All, good info. Thanks Seravy. Now I don't feel so bad about having to play only Hard.
I don't know about the AI advantages work for the different level exactly, but again, maybe for CoM, my suggestion would be something that, instead of simply starting off the AIs with more resources, would give the AIs additional boosts over time, maybe even sets times or possibly semi-random.
For example, instead of something like the AIs starting with 200% more resources, have them start with 125% more resources, and then every 25 turns they get a "gift" of X amount (not a % as that can get crazy or be ineffective depending).
So, like on "Impossible", one thing could be to do something like give them only 125% more resources, but every 25 turns they get +500 gold and +500 mana. (These may not be good numbers, just throwing out the idea). Or maybe the "gifts" should scale with the turn count up to a capped max. Or maybe the formula could be that each AI roll a number between 10 and 30 at the start and they get a gift on that turn, then roll a new number that is the X number of turns until the next gift, etc.
Anyway, just an idea on how to still give the AI an advantage, but not make it so heavily front loaded. I'm sure there are many other ways as well.
Edit:
Another idea would be to actually turn certain AI functions off and on based on the difficulty setting. This may be more complicated and less clear, but this is really more how things like difficulty level work in stuff like Chess programs. In a Chess program the computer only looks X number of moves ahead or checks X number of possible combinations based on the difficulty setting. So in a chess game on the harder setting the AI is "smarter".
I guess in MoM and CoM the AI is the same all the time, and the difficulty is simply determined by the amount of starting resources. Is that correct?
I don't know about the AI advantages work for the different level exactly, but again, maybe for CoM, my suggestion would be something that, instead of simply starting off the AIs with more resources, would give the AIs additional boosts over time, maybe even sets times or possibly semi-random.
For example, instead of something like the AIs starting with 200% more resources, have them start with 125% more resources, and then every 25 turns they get a "gift" of X amount (not a % as that can get crazy or be ineffective depending).
So, like on "Impossible", one thing could be to do something like give them only 125% more resources, but every 25 turns they get +500 gold and +500 mana. (These may not be good numbers, just throwing out the idea). Or maybe the "gifts" should scale with the turn count up to a capped max. Or maybe the formula could be that each AI roll a number between 10 and 30 at the start and they get a gift on that turn, then roll a new number that is the X number of turns until the next gift, etc.
Anyway, just an idea on how to still give the AI an advantage, but not make it so heavily front loaded. I'm sure there are many other ways as well.
Edit:
Another idea would be to actually turn certain AI functions off and on based on the difficulty setting. This may be more complicated and less clear, but this is really more how things like difficulty level work in stuff like Chess programs. In a Chess program the computer only looks X number of moves ahead or checks X number of possible combinations based on the difficulty setting. So in a chess game on the harder setting the AI is "smarter".
I guess in MoM and CoM the AI is the same all the time, and the difficulty is simply determined by the amount of starting resources. Is that correct?