Upping the difficulty, improving AI, mods?

[aster]

Hi all,

I've had Distant Worlds for a while but just recently took the plunge, using Timotheus' awesome full-manual newbie guide. Was really fun to learn the ropes, but once I did (i.e. after my first game) it's become ridiculously easy.

I'm not even a big min-max or AI exploiting type player, but at a sensible rate of economic & colony expansion plus pretty basic military tactics, I'm just steamrolling everyone sooner or later. Tried to up the difficulty to Hard, still easy.

So my question is - what sort of setup do you find a challenge? Are there any mods that improve the balance & AI? Galaxy generation options & settings? Ideally I'd like a result more satisfying than giving the AI massive economic bonuses, but guess I'd take that too if it means being challenged on what's otherwise a fantastic game.

Thanks in advance!

[Retreat1970]

There is an extreme setting. Play with house rules. Play AI improvement mod or RetreatUE mod. Play against more advanced empires. Play against all bugs. Play small map with you prewarp and 10 bugs tech 7 on extreme. Let me know if that'd be easy.

[aster]

Ah, I didn't mean to give the impression I didn't think the game was capable of challenging me. Just want to figure out what combination of mods/settings veterans have found the most entertaining. For example, is it worthwhile to bump up AI aggression? Or does that have unforeseen effects?

Any preference between the AI Improvement and RetreatUE mods? I'm leaning toward the former because it seems a little more comprehensive, no idea really though.

[Retreat1970]

I like the RetreatUE mod, but I'm biased. Read twigsters AAR in the AAR section. It's hard.

[aster]

Thanks for the suggestion - I've been playing RetreatUE and enjoying it.

But.... is there a way to rollback the race additions? I feel like the stock races are the perfect # for me to keep track of mentally, a lot of these new ones blur together. Is it just a matter of copying the races folder from the vanilla game or are there other changes I'd have to make?

[Bingeling]

I would try to use just the AI mod, with or without the Extended included. The thread should have both options.

[Retreat1970]

Icemania's AI mod is very good. 1.04 is the stock races version.

[SirHoraceHarkness]

I couldn't play the game without icemania's ai mod. I tried a few games of vanilla without it and the ai is just too easy to steamroll unless you really stack the deck hard with tons of insect empires and pirates and such.

[aster]

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

Icemania's AI mod is very good. 1.04 is the stock races version.

Is there any notable difference from 1.04 to 1.05, aside from the extra races (and their associated exclusive tech)?

[Sabranan]

RetreatUE uses scripted research orders for the AI so it would probably be a bad plan to restore the stock races, since that would seriously affect the game's balance.

You could delete the non-stock races from the RetreatUE races folder, but there are references to race names in the research.txt file (ALLOWED RACES) and raceBiases.txt (obviously). On top of that there are the policies, design templates, dialogue and character folders which will contain files for each of the races.

It's hard to say exactly how DW will react to having a load of orphaned race references. Best case scenario is it just ignores it, worst case is it'll refuse to start.

[Retreat1970]

Is there any notable difference from 1.04 to 1.05, aside from the extra races (and their associated exclusive tech)?

Nope, but that being said I haven't put it under a microscope. There may be something.

[Twigster]

There is an extreme setting. Play with house rules. Play AI improvement mod or RetreatUE mod. Play against more advanced empires. Play against all bugs. Play small map with you prewarp and 10 bugs tech 7 on extreme. Let me know if that'd be easy.

Yeah- it is.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: aster

Hi all,

I've had Distant Worlds for a while but just recently took the plunge, using Timotheus' awesome full-manual newbie guide. Was really fun to learn the ropes, but once I did (i.e. after my first game) it's become ridiculously easy.

I'm not even a big min-max or AI exploiting type player, but at a sensible rate of economic & colony expansion plus pretty basic military tactics, I'm just steamrolling everyone sooner or later. Tried to up the difficulty to Hard, still easy.

So my question is - what sort of setup do you find a challenge? Are there any mods that improve the balance & AI? Galaxy generation options & settings? Ideally I'd like a result more satisfying than giving the AI massive economic bonuses, but guess I'd take that too if it means being challenged on what's otherwise a fantastic game.

Thanks in advance!

My very first post in this forum was basically a complaint about difficulty, much like this one!

The suggestions from posters above are all good but I just want to reinforce house rules. There are some parts of the game, despite how great the game is, that are a little bit game breaking, like technology selling ... which we can't mod.

My personal house rules:

• No Homeworld Invasions are permitted until the 30 year mark and no use of sneaky fast troop transports (otherwise too easy, although harder now that what it used to be and I've done what I can in the AI Mod)
• Intelligence Agents must remain on Counter Intelligence duties (otherwise agents can sometimes become uber powerful particularly if they have concealment, there really should be a lower cap on skills)
• Recovered ships must be retired (as they are super powerful although with the AI Mod the AI explores much better so more will be found and fight against you)
• Debris field ships may not be recovered until they are within my territorial influence (as a huge research booster which the AI is uber slow to exploit, nothing I can Mod here unfortunately)
• Exploration ships must be on Automatic, no micro (stop and move to greatly increases exploration speed and goody finding)
• Cannot attack the Eruktah Refugees until they reveal themselves as the Shakturi (pure cheese)

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

Is there any notable difference from 1.04 to 1.05, aside from the extra races (and their associated exclusive tech)?

Nope, but that being said I haven't put it under a microscope. There may be something.

Yeah there were really just some bug fixes in 1.05. 1.04 is essential though, huge changes in AI behaviour from 1.03.