[happygeek]

Hey thank you very much, all.
Maer, I just checked out that thread of yours, thank you. Sadly, I did not understand about half of it. I should say that I really am computer illiterate and I get very nervous when I see people write about #commands and other scary things. I do not know what the SemiRand is, but that sounds good. Is that an application by Ballbarian, or a mod? Is it easy to use or do I have to be computer smart?

How can I go about giving the AI nations I will be up against "good" pretenders? (Do I create those with the "Game Tools", much like I did my pretender, then load up all as human, then say "quit" and let AI take over? But will the AI then be only "normal"? And won't I know where they all are?)

I would like to restate that I am not *primarily* looking for more challenge (but I wouldnt mind that either), but rather for more fun. I do not avoid SCs and Thugs, for example, primarily because the AI is bad with them -- I avoid them because I don't like playing that way, it's just not "fun" for me, it's not the way I want to RPG my Dom3. (For this reason, I know that I will not be a competetive MP player, since I will fail in the late game vs. competetive players who will do what they have to, namely make SCs and thugs, and not worry about armies as much.)

Let me try to restate again (again!): I had a lot of gripes with Civilization IV, which I will not detail here, but one "problem" I had was that I had to set the AI to such a hard level to give me a challenge in the end game that I would often get crushed early game, and need to restart; in other words, the AI seemed to do "ok", but just not the whole game. Here, in Dominions, it is somewhat different; the AI is (because of the complexity of the game mechanics to be sure) simply not up to the job. But what I am primarily looking for is something that keeps the AI doing well in the end game without steamrolling me in the early game. I would like there to be some "closure". Ideally, it would be great if things did go to the end game phase without being clearcut. And ideally, I would like there to be armies, at least when I play a "human" nation (such as Marignon or Ulm or Man, etc.). I can understand that when you play Abysia, for example, you want to populate your world with scary demons; but I like to have "human" matches where armies of "humans" shoot arrows and slash swords at each other.

Thank you all very much

EDIT: Victory Conditions, I forgot that, thank you. Does the AI actually pay that any attention? I mean, will the AI go for provinces with VPs and try to hold them, even at the risk of losing other (non-VP) provinces?