Honest Difficulty

Comments motivated me to play several games without usual heavy modding and AI really is struggling to play the game right, so here is "big year 2024 update":

Main problem I’m trying to solve with this mod is the “inverted difficulty” of civ, when you are heavily pressed at the beginning, but then catch up and overrun the AI, so the late game is a boring slog. Ideally with this mod you should get more breathing room at the beginning, but race with the AI should continue till the very end of the game. As a side effect this mod makes later eras last longer, so you get more time to play with cool end game stuff.

Settler – something in the line of Prince from unmodded game.
Chieftain – AI plays on the same basic rules, Human got +25% for Tech costs and Unit maintenance.
Warlord – +50% for Tech costs and Unit maintenance
Prince – here human plays on basic rules, but AI’s got set of real bonuses
King – AI with the same set of bonuses, Human +25% for Tech and Maintenance
Emperor – AI the same, +50% for Human
Immortal – +75% for Human
Deity – +100% for Human

From the raw difficulty point of view modded Settler equals Prince in unmodded game, new Prince somewhere in the line of basic game Emperor, new Deity feels the same as old one.

Two key aspects of civ V strategy are tech and military, so making it harder seems logical to control difficulties. Unfortunately, after more than +100% (as of Deity) it feels (IMO) too annoying, but AI without bonuses still is too weak. So bonuses are needed, but I’ve tried to make bonuses feel more sane, than in a basic game, so AI will behave like a veteran human, not somebody playing a completely different game.

No AI free techs – this is obvious stuff to allow early wonders to be buildable.

Happiness. 13 at the start (-2 from unmodded game), full unhappiness from the number of cities, 85% unhappiness from population/ +6 happiness from luxury.

3 choices for production – limits staking on 2 stupid things

Starting units – no additional settlers and workers, 2 additional warriors and one scout (AI is terrible at early scouting and defending against barbarians).

Food bonus – AI got +2 food in the capital, +2 food to the monument, +6 food for several early National wonders. It compensates for AI’s inability to grow, build wonders in the right city and use of food trade routes.

Production bonus – AI got +2 production in the capital and -25% in hammer costs of buildings.

Combat bonus – Land AI units got +50% strength and +2 to sight, naval +50% and +4 to sight, air – free air repair promo.

Per era modifier 10 – each era AI got a 10% discount on generally everything except tech costs. It should keep opponents competitive till the end of the game.

Everything else is generally basic.

This is a public beta, so feedback is greatly appreciated.

Does not work with later era starts!
Should work with any mods unless they manipulate handicap parameters.
Supported languages: English, Russian

Creator of Feudal Ranks Mod for original idea of switching incremental AI bonuses for Human handicaps.
Tokeraki for playtesting