orchid sorrel
Very simple. On Civ 6, I struggled in immortal. Diety was impossible. This gave a level of purpose to getting better. Deity required either real skill, or a combination of luck and overpowered civ. I usually relied on the later, and still generally lost.
I've played about 10 Deity games so far, with no save scum, and have yet to lose a single one. This greatly decreases the reliability of the game, as I feel like I know i'm going to win from the start.
proud temple
Interesting.. I've heard that there is a mod, that have 6 more difficulty levels
In terms of difficulty, I've played only Marathons + Longer ages in Deity, I havent win yet, i havent finished a game yet tho, as its games over 100 hours hahah , but it felt like the AI was smarter, maybe it was me, not being good enough yet tho 😄 Who knows
signal hare
yea and it feels like the AI lazily relies on resource bounces rather than being "smarter." idk about how to build/code an AI but it's like giving your little cousin hella bonus points and a headstart rather than playing someone actually good
sour gale
I've had similar problems. Most prior Civ games I don't even try Diety because the AI gets so many advantages and you usually have to game the systems a lot to win, which I don't find as fun. This is the first Civ I've beaten on Deity and it did not take much effort, nor did I have to abuse anything. Just survived until modern and outran the bots to a victory.
potent crane
I feel like deity AI plays worse than lower difficultys, but non can compete
dire sphinx
What made older CIV games difficult was the war spam you’d get from the AI. Now with the new diplomacy it’s very easy to just never go to war because they don’t declare surprise wars like they used to
restive thorn
There are mainly two ways in which the AI can beat the player.
As for 1., the AI in VII is predictable with their wars and they don't send is as many troops as they used to in previous editions, making them easy to fend off.
As for 2., the AI is incompetent and seems to not even understand the victory conditions except Culture, which they can never actually complete because everyone spams Explorers and instantly digs up every Artifact on the map.
These two combined result in the Deity AI being not so menacing whatsoever.
proud temple
I'm really curious how AI fares in Deity ( Marathon + Long Age ) if there is other players playing those
flat bough
My wife told me the same thing "Oh you win more often in Civ 7 deity than Civ 6" (where i only did 1 deity game and won it), so to test if the game was easier or not, i launch a deity Civ 6 game yesterday, and as for me, Civ 7 IS not easier, i think we just play better and have more possibility to play what we really want with mix and match, so we are making our way easier.
But i just think IA make dumb Civ choice, like warmonger who finally turns himself in a Civ culture during the modern age
patent cosmos
Literally the only challenge I've had from the Deity AI (besides Rome deciding to photocopy legions) is the AI settling across the map on my borders to annoy me into restarting. Not really a "difficulty" concept I think is a good longevity plan
manic bobcat
I think part of the issue here is that you’re able to forward settle and expand early much more than the AI is willing to do because you A) can manage your relationship even though you settle right next to them and B) you’re not really punished hard enough for exceeding your settlement limit. In all of my deity games I’ve been at 8-9 settlements mid/late-antiquity while the AI was at 3-4 each, all while avoiding major hostilities. That gives you a pretty big advantage for later ages.
rancid vapor
Honestly I feel like deity is equal to civ 6 in this game. In civ 5 deity is really hard but its much easier in the 2 newer games. I think this is because now you have more to do differently than the AI. Like in civ 5 since you can’t place districts, all buildings are just in the city centre, it means you can’t really city plan better than the ai (other than build order, and moving pops around) , so even though the player is obviously smarter theres not that many ways you can benefit from that advantage, other than scamming with trade deals and moving population around (spamming science specialists)
In civ 6 you can district plan much better than the ai which means if you play smart you can totally outrun the ai by mid game (making +10 industrial zones for example).
Now in civ 7 you can not only district plan better than the ai you can also use mementos and good leader- civ combos to become really OP.
