AndreasR wrote:After watching the game so far, I think the current hard AI should have been made stronger and tougher to beat.
The Hard AI level not being hard enough is a well known problem.
Two minor improvements recently went into Freeciv. The Hard AI level no longer has to offer a ceasefire the first time it meats a new player. The Hard AI level can now bribe settlers and workers. I don't know what is included in the Freeciv version used by Freeciv-web. (I have moved Freeciv-web's Freeciv version a bit forward recently. There is still catching up to do)
Are you interested in trying to do something with the AI difficulty your self? There are some utility functions that may need adjustment. Weighting a constant may be enough. You'll need a fast computer (or much time) to test what weights give the best results. (Let Hard keep the old weight. Give experimental the new weight. Play many auto games. See if experimental gains a statistically significant advantage.) I can help you get the resulting weight adjustments into Freeciv.
There could be AI regressions in the 3.0 development version. I have noticed that Nook's allies don't do mass trade route establishing to his cities. Unless Greece, the distant ally, starts doing it soon I'll become suspicious. Doesn't have to be a regression. Nook has smaller cities, a bigger map and more opponents than I'm used to.
PS! What is the purpose of webclient-ai-attitude.patch?
AndreasR wrote:Perhaps we should do like our commercial competitor, and give the hard AI extra gold and/or research each turn?
That sort of stuff is what the cheating AI level is for. The cheating AI level is given advantages. The handicapped AI level is given disadvantages.