Game difficulty

[Kryblade]

What are the handicaps for the AI as you increase the difficulty?

[UTurnTerminator]

The biggest change in difficulty is AI aggressiveness. Some nations will go after you faster than others, and disregard some "size" factors, such as large nations picking on island states and so on. I haven't experienced any changes in things you might expect, like population gain, economy growth, war weariness, etc.

[Kryblade]

Yea. It really doesn’t do anything but prolong the game.

[Adam408]

Originally posted by Yuri:

The biggest change in difficulty is AI aggressiveness. Some nations will go after you faster than others, and disregard some "size" factors, such as large nations picking on island states and so on. I haven't experienced any changes in things you might expect, like population gain, economy growth, war weariness, etc.

I agree. The AI is much more aggressive on the attack, the AI is more robust in defending its territory from your attack and it appears to me the AI does field larger armies against you but this is an observation and I have not collected any quantitative data to exemplify this. I will try and do that in the future. I play on the most difficult level now and the AI throws the kitchen sink at you when you try to invade. I do not recall the AI doing that on the lower difficulty levels. Good question.

[UTurnTerminator]

Originally posted by Adam408:

Originally posted by Yuri:

The biggest change in difficulty is AI aggressiveness. Some nations will go after you faster than others, and disregard some "size" factors, such as large nations picking on island states and so on. I haven't experienced any changes in things you might expect, like population gain, economy growth, war weariness, etc.

I agree. The AI is much more aggressive on the attack, the AI is more robust in defending its territory from your attack and it appears to me the AI does field larger armies against you but this is an observation and I have not collected any quantitative data to exemplify this. I will try and do that in the future. I play on the most difficult level now and the AI throws the kitchen sink at you when you try to invade. I do not recall the AI doing that on the lower difficulty levels. Good question.

I have noticed a certain "predictive" nature on the AI's part. Perhaps it's merely coincidence that I've observed, but on the hardest difficulty I can raise a large army (even a continent away from other holdings) and the territories bordering me will increase the number of troops stationed proportionally.

[Adam408]

Originally posted by Yuri:

Originally posted by Adam408:

I agree. The AI is much more aggressive on the attack, the AI is more robust in defending its territory from your attack and it appears to me the AI does field larger armies against you but this is an observation and I have not collected any quantitative data to exemplify this. I will try and do that in the future. I play on the most difficult level now and the AI throws the kitchen sink at you when you try to invade. I do not recall the AI doing that on the lower difficulty levels. Good question.

I have noticed a certain "predictive" nature on the AI's part. Perhaps it's merely coincidence that I've observed, but on the hardest difficulty I can raise a large army (even a continent away from other holdings) and the territories bordering me will increase the number of troops stationed proportionally.

It has been my observation as well that the AI fields larger armies against you on the highest difficulty level. In addition, when you break the front line of the AI on the highest difficulty level, it raises the maximum number of troops in each and every province behind the lines that originally contained zero troops when you began the attack. The AI continues to do this down to its very last province as you continue to take its provinces thus throwing the kitchen sink at you. It takes much preparation and planning to conquer a good size country. I actually like this kind of fight in an AI. More of a challenge.

Here is a real example of how much more aggressive the AI is as difficulty increases. Modern world on medium (normal) difficulty level at turn 400 and there were 46 countries left in the world. Modern world with same starting parameters with difficulty at maximum. At turn 400 there are 11 countries in the world and I actually control less provinces than the other example. The AI takes no prisoners.

[Kryblade]

Sound like to me its better to play on normal. But what difficulty setting would you suggest to have a “fair” game. Also i play on the setting were every nation starts with only one country. I think its the “fill in” option on new game setup menu.

[Kryblade]

Also i think that setting the AI aggression percentage to around 150% - 175% is a sweet spot. Anything less & the AI nations just kinda sit around. Anything more and the AI nations start dumb wars.

[UTurnTerminator]

Originally posted by Kryblade:

Also i think that setting the AI aggression percentage to around 150% - 175% is a sweet spot. Anything less & the AI nations just kinda sit around. Anything more and the AI nations start dumb wars.

You can have it at the base difficulty and while the wars will be fewer, they will be no less dumb.

I do agree though, I run my "fun" games between 175%-250%.

[Kryblade]

Is there a way to lower diplomacy points? I feel like the vanilla amount is way too generous.

[Adam408]

Originally posted by Kryblade:

Is there a way to lower diplomacy points? I feel like the vanilla amount is way too generous.

Navigate to your AOC2 folder. In the Age of Civilization 2 folder open the folder called Game. There are many files here that can be modified using a quality text editor that affect the core structure of the game rules such as disable plunder, change diplomatic and movement points , or disable disease plus much much more. The specific file you want to change the diplomatic points is the Ages.json file. Make a backup of this file and then open it with a quality text editor. I use Notepad++ but others will work as well. Each age of the game is defined in this file. Scroll down to the age you are playing in (by year) and within that age near the bottom of the rules for that age is Base Diplomacy Point. Increase this number to give yourself more diplomatic points per turn and decrease this value to give yourself less diplomatic points per turn. It is a weighted value not an absolute value so you might have to fine tune the number to get the exact result you are looking for in the game. Right under that value is the distance for alliance modifier number. You can modify this number to adjust your desired alliance treaty cost. If your game will span multiple ages as most do, you must change these values in each age you will be playing in. A real bonus aspect of these files is that you can have a game that is already running, save it if your can, change any value in these files, open your saved game and your changes will be in effect. You do not have to start a new game to make changes and have them take affect. Just make sure you backup these files first and have fun making your game what you want it to be.

[Quataure]

Originally posted by Adam408:

Originally posted by Kryblade:

Is there a way to lower diplomacy points? I feel like the vanilla amount is way too generous.

Navigate to your AOC2 folder. In the Age of Civilization 2 folder open the folder called Game. There are many files here that can be modified using a quality text editor that affect the core structure of the game rules such as disable plunder, change diplomatic and movement points , or disable disease plus much much more. The specific file you want to change the diplomatic points is the Ages.json file. Make a backup of this file and then open it with a quality text editor. I use Notepad++ but others will work as well. Each age of the game is defined in this file. Scroll down to the age you are playing in (by year) and within that age near the bottom of the rules for that age is Base Diplomacy Point. Increase this number to give yourself more diplomatic points per turn and decrease this value to give yourself less diplomatic points per turn. It is a weighted value not an absolute value so you might have to fine tune the number to get the exact result you are looking for in the game. Right under that value is the distance for alliance modifier number. You can modify this number to adjust your desired alliance treaty cost. If your game will span multiple ages as most do, you must change these values in each age you will be playing in. A real bonus aspect of these files is that you can have a game that is already running, save it if your can, change any value in these files, open your saved game and your changes will be in effect. You do not have to start a new game to make changes and have them take affect. Just make sure you backup these files first and have fun making your game what you want it to be.

i tried doing this on my own but i searched up about it because it doesnt seem to matter how much up or down i change the base diplomacy, it just keeps being the same (i obviously changed the age im playing on)