What difficulty level do you play?

DomNemo · November 23, 2000, 19:37

What difficulty level do you play

I started playing the easy level and, well, it’s too easy ;-) So I started playing the medium level hoping for a better challenge. The medium level was more challenging but it made me angry that the AI seems to cheat! It attacks all cities that are vulnerable… It just seems to magically know what city is the weakest at any given time. This happens too early in the game so it couldn’t possible have spies?

So what level’s do you play and why?

PS: Still haven’t won on medium level. ;-(

Tilemacho · November 24, 2000, 04:40

Well I played my first game in medium level and it was an easy victory
My second game is in very hard and I managed to conquer to other civs very early in the game (with some luck)...so I now think to start a game in impossible level...

PrinceBimz · November 24, 2000, 05:09

I have been playing on medium so far.

Truman · November 24, 2000, 07:41

I played my first game on Medium difficulty, and walked all over everyone. I'm now playing game on Hard and I've defeated two Civs so far (the much weaker English and roughly equal American Civs.) I'm shown as the most powerful Civ due to my economy and number of cities, but I'm technologically -- and therefore militarily -- behind the remaining Civs.

Time to pull some of those tricks in the 'Science boost' thread.

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"Let me know the instant we have nukes!" ~Harry S. Truman

Dragon · November 24, 2000, 09:15

I played my first game at Medium, my second at Hard, and I still haven't lost a city. Nonetheless it's fun.

I didn't notice that Hard was any harder.

kserra · November 24, 2000, 11:55

I've been playing on "hard" for every game...it's a pretty good challenge, though I haven't really had a game yet where I was dominated...although right now, the Mongols are really eating up other civs, and the English (my allies) are next...maybe hard is just fine

If I win this game, I'll probabley move up...

Kevin

Grandpa Troll · December 3, 2000, 20:43

Well..I play MP..in the lan setup...single player with AI's and exclude those special units..ALL..except Diplomats..(This means Lawyers, Corporate Branches.Slavers..Clerics..Televangilists Spys..and all others)..I also exclude Settlers...and Urban Planners..so I and AI's Start with 9 settlers..I started at Modern level..but unlike CTP:1..I can start at Modern era..but begin at 4000 BC..making me a longer game...I also Exclude all Wonders...Then I go to town..I played first game at medium and Whooped up Ai Pretty bad..Now I am on IMPOSSIBLE Level..it is a lot more realistic..I have 3 ai's.plus Barbarians..and Gigantic Map..about 70% land,70% continentLots of Goods, Warm and Dry...Doughnut World Lowest Barbarian setting..I have lost and gained back 9 cities..I have 15 cities..(Having found some in Ruins)...I am First in Overall..First in Economy, 3rd in Military and 2nd in Science..I am pretty happy with everything..the diplomacy issue seems ok.(although it would be nice to have some gifts on occassion).I have yet to recieve any gifts..i have however been able to GIVE..lol....I am really enjoying..I also want to Thank Activision for putting the Exclude button in Single player..so us DUMMIES..dont have to re-write any codes...

..in the Launch Editor...

Well..My Thanks to all fellow CTP:2'ers..Go get 'em and I will let you know how game ends..I am at around 1480 A.D...or so

Troll

marcuspeddle · December 4, 2000, 08:27

I'm playing on medium right now but I think I'll increase it for my next game. I'm ahead overall and in everything except science. The Germans have me beat there. The barbarians aren't especially tough but there sure are a lot of them. If I ran into them before getting infantrymen I'd probably be in a world of trouble. Luckily the French and the Irish took the brunt of the attacks (and lost, mostly).

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If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl friends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys.
- - - Orson Welles

Taliesin · December 6, 2000, 01:09

I played my first game at the medium level and it was really too easy so i won and i tried the hard level.
I made my first scientific victory at this level.
Now i'm playing in impossible, i dont have any problem. In fact, i began the game very fast and i killed my neighborgh the romans in .... 2000BC so i had a big land to conquer and i made like 20cities before entering in war with the portoges and killed them. Now i got like 40 cities and im in 1900 AD .

December 7, 2000, 09:02

playing on Very Hard, not much of a challenge for a Civ II vet if you reload it a couple times in order to get a good starting place

Impossible seems ridiculously hard due to the huge AI tech lead in the beginning and their cities growing to 8 almost immediately it seems

Will try Very Hard with a crappy starting location and then have it as my goal to beat Impossible with a normal map before Christmas

Shaka II · December 7, 2000, 20:38

Played 1st game at hard level and win was fairly easy, being a Civ II, CTP I veteran.

2nd game is at impossible and is a real challenge. Could not compete in science and build wonders, so I allied with an academic Civ and have now have conquered most of world (1964). I used slavers early. In the end, the wonders will be all mine!

Matte979 · December 8, 2000, 01:40

As mentioned in other threads.

Three easy and quick ways of changing the game to get harder.

