One time some faction asked me for 200 not to attack. I demanded all their cities and all their money not to attack. The diplomat refused and laughed about it. They attacked eventually but it was like a dozen turns later. It's sort of silly they'd ask for so little. Maybe having some humor about it is a better strategy.
Ah yes! Medieval II! Nothing says Total War like marrying your princess into an solid alliance with a faction on the other side of Europe, only for them to attack you out of nowhere because you left one of your islands without a fully-stacked garrison.
diplomacy in this game really sucks. you're much stronger as a faction ? who cares. you have great relations with the other faction ? who cares :D as soon as you have garrison small enough for the other faction to handle, they'll declare war on you.
@@tugrulserhathow does that make diplomacy in the game bad, that is a good thing because it promotes you playing the game more actively instead eof making allies with everyone and fortifying one front while leaving the other weak, i would be alot more annoyed if u got away with that because in a more realistic scenario u would get invaded too
@@mahino420 Except in reality it doesn't work that way at all and you can stretch and provoke allies a long time before they will think to attack. It is counter intuitive and unrealistic, not to mention unreliable
@@BeKindToBirds imo its unrealistic that the medieval french leave unfortified castles while fighting a war on the eastern front and the english just chill and watch without invading
*Finally Modding video!!! Listen, Thomas, remember that modified, historically accurate RTW Map I sent you? You said that you fancied it. Well, I modified it more and more so now it is Perfect: regions belong to true owners, factions are brought to historical level (Romans unable to do anything for like 100 turns; Diadochs are lock, stock and ready to fire; Britons can snooze safe on their islands for next 200 turns; Carthage is sea & trade dominator; Rebels are on full stock; Gauls are spreading from Channel to Galatia; etc), Bankruptcy is next to impossible, Pyrrhus is on the Italy's heel, ... now I'm working on Units STATS, making them REALISTIC, it will be GREAT because battles will LAST LONG and be true depiction of the time...only thing left are some final touches from you and we'll have great "Thomas's Mod"! This is what you'll have to do: fix the Banners, change names of the factions to proper ones, change unit names to historical ones, make Barca family tree, unite or change Roman factions into different shades of Red on which Golden Eagle will stand, add phalanx units to Ptolemaic kingdom (Egypt), and such. That's it!*
Ah yes, our fabled Thomas mod. It's been a long old year but the guides and mods are going to trickle back onto the channel. Excited to hear about your progress. Some of the last bits you mention are not as simple as most the guides but if I can decipher them and make it palatable for a video then I'll hopefully do so. 🙂
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH *I have faith in you, Thomas. It will be glorious! The Map is finished, I'm doing the Tests right now - trying to find that fine balance for units to be max realistic on the battlefield. So far I'm very satisfied, it will just take A LOT of testing (especially with elephants units) and finding best combination of stats and bonuses. But I'll probably have it ready by the time you finish your part of the deal. It is already much more enjoyable then original game (Pyrrhus is there, best units on disposal from the start for factions that were in their prime before Rome entered the stage, I researched and made territorial disposition strictly according to History, each faction has exactly the same starting position as it had in History, Rome has to catch up like it historically did, Diadochy wars can burn for a long time until Rome rises, nobody can reach Brits and they can't reach anybody so it is all "Waiting for Godot" (Romans) for them, Pontic kingdom has clear way to dominate Little Asia, Carthage is trade monster, I changed relations stats to favor historical conditions, ... after you add your part it will practically be NEW GAME! So much FUN & ENJOYMENT will it provide!*
Why would taking a city increase your global standing? It would make people see you as a warmonger and threat to world peace, and more of a threat because you’re more powerful.
It is a bit counter intuitive, I agree. I think the idea is that as everyone goes around trying to be the biggest empire possible, war is taken as a given. Thus the factions who take cities 'gallantly' and don't slaughter the population are viewed as decent by the low standards of the day. Or it's a game device and CA needed some actions to be positive in the game and this was just how it fell.
The attacking army not sacking a city that falls was unusual for the time period. Generally armies were extremely decentralized and took what they needed on the march, and soldiers often looted and pillaged even if ordered otherwise. Ensuring no civilians got hurt while taking another nation’s city would be seen as making you more upright and honorable.
>world peace LMAO, people had the good sense not to be platitude-stricken hippies in eras past. Sadly, christ insanity started to crumble people's good natural sense to where it is now where virtually no one dares make any sense.
