Hey community and team,

I have a simple request for a difficulty option/mod:

I most enjoy playing either against human opponents, or AI without any economic advantages/disadvantages. For whatever reason, it really wrecks my enjoyment of a game knowing that the AI is getting flat bonuses or has some kind of comeback mechanic that I have to play around.

Metropolis is great for the fact that the AI has no bonuses/maluses...however, the AI tends to rush ahead in eras while leaving Fame score behind. This ultimately leads to a dreadfully boring endgame, wherein some AI has hit the contemporary era with about as much fame as me. However, my victory is an assurance, as there is no way they can end the game fast enough for me to not catch up and nearly double their fame.

Nation fixes this problem by having the AI account for fame score before making the decision to advance to the next era. This makes competing with AI much more exciting and engaging! However...the AI receives advantages that can be frustrating to play against, especially in early eras.

Hence, I find myself frustrated and bored with both options. 

TLDR: What I'd love to see is a difficulty that is essentially Metropolis, but with AI that doesn't rush eras and seeks to maximize their fame score! Can we get the option to play with AI that plays to win (maximizes fame score) without receiving bonuses?

I agree with your sentiment and I know of the frustration to find the right challenge. For me the frustration lies between Nation and Empire, with the former being too easy but the latter a not so fun experience of seeing the runaway leader with double the fame for most of the game.

However, I think your request is problematic, because if the AI would not rush areas without bonuses, soon you would be technologically miles ahead, and endgame would still be extremely boring. For AI to keep up it simply has to use bonuses. For me personally I believe the fame mulitplier is a bit off, but I don't mind other bonuses because it is needed to create a challenge. 

The AI gets lots of bonuses but a fame miltiplier isnt one. They gain fame at the same rate as a human player with the same amount of stuff. 

If anything, fame DECREASES the amount of FIMS bonuses the AI gains

I see. If the AI earns fame legitimately, than those bonuses must be far larger than I imagined. So large that nr 1 can collect almost every star at a very fast speed.
I redress my comment than that I didn’t mind bonuses :) 

PrinceCosmo wrote:

TLDR: What I'd love to see is a difficulty that is essentially Metropolis, but with AI that doesn't rush eras and seeks to maximize their fame score! Can we get the option to play with AI that plays to win (maximizes fame score) without receiving bonuses?

I thought a lot about your comment this past day. I do think that the AI must, first and foremost, present a challenge to the player to make for a interesting experience, and if AI bonuses are a way to create that challenge, then it should be embraced. In the end, I think it enhances the game and make it more compelling and, ultimately, fun. That being said, I hold no power over your own tastes and my opinion is worth absolutely nothing on how you or anyone else should enjoy their own single-player games.

So, there you go: https://humankind.mod.io/no-ai-bonuses 

Check who's the persona, IIRC, there actually is a Persona strength that provides bonus Fame.

DoctorKain, you are THE MAN

docktorkain wrote:

PrinceCosmo wrote:

TLDR: What I'd love to see is a difficulty that is essentially Metropolis, but with AI that doesn't rush eras and seeks to maximize their fame score! Can we get the option to play with AI that plays to win (maximizes fame score) without receiving bonuses?

So, there you go: https://humankind.mod.io/no-ai-bonuses 

@docktorkain: thanks a tonne for that mod! I've been playing with this for the last year or so, and absolutely love(d) it. Any chance you could take that configuration from the back-end to the front-end, or give pointers on how to change the config for someone with only basic SOQL experience? 

With recent patches, Humankind on Humankind no longer hits that sweet spot for me. The base AI is OP (raids me with late medieval units when I'm midway the ancient era science progression). The no bonuses AI is a cakewalk - as is the game on Civ difficulty. 

Niche problem to have I suppose, but still, doesn't hurt to gravepost on the off chance you can help ;) Thanks in advance!