Difficulty levels

[fortydayweekend]

Is anyone else finding Very Hard not really much more difficult than Hard? I'm up to about turn 100 as Solar Dynasty and well ahead on tech, city size, economy, and 2nd for military, and on good terms with everyone. And that's without invading anyone else yet, just from expansion and hive clearing. I even started with a food bonus resource and no tiles with more than 1 mineral next to my capital, (which meant beelining Colonization Fervor instead and holding off building troops until my second city was up).

I've only ever been a "hardest level" player of a couple of games, and that's only after years of playing and reading lots of strategy guides. I think I should be getting badly beaten on the hardest level in my 5th or 6th game. What does everyone else think?

[Hiho216]

It seemed the AI tends to get more aggressive in the mid/late game once your borders start limiting their expansion. I've only played a couple all the way through though.

[adamsolo]

What was your Alien Aggression level? I find that playing with Medium or High is like playing two different games. At least in early game, which can make all the difference on the long run. It's also tougher on the AIs but at least it refrains you from expanding too quickly.

I'm currently playing a Hard game with Imperium (Admiral Heid) and I failed miserably in my first attempt with alien aggression high. You really need to take those aliens seriously if they come after you early. Restarted with alien aggression medium (still on hard) and it was a walk in the park for the most part. Didn't try alien aggression Very High yet, but I suspect it will be a pain. Which is great!

[fortydayweekend]

Playing with High aggression.. I don't find the aliens too tricky, capturing a devourer/galeth or two early on is my first goal and they can take out hives almost single-handedly. And as soon as you have Avengers you can handle almost any land-based aliens.

[adamsolo]

Nice strategy.

[fortydayweekend]

It seemed the AI tends to get more aggressive in the mid/late game once your borders start limiting their expansion. I've only played a couple all the way through though.

Maybe I'm just used to games where the AI has massive bonuses (free units etc) at the start, so you always start behind and have to catch up. Pandora might be different, getting harder at the end. I've finished a few games but always on military or economic with only a few Transcendence techs discovered.

[adamsolo]

It seemed the AI tends to get more aggressive in the mid/late game once your borders start limiting their expansion. I've only played a couple all the way through though.

Maybe I'm just used to games where the AI has massive bonuses (free units etc) at the start, so you always start behind and have to catch up. Pandora might be different, getting harder at the end. I've finished a few games but always on military or economic with only a few Transcendence techs discovered.

My impression is that the AI will demand tribute or declare war depending almost exclusively on your military strength. Just now I'm playing a Very Hard game with Terra Salvum and everybody was demanding tribute and Lady Lilith declared war (I had only a couple Troopers). Then, I built several Missile Seekers, steam rolled Lilith and everybody is friendly now (no demands anymore).

So, I think the AI's mood is very strictly related to your army strength and my impression is that they will attack at any time if you're only with 1 or 2 military power. You may be experiencing a late game aggression because that's when you may start to fall back on the military side. Could that be it?

[ChuckGyver]

I have played now my 4th game, terra salvum, very hard and very hard, huge map. ( my second game with this setting ). And each time the computer enemies that are landlocked in the middle are going to die through the aliens. That's sad. But even then, the other computer players are far to weak. Maybe I'm going to test very hard computer enemies but very easy aliens. But I see a problem, that the computer enemies are to weak in economical development. Alien difficulty very hard is hard enough when playing not terra salvum.

[fortydayweekend]

Maybe I'm going to test very hard computer enemies but very easy aliens.

It'd be a shame if turning down alien aggression was the only way to make the game more challenging!!

I've just managed to find the time to play another game, Very Hard, High aliens, Small Pangaea map as Noxium for a Research victory in 2129AD. All the other factions outgunned me until right at the end but stayed peaceful throughout (I don't think any cities changed hands the entire game). Even when I cut research and trade pacts and denounced them a couple of times they stayed polite. Definitely think that the harder levels need a higher AI aggression toward human players, they should be ganging up and exploiting weakness.