The "expected" action is that you'll sack the city - killing many of the inhabitants and looting much of their wealth. The "occupy" option is seen as a more civilised approach. No deaths, the city pays a bit of a ransom and broadly continues on unhindered. The plenty of being seen as 'too powerful' comes from the global hits that are applied to being a large faction.
Whenever I play this game it’s just understood that alliances are superficial “friendships” that you use for about the first 50 turns, but once you start doing well, everyone declares war and you just have to steamroll your way through
The best way I've found to maintain excellent reputation and relations is to inform friends and everyone else who will listen about who I am attacking, even if it's rebels, even if I need to give them a bit of money to accept the gifted attack, and to also pay them to attack their enemies. When I attack, their reputation goes up, and when they attack, my reputation goes up, and the constant exchange keeps relations high.
This was such a great information. I tried this with the Holy Roman Empire and I am currently the most powerful nation and currently went on a crusade with 4 huge armies against Antioch that was held by the Mongols. I literally annihilated them completely. In the beginning of the game, I focused on making alliance's with important factions (such as Venice, France, Hungary and the Papal State's). My target was Milan, I hoped for them to try to attack me first. However, they attacked me sooner than I thought but I successfully took over Milan, Genoa and Dijon. Later, England attacked my two cities in Belgium and Netherlands, but I successfully annihilated their armies and made a peace deal (however, weirdly England was destroyed afterwards, even tho It still held on to London, Nottingham and York). After the war with England, my ally France attacked me, and I completely destroyed them as well with an army of 6 groups. I took over Rheims and Marseille, and made a peace deal after completely weaking them. That proved to be great, as my economy sky rocketed, and the reason behind my successful crusade on Antioch. Now the Pope called a crusade on Hungarian held Constantinople which is my allie. I believe I shall join, as Hungary is becoming increasingly powerful as it made Poland a vassal state, and took over Breslau and Krakow, while having also Sofia and Nicaea under their rule. After i successfully take Constantinople and Nicaea, I will have the strategic position of another war with the Mongols. Being able with the Crusading army of Antioch and Constantinople attacking the Mongols with numerous armies on two fronts. Your advice was great, the game became much more strategically significant and much more realistic. Thank you👏🏻👏🏻
It is really funny to see, how other games can work. For me, the AI is never in war with someone - they all just wait to attack me. For example, the Moors take Lisbon of Portugal. Then the moors declear war on me and make an alliance with portugal against me …. like wtf 😂
When it comes to breaking alliances a strategy to avoid damaging your reputation would be to give them an offer they can refuse. Offer them money, or demand money for breaking the alliance. And they might haggle or accept your conditions (or even decline). It is when you don't leave it up for negotiations by making a declaration which damages your reputation. "I'm going to punch you in the face" is an offer you can't refuse. "Give me 50 dollars and I'll punch you in the face" is an offer you can refuse.
I wish there was a change in relations depending on religion for instance taking hostile actions that are normally negative would be considered positive in the eyes of others who follow your religion if they are done against other religions. For instance, exterminating a Muslim settlement as a catholic will bring positive relation with other Catholic nations but will double the negativity in diplomatic relations with Muslim factions.
Ahh shit just today almost every catholic faction began to build gaps from me, My ally joined the other faction - that other faction attacked me And my older ally broke his alliance with me 💀💀💀 instead of breaking it with his newer friend but your video made it all make some sense, since My danish empire is quite widespread atm and notches up in every ranking I guess that made it all go sour even tho my relation with em is still Considered as Good
I originally quit playing Medieval 2 because basically the Pope hated me for conquering the map. I didn't get how this was supposed to be a TW game where you couldn't conquer other factions.
total war doesnt mean being belligerent as fuck anyway , but yes dealing with the pope is a pain and playing carefuly does pay off , thats why i expand 1 region at a time sometimes decades pass before i take another one , once the pope and i are on good terms again the process starts again , and i never play long campaigns anyway cause the goals are nonsensical , short campaigns are better imo cause they pit you against your historical enemies in most cases and the expansion goals are more realistic , but if you play domination or long campaign issues with the pope are guaranteed
@@Kevin-oy2lr I recently made an effort to replay it since I was a huge Rome TW fan. Never realized there was an AI bug that made all other factions hyper aggressive. Fixing it made everyone, including the Pope, a lot more chill.
