Author, thanks for the mod! I want to ask: is it possible to make a mod or change a config file somewhere to permanently change default advanced settings (maybe even standard settings) for realms? I restart very often and is so frustrating to configure every checkbox and every drop-down menu again and again. I did not found mod and have bad feeling that it is not possible or incredibly hard, but maybe I am alone in my struggle and there are simple config file (which I have not found) to fix it?

Does this mod work in multiplayer? I'm having issues where it doesn't seem to

So I would assume that it would overwrite the existing difficulty level, but I can't say I've confirmed

If this is added to an ongoing save, does it just overwrite the existing difficulty level? Or does this need a fresh save to work properly?

Unfortunately, the AI actually does get bonuses to fighting the Marauders on high world threat

I love this idea for a mod but i tried it last night on Brutal difficulty, High World Threat and Regenerating Infestations. All of the AI factions got eliminated before i had a chance to fight them. I think most of them got eliminated by the infestations. Would it be possible to fix this? Maybe give the AI bonus damage vs Marauders if that's possible.

That error is fine to ignore.

I am getting an error with this mod from the loader, "metadata file is missing or can't be parsed." Was going to try this instead of the other AI difficulty mod.

Kaige - your mods are amazing. Thank you so much for them. Can I ask a favor, could you re-post the comparison screenshots somewhere and post a link? When I click on them above, the top and bottom is cut off and the preview window is way too tiny. That would so incredibly appreciated.

I'm also curious if it's doing anything at the moment; I was doing the Caldera story mission (on Normal), vs. the final boss and he pulled a fresh 18-stack in 4-5 turns every single time (from two cities, 1 vassal), at around turn 60, which got incredibly tiresome.

Even summoning and using Rally the Lieges and building in all my cities, I could at most pull 8 units in the same timeframe. It was pretty stupid to the point where I sacrificed a stack to distract him and then ran in to siege his capital from the other side before he could react.

I'm playing with your mod, but I can't determine whether it works fully or not.

Have you thought about making a mod that makes the AI more difficult?

If there was such an opportunity, a large number of people would be grateful, because even AI itself does not pose a threat right now

Does there need to be one?

update?

I wonder if I install 2 mods in this order, will they both work?
To make the AI a little smarter and to have smoother bonuses for the AI

FairPlay AI Overhaul
Difficulty Remastered

I noticed today that after the golem game update my game save file is 4x bigger than it would be with 76 added mods compared to the 24 basic mods I 'must have' to play the game

your mod did not add all of that but to a two player small map save file it adds 220 kb. that may not sound like much but prior to the golem update this is the size of the entire save file for a two player small map game

please post if you can figure out how to fix this. until then I am forced to turn off this mod (along with other save file space hogs)

Ah, I see. I had thought the first table indicated vanilla's bonuses, while the second table indicated the set of bonuses your mod would switch to. Thank you for the clarification.

There is upkeep reduction in the table above. It's in the first row. As for special campaign units (such as Yaka's Phoenix in Mission 1), those are added by scripts, and are not affected by this mod

Regarding "cutting down on AI starting bonuses like extra starting units, starting buildings, etc.", do you have any information on how this interacts with the 'campaign'/story scenarios? And, also, whether any of the unit upkeep reduction from the original difficulty settings is retained? (apparently not from the tables above, but asking regardless)

I've noticed that on the some of the missions the AI can struggle to keep up with the upkeep costs of the units they're given, which leads to those units becoming factionless marauders (which in turn fucks up the AI and any vestige of difficulty/pressure). I'm thinking of using this mod, but it would be good to know whether any of the free structures/units the AI receives on story scenarios is affected, and furthermore whether the upkeep problems the AI runs into will be exacerbated.

Alright, thanks a bunch for the quick reply. I'll give the unofficial patch a shot and probably this too. Looking forward to seeing it in action.

@Dabor Yes, the main purpose of this mod is to cut down on AI starting bonuses (Like extra starting units, starting buildings, etc.) and focuses more on long term growth bonuses to help make the AI a threat as the game goes on. It also just standardizes the difficulty curve, where as the vanilla difficulty settings are less standardized.

My Unofficial Patch lets you see what the Vanilla difficulty settings do in game. You can use that to see what Vanilla difficulty looks like, then install this to compare.

It's kind of hard for me to tell at a glance how this mod is supposed to change the feel of the game. Is the idea that early-mid game high difficulty AIs are less overwhelming, showing up with 3 stacks of T2-T3 when you'll have at best 2 stacks of T1-T2, but late game they'll scale to you better and now get their stacks of T3's buried under your mix of T3-T5 with high level heroes?

