Harmonious Difficulties
This is a difficulty mod designed for Improved AI and/or ELCP (community patch).
TL DR: Removes free approval with Hard diff. and upwards, no more doubling down with buyout discounts on already cheaper units due to industry cuts, better scaling with bonuses, more benefits (with less impact) to AI to compensate.
V1.2.4:
– Fixed spell costs not using the ELCP original values if ELCP is detected.
V1.2.3:
– Fixed population buyout formula not using the 10% discount if ELCP is detected.
On higher difficulties AI has an absurd Industry and buyout potential, as buyout costs are based on industry cost, with either Improved AI or ELCP where the AI is able to use the tools at their disposal much better, the difference against the player is abysmal, so AIs and humans play totally different games.
On a quick view:
– Proper scaling in every type of bonus the AI gets with each increasing difficulty.
– Less industry output: Endless in Harmonic Difficulties has about Impossible in Vanilla difficulties.
– No buyout bonuses: AI has an inherent buyout discount with the industry discount.
– Scaling bonuses on districts and city center: On vanilla every difficulty past normal provided +10 Approval on each district and city center, completely negating "tall" dispproval.
– Less gains from strategics, but some discount on strategics in unit designs.
– New Bonuses: Pearl collection bonus, Extra Luxury gains.
– Instead of the absurd buyout discount, gold discounts on many other gold sinks: Unit retrofit, Marketplace resources, units and heroes, Technology (Forgotten), Pillars (Ardent Mages), Population Buyout (Broken Lords) and Buildings Pearl cost (only Allayi).
Key effects to alleviate from the vanilla experience:
– With the original +10 approval on districts, any AI with a good region positioning can quickly expand and snowball into a runaway powerhouse AI. Much like with human players, I consider approval should be a "brake" for a too early too fast expansion plan. A good positioning still will become powerful, but with less snowball potential due to approval penalties compared those AIs that couldn’t expand reliably so fast: AI will be able to eventually fix approval, but they will invest into empire plans/techs to do so.
– With the vanilla extraordinary building and buyout potential in the higher difficulties, AI Economy shift quickly into mostly buying out units and buildings constantly (as they are the best cost/effective decisions most of the time), instead of playing their faction strengths, defeating the original purpose of their economy evaluations, therefore turning down to low priority all their special economy tools, heroes, resources. Also, they build so fast their science/ growth/ expansion output just doesn’t keep up with their building/unit spam, the result is that they quickly drain their resources thanks to that power, especially once they get a healthy economy going.
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