Pope likes gold and power. Pretty realistic and historical by the way. So give him what he wants. Bribes and cities you don't need. Like captured in crusades - quite often it's distant isolated cities surrounded by enemies, so why don't give it to Pope? Makes him happy and busy. :)
What i don't understand is that there is a point in the game where everybody turns against me in succession. I can be fully neutral to everybody bar one enemy, with mixed reputation, then at one point my ally betrays me, declares a truce with their enemies, allies with said enemies, and they go on to declare war to me turn after turn and i get 6 enemies in like 8 turns out of the blue. Why? Its not garrison, because i specifically tested it by stacking all my border settlements and they still declara war by blockading ports or trying to assassinate generals.
i preffer to play on normal , cause everythzing above that is nonsensical and i never get into trouble cause im rather cautious with my nonsense , i wont fight fellow christians unless provoked or drawn in by alliance (which ironicaly raises reputation)
@@christianflores3437 typicaly within the first few turns scotland will send a small army north , after that it will try to go for ireland , while at the same time the majority of their family members and the rest of the army will sail towards europe to try and capture some of the port cities , if you are quick you can pretty much sink their entire family , and this happens on all the difficulties almost every time , but then again total war ai suffer from inconsistency
Thanks for the video. I like this game, but one of its weakest points was always diplomacy. Like why even have an alliance mechanic, if it doesn't do you any good?
now that would be a cool idea the only thing similar to that that i know of is playing a multiplayer campaign where you get to control more than 1 faction
The whole diplomacy thing is so 1 sided and nonsensical in many aspects. Defending settlements impacts relations. And inevitably all ai nations ally within themselves. Eventually you get ai with minimal to no conflict and will focus it's entire military solely on the player. Can't tell you who many times Mongols have sat around for 50-60 turns without taking a single settlement, but once I take Constantinople or Kiev a jihad is called and I have to face 13 stacks collectively. On the other hand when a jihad is called against an ai controlled settlement they will effectively stand near the settlement until the jihad fails and they'll never leave that spot until I have control over that settlement. Then they will attack. Establishing vassals is damn near impossible.
Vassals are just a mess... They're so insignificant that I forget the mechanic even pretends to be there. As for the hordes, they do tend to bumble back and forth... And it certainly seems like they're more aggressive to the human player. But I have found in recent games I've been able to manage alliances better now that I maintain better relationships. There is hope 😊
I just got attacked by Holy Roman Empire, Milan, Hungary and Byzantines all in 2 turns.... haha Im winning though as Venice. Slowly. I really dislike diplomacy in this game.
So disappointed and irritated that the difficulty level simply means the game hits you with a penalty at the end of turns - that is so hacky and crap. I find it so pathetic and poor when the difficulty level of games is simply bias against you. In Civ, it's the AI getting production boosts and so on. If it was reasonable, the AI would simply have a better decision tree. Instead, it just arbitrarily hacks itself against you. That sucks balls. In reality, their AI sucks. Hopefully, now game designers can incorporate AI into their games on a license basis just as they can with graphics engines.
I was thinking of Civ when I read that funnily enough. Lots of people prefer to play on hard rather than v. hard for this reason. I like learning how you can manage it but it is sadly very artificial.
Accept or we will attack
Please do not attack us
*10 seconds later*
Same faction blocks your port, declares war
Just ask money, like miniscule amount of cash. (10-50)
sometimes works.
They still blockade your port in the next term tho
Ceasefire
Demands 5000: very generous
See you in 10 turns dick
Can't beat the classics!
One time some faction asked me for 200 not to attack. I demanded all their cities and all their money not to attack. The diplomat refused and laughed about it. They attacked eventually but it was like a dozen turns later. It's sort of silly they'd ask for so little. Maybe having some humor about it is a better strategy.
Ah yes! Medieval II! Nothing says Total War like marrying your princess into an solid alliance with a faction on the other side of Europe, only for them to attack you out of nowhere because you left one of your islands without a fully-stacked garrison.
Yup. Sound familiar! 😅
diplomacy in this game really sucks. you're much stronger as a faction ? who cares. you have great relations with the other faction ? who cares :D as soon as you have garrison small enough for the other faction to handle, they'll declare war on you.
@@tugrulserhathow does that make diplomacy in the game bad, that is a good thing because it promotes you playing the game more actively instead eof making allies with everyone and fortifying one front while leaving the other weak, i would be alot more annoyed if u got away with that because in a more realistic scenario u would get invaded too
@@mahino420 Except in reality it doesn't work that way at all and you can stretch and provoke allies a long time before they will think to attack.