I feel like a bad player would find them all just as hard but with the newer games there are more ways to leverage your human intelligence over the ai.
dusk lava
Deity AI is competitive in the Antiquity era but not in Exploration and Modern. Seems they do better with a smaller empire and less decisions to make, which is not too surprising.
void swift
I have similar experience to OP. I could barely manage deity in civ6, but here I was surprised how easy it was to win. Even with combat advantages it isn't hard to win from fighting or other win types.
tepid burrow
Had about the same experience winning (with game beaking bugs) the first game ever i started; It feels like the game doesn't do everything in its power to curbstomp you to history; Where in 5 and 6 it definitely did...
fierce sparrow
i rarely see Deity AI build their unique quarters, either. I'll see the 2 mayan buildings seperated, one on the City Hall. Imagine if that mayan start AI actually had the unique quarter with the 1500 science per turn theyre cheating in
misty roost
I'm really curious how AI fares in Deity ( Marathon + Long Age ) if there is oth...
im playing one now after are discussion the other day. i restarted after my first time as i was not playing benjamin properly. started a new game today, i literally had to double check the difficulty as it felt way way too easy. i eliminated a civ in antiquity, could have eliminated 2 other civs if it werent for settlement limit. i took another civs capital as well. it took me a very long time to master diety on civ6, this seems to be a cakewalk compated to civ6
proud temple
Hmm Okay 😮 I guess, its too easy, we'll have to resort to the mods, for extra difficulty ;o
Yeah, well, in a way, this is probably true, I just incited 2 Independant powers to hit Benjamin, and they wiped him completely ;p
rapid parcel
i was having this, then did a few on epic speed, largest map size. defo increased dif
tepid burrow
you can make it harder for yourself by making rules like "can't war but from weakest to strongest", like i gotta get thru there handsome men before jose is mine, and i've got 0, ok maybe 3 specialists, this is fun freddy having a +27 dmg full on a 35 base dmg unit :3
misty roost
Sure you can make it harder on yourself. Shouldn't have to do that though.
tepid burrow
want my savefile, 80ish to be ship of the line; IF you can handle freddy, where are the savegames in appdata?
tepid burrow
the whole of exploration is done as mission critical battleship muster, so it would be pretty easy focusing on food (as mostly it is modern with no cities except capital will initiate the exponental snowball), where yea easy science vc for both eras but that is not thinking with battleships.
proud temple
So we'll see, There is few lines about AI in the roadmap 😄
proud temple
https://prnt.sc/ZJYKvmZxATVP , lets see if AI hits me, I'm pretty vulnerable there =p
fathom robin
I was so proud of myself for finally beating deity on a civ game, but I think that's because the AI is really broken (and some civs are also broken).
I had 5 deity AIs declare war on me and I thought I was done. Instead, only one of them sent units against me at a time and I got each to surrender a city one at a time.
storm bane
Get harder difficulty mods. Enjoy
craggy geyser
What made older CIV games difficult was the war spam you’d get from the AI. Now ...
I’m not sure what ai you’re playing against but I went from peace to having the entire world at war with me, presumably on account of the ai’s alliances
And there are definitely occasions where the ai refuses to let your relationships get friendlier
misty roost
yes, even when i use influence to reject denouncements i still get the AI to declare war. But the AI is bad at war.
storm bane
You could also not play online speed. It nerfs the ai. Try standard or heroic (epic? Idk whatever its called) length games
misty roost
Played on marathon and the ai was still easy.
proud temple
Hm, well, i still dont find Deity that easy =p
proud temple
People should really start customizing AI opponents with Busted Combo's to see, if its still easy 😄
misty roost
I literally had an AI i was at war with sit there and not attack me. It's 2 ships to my 1. Same ai didn't try to attack my unguarded treasure fleet
proud temple
Gnuh 😮
Yeah, they are not very good at fighting, thats undisputed ;p lets see what the update tomorrow does
proud temple
Again, I'M seeing an AI, doing exactly what he was supposed to do 😮
sturdy sigil
Navigable rivers, army commanders that need a lot of micro , no head start. How can this AI play anything like civ 6 if it was stripped of bonuses and the combat is harder?
proud temple
Is Deity still too easy after update? ;p Not that much have changed
signal hare
didnt see anything major related to AI behavior in the patch notes sadly
patent cosmos
can confirm, still easy
rancid vapor
The ai might be a little more aggressive since in my game yesterday Tecumseh declared war on me when we had a neutral relationship, but they haven’t been massively buffed or anything
chrome sonnet
You can always use a mod to make it more difficult
opaque musk
I literally had an AI i was at war with sit there and not attack me. It's 2 ship...