Change the const file.

1. Sliders (beef up the wages)
2. AI time slice atleast times 5 dramtically improve my games

3. Give the AI more production bonus.

/Mathias

Grandpa Troll · December 8, 2000, 01:53

quote:

Originally posted by Troll on 12-03-2000 07:43 PM
Well..I play MP..in the lan setup...single player with AI's and exclude those special units..ALL..except Diplomats..(This means Lawyers, Corporate Branches.Slavers..Clerics..Televangilists Spys..and all others)..I also exclude Settlers...and Urban Planners..so I and AI's Start with 9 settlers..I started at Modern level..but unlike CTP:1..I can start at Modern era..but begin at 4000 BC..making me a longer game...I also Exclude all Wonders...Then I go to town..I played first game at medium and Whooped up Ai Pretty bad..Now I am on IMPOSSIBLE Level..it is a lot more realistic..I have 3 ai's.plus Barbarians..and Gigantic Map..about 70% land,70% continentLots of Goods, Warm and Dry...Doughnut World Lowest Barbarian setting..I have lost and gained back 9 cities..I have 15 cities..(Having found some in Ruins)...I am First in Overall..First in Economy, 3rd in Military and 2nd in Science..I am pretty happy with everything..the diplomacy issue seems ok.(although it would be nice to have some gifts on occassion).I have yet to recieve any gifts..i have however been able to GIVE..lol....I am really enjoying..I also want to Thank Activision for putting the Exclude button in Single player..so us DUMMIES..dont have to re-write any codes...

..in the Launch Editor...

Well..My Thanks to all fellow CTP:2'ers..Go get 'em and I will let you know how game ends..I am at around 1480 A.D...or so

Troll

Ok I am now at 1988..and have wiped out The Germans..who had a total of 19 cities..having started at 9 and they found rest in ruins..now I am on to green civ..to wipe them out!!!!

Impossible level is kinda tough...a real challenge!

Troll

December 10, 2000, 21:24

I just got the game a couple of days ago. I started a game on Medium, but didn't do very well, 'cos somehow my old stategy of leaving just one Hoplite to guard the city in the early rounds didn't work, and I lost 4 cities to the barbarians

I just started another game on Medium, having given up on the previous game. However, the rankings show that I'm not doing too well

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Paul_1868 · December 11, 2000, 15:47

I am playing on Medium level right now, and getting too far ahead. Is there a way that you can change the difficulty in mid-game (with out using cheat mode)? If so do you recommend it?

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Paul Henry

romelus · December 12, 2000, 03:15

weired, i'm playing my 3rd game on impossible (1st one was won easily and 2nd one crashed) and haven't had much difficulties at all. on this game i started very near the brazilians and they managed to settle the land around me very quickly, it took me a long time to found my second city.

after founding the 3rd city the brazilians attacked me so i started pumping out military units. i took the first brazilian city with 12 units of hoplites and archers, and had to use 2 full stacks for the 2nd city. the 3rd brazilian city was tough to take and i had to spend 3 full stacks as they had already developed pikemen, knight and catapult. after that battle it became easy for me, i developed feudalism and just started conquering, no real chanllenge at all.

December 12, 2000, 05:44

Maybe it favours a particular style of play over others. It seems like those who like to concentrate on a military game tend to have no problems, but those who tend to have peaceful style of play suffer

Men · December 12, 2000, 11:08

Yes, if your into military victories the game is far too easy. I play on impossible. I trail behind other civs in technologies. When I get nationalism I steal their tech. Once I get bombers and tanks the game is over for the AI civs. They cannot mount an effective offence or even defence.

Shaka II · December 12, 2000, 20:15

I found pretty much the same thing, but my tech advances have been mostly obtained through my ally's research. I haven't been successful at stealing tech (I miss civ II).

Men, any good spy tricks?

MrFun · December 14, 2000, 11:12

I don't know about you guys, but the difficulty levels that are available on CTP II for me are:

So Easy, Not Worth Playing

Ultra-Super Easy

Super Easy

Very Easy

Easy

December 14, 2000, 23:42

Yes....thank you very much for making people like me look like idiots

avonlea · December 15, 2000, 06:04

Fun or Victory? That is the real question. I play the impossible level if I want a real challenge. After years of experience I can consistantly win. However, I cannot pursue any pet projects like trade, city design, or wonders, I simply find who the top dog is and take city after city. With catapults I can usually do this. Just get 10 catapults and two escorts (maybe pikemen or just archers) and pound away. If you can hit them before they get tanks, this usually works.

If I want fun, I play medium. Then I don't have to worry about my catapults having to blast machine gunners or being bombarded by battleships. I can grow my cities the way I want to. I can tend to their happiness and converse with other civilizations.