It is counter intuitive and unrealistic, not to mention unreliable
@@BeKindToBirds imo its unrealistic that the medieval french leave unfortified castles while fighting a war on the eastern front and the english just chill and watch without invading
*Finally Modding video!!! Listen, Thomas, remember that modified, historically accurate RTW Map I sent you? You said that you fancied it. Well, I modified it more and more so now it is Perfect: regions belong to true owners, factions are brought to historical level (Romans unable to do anything for like 100 turns; Diadochs are lock, stock and ready to fire; Britons can snooze safe on their islands for next 200 turns; Carthage is sea & trade dominator; Rebels are on full stock; Gauls are spreading from Channel to Galatia; etc), Bankruptcy is next to impossible, Pyrrhus is on the Italy's heel, ... now I'm working on Units STATS, making them REALISTIC, it will be GREAT because battles will LAST LONG and be true depiction of the time...only thing left are some final touches from you and we'll have great "Thomas's Mod"! This is what you'll have to do: fix the Banners, change names of the factions to proper ones, change unit names to historical ones, make Barca family tree, unite or change Roman factions into different shades of Red on which Golden Eagle will stand, add phalanx units to Ptolemaic kingdom (Egypt), and such. That's it!*
Ah yes, our fabled Thomas mod. It's been a long old year but the guides and mods are going to trickle back onto the channel.
Excited to hear about your progress. Some of the last bits you mention are not as simple as most the guides but if I can decipher them and make it palatable for a video then I'll hopefully do so. 🙂
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH *I have faith in you, Thomas. It will be glorious! The Map is finished, I'm doing the Tests right now - trying to find that fine balance for units to be max realistic on the battlefield. So far I'm very satisfied, it will just take A LOT of testing (especially with elephants units) and finding best combination of stats and bonuses. But I'll probably have it ready by the time you finish your part of the deal. It is already much more enjoyable then original game (Pyrrhus is there, best units on disposal from the start for factions that were in their prime before Rome entered the stage, I researched and made territorial disposition strictly according to History, each faction has exactly the same starting position as it had in History, Rome has to catch up like it historically did, Diadochy wars can burn for a long time until Rome rises, nobody can reach Brits and they can't reach anybody so it is all "Waiting for Godot" (Romans) for them, Pontic kingdom has clear way to dominate Little Asia, Carthage is trade monster, I changed relations stats to favor historical conditions, ... after you add your part it will practically be NEW GAME! So much FUN & ENJOYMENT will it provide!*
@@IvicaArmanas what is the name of the mod?
@@yingoyango3323 It's in the comment and Thomas's comment...
@@IvicaArmanas it is called thomas mod?
Thanks! I remember lurking in these files when I was in school and it brings so many good memories. Still, never got used to occupying cities.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Why would taking a city increase your global standing? It would make people see you as a warmonger and threat to world peace, and more of a threat because you’re more powerful.
It is a bit counter intuitive, I agree. I think the idea is that as everyone goes around trying to be the biggest empire possible, war is taken as a given. Thus the factions who take cities 'gallantly' and don't slaughter the population are viewed as decent by the low standards of the day.
Or it's a game device and CA needed some actions to be positive in the game and this was just how it fell.
The attacking army not sacking a city that falls was unusual for the time period. Generally armies were extremely decentralized and took what they needed on the march, and soldiers often looted and pillaged even if ordered otherwise. Ensuring no civilians got hurt while taking another nation’s city would be seen as making you more upright and honorable.
Play sship everytime you declare war, attack and occupy cities your reputation drop
>world peace
LMAO, people had the good sense not to be platitude-stricken hippies in eras past. Sadly, christ insanity started to crumble people's good natural sense to where it is now where virtually no one dares make any sense.
The "expected" action is that you'll sack the city - killing many of the inhabitants and looting much of their wealth. The "occupy" option is seen as a more civilised approach. No deaths, the city pays a bit of a ransom and broadly continues on unhindered.
The plenty of being seen as 'too powerful' comes from the global hits that are applied to being a large faction.
Whenever I play this game it’s just understood that alliances are superficial “friendships” that you use for about the first 50 turns, but once you start doing well, everyone declares war and you just have to steamroll your way through
The best way I've found to maintain excellent reputation and relations is to inform friends and everyone else who will listen about who I am attacking, even if it's rebels, even if I need to give them a bit of money to accept the gifted attack, and to also pay them to attack their enemies.