My main problem atm is that if I team up the enemies against me the early-mid game is needlessly stressful and their aggression means I have a hard time really getting going, but if I DO get to late game I just squash empire after empire with ease. Would this mod help with that?

@Malorn This mod has been updated now

So, does this need an update?

Ok thanks does the AI still play the same at all levels? The game tooltips say otherwise.

The pics are outdated with the current version of the mod. The table in the description is accurate and up to date.

This does not seem to be working with current patch? Tooltips do not match pics above?

@Itemgeil: Seconded, I really hate the bonus armor / resist. Makes it literally impossible to fight their tanks.

No, there used to be an additional +1/2/3/4 passive experience per turn gain

Gotcha, so the x% xp per turn in the screenshots is what was removed and now they just get the flat bonuses in the description's table?

The mod used to have passive experience gain for units on higher difficulties, which resulted in absurdly high level heroes fairly early in the game

Very interesting changes! I was wondering, could you elaborate on the passive xp changes you mentioned on Jun 21? I am playing a game on hard difficulty with the mod, and neighboring armies have multiple evolved tier 3 legend units by turn 14, which.. seems a bit intense!

can you do something agaisnt the base armor and resi which comes with the difficulty?

@Garde Oh shoot, this is my bad, I didn't mean to post that note here in this mod

"NOTE: I will likely stop supporting this mod after the next update since I have included the changes in this mod in Unofficial Patch Age of Wonders 4" Hi, this mod will no longer updated like the "Difficulty Settings Explained"? Thanks for your work!

Would you be willing to release a version with original AI economy/discount buffs and aggressiveness in tandem with your long-term growth/experience buffs? It's a bit unfortunate that there aren't any difficulty mods out that make the game really severely stacked against the player.

I'm actually changing the passive experience with the next update since Triumph has added actual combat stat bonuses to the base game AI if you play on brutal difficulty, should be out later today

I played with this mod for a while and exp per turn gets really annoying. Especially with evolving creatures.

Hi, I really do like this mod cause I'm, not a huge fan of how Paradox buffs the hell out of the AI in the base game. though, I think the Exp passive is a bit overkill for the AI. I get that it provides a challenge to games, but having those bonuses apply to lords, heroes, and units can mess up the balance in certain cases. Like when AI uses a modded tome (the spider one) and theirs nothing I can really do to armies of max-tier spiders (granted the AI was on hard mode). If it is no problem to make a no Exp passive version of this mod or have some way to turn that off. that would be awesome, also thank you for this mod.

its just not rly modfriendly with other mods, like 2x skillpoints, unitlevel mods, agressive ai(with it you have no time to level your units or snowball, with your mod you get snowballed) and beta patch(they swarm the map and do camps early) and the human race xp bonus on top of that
if you have time maybe you could bring a version with no xp pls, since it just a few entries, if not sad but np

I understand the complaints about the XP bonus, it's the most noticeable change, but I've been playing only on Brutal with this mod, and for me personally, the extremely high level heroes is my favorite part of this mod; economy bonuses ultimately don't actually help the AI past a certain point thanks to the 3 stack limit, and what the AI ends up needing is some really strong units in the stack, which is what those level 20 heroes always end up doing for me in my playthroughs

yes exp passive should be removed, impossible to face a hero with level 19 and aoe dmg on turn 40

Does this mod work with multiplayer?

As for me XP bonus for ai is too powerfull. Especially with other mods.
For example: this mod, mod that gives 2 skill point per level and a mod that gives additional hero skills.

So in early game i have lv5-7 hero and t2 units. But hard ai has lv15 hero and t2 units. Lv 15 hero do near 70-80 dmg per turn easily and can kill bunch of t2 units without problems.

As for me percent bouns is good, but passive XP should be nerfed,

the XP gain seems really overtuned. I was consistently way underleveled while rampaging around the map killing everything in sight compared to the player next to me who just sat in his base getting passive XP. This was on Normal, btw.

same here. really wish there was a version without the xp bonus or something else in its place

I've been trying this now with in a Brutal game and it feels nicer to play diplomacy wise.
I agree with the fact that the xp gain for AI heroes especially is a bit too steep.
Had a lvl 14 hero show up on my doorstep fairly early on when my ruler was still lvl 3.

I really enjoy these changes, it's nice seeing the AI actually play the game rather than just grief me all game.

I really dislike the passive xp gain though, it'd be nice if the lower difficulty options didn't have that or had it *massively* nerfed. As it is now even factions that turtle up doing nothing have full legend stacks and level 20s which seems a bit whack.

I tried playing with this and the problem I found is that the AI even on normal gets lvl 20 heros regardless of if they are basically just afk in a corner or not by about turn 70/80 on normal might want to make the exp unit only excluding heros.

Does it stop AI from spawning armies out of air?

no prob, thanks