December 15, 2000, 07:50

I haven't finished the first game yet, (started on impossible with toughest barbarians, gigantic map and 8 civs, as a Mongol, with no alterations to .txt files) but it seems that life is getting harder now, i managed to lose abour three stacks of 12 units and one stack of 8 unisrt so far, an it slowed me down a lot, couldn't keep with expansion. About 1400 AD it seemed that I will win easily, but now until 1880 I only conquered 4 cities in between , and I am starting to get behind in the science... i will have to start using spies. (haven't used retreat either -might have saved me many units)anyway it turns out to be a challenge now, but it is only the first game so I still think it might be too easy for someone who used to play and win on hardest levels in CIV II , CTP I. Anyway I expect that after tha tweaks suggeted on the forum to enhance AI, the game will be a challenge later on as well.

Men · December 15, 2000, 10:05

Shaka II:

I try to spy on smaller cities. They seem to have a better chance for some reason. Also if your oppenent is a fascist its very hard. The fascists see your spies and wack em.

If at first you dont succeed send more =)

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Tanks and bombers, I'll say it again tanks and bombers

wysiwyg · December 15, 2000, 10:21

I suspect that the difficulty level affects AI cheats and handicaps the player. As suggested earlier, I'd increase the AI time slice in const.txt to give the AI longer turns. Otherwise the AI's turns end before it has a chance to complete its actions.

cdo2001 · January 4, 2001, 01:53

i played ctp1 before.

i just bought the game a week ago, i played ctp2 once on median level 8 civ, random map, with heavy slavery, i am in a huge lead by 1945 and i quit.

i played again at hard/toughest barbarians as Americans on Activition world map with a full offensive strategy and got a big lead and stopped.

now i am playing japanese at impossible/toughest barbarians with 8 civ popultion on, on Activition world map.

A big advantage of starting on a world map is that u know the exact starting location of each civ after checking who are the enenmies through the score window. With AI's lousy war intelligence, this enables u to carry out a full offensive strategy.

it takes me about 50 turns to research shipbuilding since japanese starts from a tiny island, reasonably accomodates only one city, without the simpliest ship, japanese can't expand at all. during the research i keep building warriors/hoptiles, etc, with this strategy i never build any wonders or settlers or slavers (since my sci is so much behind, by the time slaver is available, all enemy cities got city walls) i only build sometimes happiness enhancing city improvements only at those borderline happiness cities so that i can keep production, sci and food at the extreme levels.

initially, it appears AI only has one defenders in a city, so with 2-3 warriors attaching each city, i took 3 size 3-4 cities from Thai. After that, archer becomes available, so i build 3 6-unit armies with 3 archers in each army, such army in turn takes 3-4 cities from Persians. My territory expansion slows down by the time i reaches Greek, who uses full 12-unit army to defend each city, the way i defeat such defense is to build 3 12-unit armies, surrounding the city, the first 2 armies will attach the city and by the time the archers are on the front line, i retreat the army (lost 4-5 units), and the last (3rd) army finishes the job.

Now the time is 40AD, i have been Republic for a few turns now, forgot to mention that with so many cities adn trading goods, once trade is available i give sci a huge jump by producing caravans at fast as possible to utilize all avaliable trade routes.

i am setting research goal to Geometry to build (catapults) bombard units, since Athans has a nice wonder and only has one land tile connecting to it, which makes my surrounding attack tactics useless with with 6 pikemans and 6 archers.

checking the status score, only native Americans got more armies than i do, and i am already top in econ with the largest number of cities i got (assume), and my sci speed is catching up very close. After about 2.5 hours playing my territory now covers the whole asia.

Jonny · January 4, 2001, 20:41

I play on medium level, but I plan to move on to hard soon. Medium is starting to become too easy for me.

Jonny

SirMatthew · January 5, 2001, 15:33

I have played and won on every difficulty setting so far. Now, I'm playing on impossible. As mentioned by others in the above posts, the AI had an enormous tech lead at first. I lagged behind for about a thousand years, but now that it's around 1500 AD, I'm well ahead in tech, commerce, and size. Not that anyone of those makes my empire the greatest, but they have aided me in the takeover of several of the remaining civs. I find that the AI I'm primarily concerning with (Irish), tends to only build 10-15 cities. I have around 40 or so. I'm looking forward to finishing this game, hopefully still alive, and get more into MP as I did in CTP.

SirMatthew · January 5, 2001, 15:34

I have played and won on every difficulty setting so far. Now, I'm playing on impossible. As mentioned by others in the above posts, the AI had an enormous tech lead at first. I lagged behind for about a thousand years, but now that it's around 1500 AD, I'm well ahead in tech, commerce, and size. Not that anyone of those makes my empire the greatest, but they have aided me in the takeover of several of the remaining civs. I find that the AI I'm primarily concerning with (Irish), tends to only build 10-15 cities. I have around 40 or so. I'm looking forward to finishing this game, hopefully still alive, and get more into MP as I did in CTP.

SirMatthew · January 5, 2001, 15:36

sorry for the double post