When I attack, their reputation goes up, and when they attack, my reputation goes up, and the constant exchange keeps relations high.
I absolutely thank you for this!
No problem. More guides on diplomacy to come!
This was such a great information. I tried this with the Holy Roman Empire and I am currently the most powerful nation and currently went on a crusade with 4 huge armies against Antioch that was held by the Mongols. I literally annihilated them completely. In the beginning of the game, I focused on making alliance's with important factions (such as Venice, France, Hungary and the Papal State's). My target was Milan, I hoped for them to try to attack me first. However, they attacked me sooner than I thought but I successfully took over Milan, Genoa and Dijon. Later, England attacked my two cities in Belgium and Netherlands, but I successfully annihilated their armies and made a peace deal (however, weirdly England was destroyed afterwards, even tho It still held on to London, Nottingham and York). After the war with England, my ally France attacked me, and I completely destroyed them as well with an army of 6 groups. I took over Rheims and Marseille, and made a peace deal after completely weaking them. That proved to be great, as my economy sky rocketed, and the reason behind my successful crusade on Antioch. Now the Pope called a crusade on Hungarian held Constantinople which is my allie. I believe I shall join, as Hungary is becoming increasingly powerful as it made Poland a vassal state, and took over Breslau and Krakow, while having also Sofia and Nicaea under their rule. After i successfully take Constantinople and Nicaea, I will have the strategic position of another war with the Mongols. Being able with the Crusading army of Antioch and Constantinople attacking the Mongols with numerous armies on two fronts.
Your advice was great, the game became much more strategically significant and much more realistic. Thank you👏🏻👏🏻
It is really funny to see, how other games can work.
For me, the AI is never in war with someone - they all just wait to attack me. For example, the Moors take Lisbon of Portugal. Then the moors declear war on me and make an alliance with portugal against me …. like wtf 😂
When it comes to breaking alliances a strategy to avoid damaging your reputation would be to give them an offer they can refuse. Offer them money, or demand money for breaking the alliance. And they might haggle or accept your conditions (or even decline). It is when you don't leave it up for negotiations by making a declaration which damages your reputation.
"I'm going to punch you in the face" is an offer you can't refuse. "Give me 50 dollars and I'll punch you in the face" is an offer you can refuse.
How did I miss this video? Great stuff.
I wish there was a change in relations depending on religion for instance taking hostile actions that are normally negative would be considered positive in the eyes of others who follow your religion if they are done against other religions. For instance, exterminating a Muslim settlement as a catholic will bring positive relation with other Catholic nations but will double the negativity in diplomatic relations with Muslim factions.
I just pay the Papal States 800-1000 florins per turn helps having perfect standing with them
Bribing the pope is a good strategy. 😅
You use Paypal for that? 😄 /jk
Ahh shit just today almost every catholic faction began to build gaps from me, My ally joined the other faction - that other faction attacked me And my older ally broke his alliance with me 💀💀💀 instead of breaking it with his newer friend but your video made it all make some sense, since My danish empire is quite widespread atm and notches up in every ranking I guess that made it all go sour even tho my relation with em is still Considered as Good
I originally quit playing Medieval 2 because basically the Pope hated me for conquering the map. I didn't get how this was supposed to be a TW game where you couldn't conquer other factions.
total war doesnt mean being belligerent as fuck anyway , but yes dealing with the pope is a pain and playing carefuly does pay off , thats why i expand 1 region at a time sometimes decades pass before i take another one , once the pope and i are on good terms again the process starts again , and i never play long campaigns anyway cause the goals are nonsensical , short campaigns are better imo cause they pit you against your historical enemies in most cases and the expansion goals are more realistic , but if you play domination or long campaign issues with the pope are guaranteed
Just park a diplomat at Rome and give them florins when your favour drops. They made that part realistic.
@@Kevin-oy2lr I recently made an effort to replay it since I was a huge Rome TW fan. Never realized there was an AI bug that made all other factions hyper aggressive. Fixing it made everyone, including the Pope, a lot more chill.
