[.91 HELP] What do you do when EXPERT is too easy and RIDICULOUS is too hard?

1. Get Better.

2. Mod a new difficulty.

3. Play a different game.

4. Play to have fun.

5. Take up modding.

6. Play with a different race.

7. Play with a custom race designed to be horrible and or super strong.

I have EXACTLY the same problem. I created a custom faction with no strengths, only a weakness, and that helped, but even with that race I generally crush expert.  

I have created a custom faction I think is "overpowered" without relying on an exploit. Got steamrolled against all ridiculous AIs, but that was just one game. 

I have tried playing with ONE opponent set to ridiculous, the rest expert but somehow one of the expert AIs beat him up, and I easily finished the ridiculous off.  

If you find a fix, let me know. 

You can edit the difficulty settings so that expert is more challenging or so that ridiculous is easier, if you want me to do it for you, I can.

You copy CoreDifficultyLevels.xml into the mods folder, then just mess with the ratio values for HP and economy, right?

Oh, and what is "AI intelligence factor?"

I am pleased that I am not the only one to notice that the difficulty ramps significantly   I wonder if AIFOWCheat being turned on (I presume this is fog of war cheat, so that the AI can see the whole map at all times) for ridiculous is more important than the incremental economic improvements.  Sadly, I don't have the time to see how altering it affects the AI's playstyle.

It's the gazillion extra hitpoints that the AI gets on ridiculous that really makes it such a big jump I think. Combined with them often out-teching you with their economic bonuses, they can field some much tougher troops than you see in expert games.

They also get a lot more trait slots.

Try insane, thats were the real fun is.

Actually i realized that ridiculous got easier since the change in pioneers cost: right now i am able to win on ridiculous with predefine factions, and i was never able to do it before. I did not try them all yet, but i have already two wins with Yithril and Altar.

I thought that even expert is not fun, because the AI gets high bonuses, but ridiculous (world and AI) is a walk in the park with Altar and a custom sovereign:

- Choose the General profession, Air 2, Life 2, Brilliant and one weakness

- Cast Tutelage on your sovereign and select the Path of the Mage

- Select the summoner specialization

- Design one Henchman with Potential, Water Adept and Bard

- Select the Path of the Mage and the summoner specialization

- Now you have an army of up to two Air Elementals, two Earth Elementals, two Fire Elementals and one Lightbringer

I have a mod for "ridicu-light" difficulty, just between expert and ridiculous, if anyone wants it.