[Freeciv-Dev] AI handicap/advantage: simple proposal

[Massimo Campostrini <campo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am not completely happy with the "hard" AI setting.  

If I understand correctly, the "hard" AI knows everything and it can
ignore government max rates.  

This makes a big difference in the beginning.  E.g., in an all-land
game, if the AI gets a few free horsemen/legions, it heads right for
my cities, and I don't know how to defend them very early on.

OTOH, it makes little difference later on, when the world is explored
and everybody is a republic.  Moreover, I find the "normal" AI rather
good in the beginning and poor later on, so the "hard" AI gets a good
advantage when it doesn't need it, and it loses it when it needs it.

I have a very simple proposal, which would automatically implement
many levels of handicap/advantage: forget about know everything and
ignore rates; instead, multiply AI's research and tax revenues by a
constant amount, e.g. in 20% steps:

AI factor = 1.2^(level-6)

At level 0 the factor is 1/3, and this should be good enough for newbies;
at level 12 the factor is 3, and this should make things more interesting 
for expert players.  Of course, level can be even bigger, or negative.

What do you think?

Ciao,
        Massimo Campostrini,