Pope likes gold and power. Pretty realistic and historical by the way. So give him what he wants. Bribes and cities you don't need. Like captured in crusades - quite often it's distant isolated cities surrounded by enemies, so why don't give it to Pope? Makes him happy and busy. :)
What i don't understand is that there is a point in the game where everybody turns against me in succession. I can be fully neutral to everybody bar one enemy, with mixed reputation, then at one point my ally betrays me, declares a truce with their enemies, allies with said enemies, and they go on to declare war to me turn after turn and i get 6 enemies in like 8 turns out of the blue. Why? Its not garrison, because i specifically tested it by stacking all my border settlements and they still declara war by blockading ports or trying to assassinate generals.
After I did this i manage to ally with almost every christian country and I told the pope to call a crusade on Jerusalem
Deus vult !!
hard for them to hate you if they no longer exist ......
i preffer to play on normal , cause everythzing above that is nonsensical and i never get into trouble cause im rather cautious with my nonsense , i wont fight fellow christians unless provoked or drawn in by alliance (which ironicaly raises reputation)
But then for example Scotland will never attack rebel cities
Hell I even gave them 8k more florins and nada
@@christianflores3437 typicaly within the first few turns scotland will send a small army north , after that it will try to go for ireland , while at the same time the majority of their family members and the rest of the army will sail towards europe to try and capture some of the port cities , if you are quick you can pretty much sink their entire family , and this happens on all the difficulties almost every time , but then again total war ai suffer from inconsistency
Thank you for this
Thank you. More diplomacy guides to come. 🙂
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH Awesome
Thanks for the video. I like this game, but one of its weakest points was always diplomacy. Like why even have an alliance mechanic, if it doesn't do you any good?
Or you could go the spiffing Brit route and give such a terrible deal that it turns out to be fantastic.
@OklopnikSilni, you’re thinking of Totalbiscuit.
I am having and issue with the "file_first" lines in the .cfg, get a CTD with them. followed Thomas' earlier video to the letter
What do "TC_DISHONOUR" and "TC_INVASION_FLEE" mean?
Does anyone know if the diplomacy bug is present in the mobile version?
Yes it is
Is it possible to change factions during gameplay using console commands?
I'd like to know about RTW as well if it's possible.
now that would be a cool idea
the only thing similar to that that i know of is playing a multiplayer campaign where you get to control more than 1 faction
More like this please! :)
I cannot find that text file you are talking about!
I suspect you need to unpack the files to find what you're looking for!
ua-cam.com/video/CyIfPqoxvj8/v-deo.html
Subbed. 👍
Bro sounds like a Pilot
The whole diplomacy thing is so 1 sided and nonsensical in many aspects. Defending settlements impacts relations. And inevitably all ai nations ally within themselves. Eventually you get ai with minimal to no conflict and will focus it's entire military solely on the player. Can't tell you who many times Mongols have sat around for 50-60 turns without taking a single settlement, but once I take Constantinople or Kiev a jihad is called and I have to face 13 stacks collectively. On the other hand when a jihad is called against an ai controlled settlement they will effectively stand near the settlement until the jihad fails and they'll never leave that spot until I have control over that settlement. Then they will attack. Establishing vassals is damn near impossible.
Vassals are just a mess... They're so insignificant that I forget the mechanic even pretends to be there. As for the hordes, they do tend to bumble back and forth... And it certainly seems like they're more aggressive to the human player.
But I have found in recent games I've been able to manage alliances better now that I maintain better relationships. There is hope 😊
I just got attacked by Holy Roman Empire, Milan, Hungary and Byzantines all in 2 turns.... haha Im winning though as Venice. Slowly. I really dislike diplomacy in this game.
It relies on playing heavily into certain mechanics... It's definitely been improved in 3 kingdoms. It was brutal in classic Total War. Good luck!
They all are your natural enemies, so it was inevitable. Wait for Sicily attack as well. It's not about diplomacy at all.
So disappointed and irritated that the difficulty level simply means the game hits you with a penalty at the end of turns - that is so hacky and crap. I find it so pathetic and poor when the difficulty level of games is simply bias against you. In Civ, it's the AI getting production boosts and so on.
If it was reasonable, the AI would simply have a better decision tree. Instead, it just arbitrarily hacks itself against you. That sucks balls. In reality, their AI sucks. Hopefully, now game designers can incorporate AI into their games on a license basis just as they can with graphics engines.
I was thinking of Civ when I read that funnily enough. Lots of people prefer to play on hard rather than v. hard for this reason. I like learning how you can manage it but it is sadly very artificial.
ρ尺oΜ𝐎ᔕᗰ