I was way over settlement cap one game and had a very weak city bordering another civ. When we went to war I left it completely empty and they attacked the defenses down but never took the city.
I couldn’t tell if the AI was smart because they knew I was over limit and wanted them to take it or if the AI was dumb and didn’t know how to take a city 😂
patent cosmos
If the AI isn't attacking you in the first 50 turns or so when they have all the advantages you can basically ignore them the rest of the game. I'm about to win another deity game and all I have done is do friendly greetings then send endeavors when they were to my benefit (which is rarely).
In my experience if the turn ~40ish war is an AI v AI war you have an easy win. The hardest part of winning the game will be slogging through modern
sturdy sigil
Still dont understand why they dont have mementos. If player doesnt pick memento and AI would have the most overpowered ones it would still not be enough
proud temple
Okay, just got an idea today, What if people just starts their game directly in Exploration or Modern, I think that deity is probably more difficult that way, Cause its fully fresh starts, Anyone tried to do those?
proud temple
People really need to try this , Starting directly in Exploration or Modern, That sounds much more challenging, Than having a full antiquity of progress to start 😉
craggy geyser
I’ve done it,
whichever age you start in will be just about as challenging as starting in antiquity
proud temple
Amazing 😄 its good to know , yeah legacies boosts and settlements from playing a 2nd age in a row makes you super OP 😄
restive thorn
If the AI isn't attacking you in the first 50 turns or so when they have all the...
In my experience if the turn ~40ish war is an AI v AI war you have an easy win.
This is so, so true. Since the AI in this game is not strong enough to start snowballing even with successful conquests, AI vs AI wars are essentially nothing but a massive debuff on two of your neighbors. You can either ignore them to continue a peaceful game, or just punch one of them from two sides and get an easy victory.
tidal lintel
And here i was complaining that deity is ridiculously hard
restive thorn
And here i was complaining that deity is ridiculously hard
How much experience do you have with 4X? And how many times have you tried Deity?
Sometimes the randomized bits can really bite.
tidal lintel
How much experience do you have with 4X? And how many times have you tried Deity...
i've been playing civ since 1993. that said, I rarely have played on the highest difficulty
restive thorn
i've been playing civ since 1993. that said, I rarely have played on the highest...
What made you feel deity is hard? Early wars, being forward settled, lagging behind in science and culture etc.
tidal lintel
primarily how aggressive the AI was with forward settling, and how quickly i fell behind in resources. I feel like i probably picked the wrong civ combo too. I'll get there eventually!
restive thorn
Good luck! In my experience, spamming settlers the moment you unlock them (including the option to buy them, if you still have extra 120 money for emergency military spending) is the one and only option to stop the AI's aggressive forward settling. Utilizing stealing techs is also vital early on, because they will always be ahead of you (but no worries, they don't actually know what they're doing).
proud temple
Have anyone experienced more with starting games in Exploration or Modern, to see if its more difficult 😄
sour gale
Zarg0n mentioned above that he has tried advanced starts and found it no more difficult than antiquity. I've only done the one and agree, doesn't make much difference
proud temple
But my point, is playing subsequent ages, makes it really easier on ur 2nd age, and then your 3rd age ;p
patent cosmos
But the first age isn't hard in the first place, its RNG at worst but not hard
misty roost
look at these settles where they had way better spots and so much open space. this is part of why deity is too easy.
dusk lava
Someone needs to turn up the weighting of "would this settlement be in my trade network" by 100 or something! Its really bad.
rough sundial
I just wish that the NPC level wasn’t based on giving them massive yield advantages…but was more based on their actual actions in the game
I never really tried Deity in 6, it was just disheartening.
Doing it here in 7 isn’t as rough. But, it’s clear the AI isn’t any better at all. That said—at least we’re fighting against the ages timers. That adds a lot of needed urgency
