mods though, if you're open to mods.

 

[Empire of Terra Nova]

scaling difficulty is a waste of time as the ai will be handicapped in the most crucial phase of the game, leaving it no realistic chance longterm

in fact, reverse scaling would actually make more sense because an ai blob is much more stable at, theoretically, should be quite capable in handling stuff without cheats