Scaling AI aka Keeping the game consistently difficult...

from GalCiv3 Forums

A steam user was talking about how at a certain point in most strategy games you pretty much are going to trounce everything. You've got 40% of the galaxy and are light years ahead in tech. No one stands before you, its just cleanup at this point. I was wondering if there is a plan for a scaling AI option? Something that ramps up the AI aggressiveness and bonuses to allow a consistent difficulty right to end game.

I think this would be a great feature for any 4x or strategy game. The best examples I've seen where this works well is in Distant Worlds and AI War. I feel like there would be even a place for an insane difficulty increase (x2-x?? bonus increase), an iron-man mode so to say; to satiate those with a more masochistic side.

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Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'd like this as an option.  Maybe as an economic bonus only.

 

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

galciv 2 gave extremely massive bonuses to the AI on higher difficulty levels, but I think they were constant throughout the whole game

i think they'll add something like that if they haven't already

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting The_Biz, reply 2

galciv 2 gave extremely massive bonuses to the AI on higher difficulty levels, but I think they were constant throughout the whole game

i think they'll add something like that if they haven't already
End of The_Biz's quote

 

This would be more in line with a difficulty that gets harder as you get closer to winning the game.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It's been said elsewhere (by myself and others) that allowing the user to change the difficulty at any point during the game would go a long way towards solving that problem.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The problem with just scaling up the AI is that it feels very artificial. That said, its better than nothing.

 

There has been a lot of talk about the idea of Asynchronous Win Conditions in 4x games. In effect, is there a way to either:

 

1) Introduce a difficulty element that affects the "winner" much more than the losers.   OR

2) Provide the "losers" an alternative way to win the game that bypasses the elements the "winner" is dominating in.

 

In a way that makes sense for the game you are in. That last bit is the hardest part imo.

 

Civ IV's cultural victory to me was a small step in this direction, as the cultural resource was distinctly different from the typical "win resources" of army and science. A person could go culture and suddenly win even as the winners were dominating the board.

Just recently, Pandora introduced in their expansion an alien race that invades late in the game, and that targets the "winners" more aggressively than the losers. I think its a decent mechanic that fits the flavor of that world. How effective it is, is a wait and see.

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'd like to suggest a different way of looking at the fundamental problem which is that in most 4x games, winning becomes inevitable, so the game becomes significantly less fun. They way most people have addressed the issue is to try to make winning harder in order to keep the challenge high and thus keep the game more fun,

What if, in stead of concentrating on how to make winning harder we concentrated on making playing more fun, regardless of whether you are winning or losing or staying stable? What are ways to make the actual running of your civ more fun? An example of this kind of thinking is what Civ5: BNW did to culture victory. By turning culture into a mini-game rather than just a number ticking turn after turn they didn't necessarily make culture victory harder, they just made it more interesting. This is where I personally would love to see Stardock make some progress from GalCiv II: how do we make running a stable empire more fun? Some examples might be more complex internal politics, more detailed trade, or more interesting diplomacy. There's always going to be a point where you no longer have to worry about other Civs, so maybe the solution is to make it so there's never a point when you can stop worrying about your own?