Difference between difficulty 5 and 7?

[Zebeast46]

I have recently just played a 5/5 game with Mine Enthusiast and Tank and honestly have not found it to be challenging at all {Except when I has downloading space tanks I lost about a 100 ships there}, however I have only played about 6 hours and I am not sure whether I should get a 7/7 game.

[x4000]

Difficulty 5 removes a lot of the more challenging mechanics, and difficulty 6 adds some of them in.  Difficulty 7 adds pretty much all of them in.  On difficulty 6 the AI is a bit weaker than usual, on 5 it takes a major step down.  Below that it gets increasingly kneecapped, but not really mechanically similar.  Difficulty 7 is about average, whereas difficulty 8 is a little overstrong. 

Difficulty 9 is a lot overstrong, while difficulty 10 is balanced around the concept of crushing you (literally no victory being possible) but given the most expert players the hope of victory.  When they beat difficulty 10, then they and we work to "fix the bug." And from then on they have to find something new to use to win on 10.

Overall I would say that difficulty 4 and down are for non-RTS players who have no idea what they are doing.  Difficulty 5 is very casual, difficulty 6 is casual.  Difficulty 7 is where the real game begins, and difficulty 8 is where most of those with a few hundred hours in play.

[damiac]

I won my very first game at 7/7, but with no automatic AIP increases.  The only really challenging moments were when I let a superterminal hack get a bit out of hand, and taking out the first homeworld because of the spinning laser lance of death thingy.

I haven't played sub 7 difficulty, but I imagine you would be fine on 7/7, especially if you have auto aip increase off.  Anyway, it's more fun to lose against a challenging opponent than to destroy a braindead one.

[Zebeast46]

What are some mechanics that have been removed at difficulty 5 that are there in difficulty 7. And also should I play with schizophrenic on?

[x4000]

Schizophrenic is up to you, but it wouldn't be my first choice personally.

As to the list of mechanics... well, wow, it's a really long list of mostly internal AI strategy stuff.  I can't remember it all, it's grown over the years.  But some general examples:

1. On difficulty 5, the AI on a planet deliberately attacks you where it is stupidest to attack you, so it only wins if it has overwhelming force.  On difficulty 7, it attacks you where it can do the most damage, so you either have to be smart about where you put things, or really outnumber the AI yourself.

2. On difficulty 7, the AI starts taking advantage of certain weak spots that it starts noticing in your defenses, whereas before it would not.

3. On difficulty 6 and below, I think the AI actually doesn't batch up its troops as much before attacking you, instead letting them trickle in.  That's super less effective.  Or the batches are smaller, I can't remember how it is nowadays.  Anyway, on difficulty 7+ you wind up with bunches of AI threat lurking behind wormholes until it is ready to attack you with force enough that it thinks it can take you.

4. I believe the AI doesn't retreat below difficulty 7.  So if it walks into a slaughter, I think it just gets slaughtered.  Can't remember.  But anyway, on higher difficulties those guys flee, then lurk and come back later with friends.

5. Various types of guard posts and other AI specialty buildings I think are off on lower difficulties?  Can't recall for sure.

Anyway, there's loads of stuff, mainly in terms of "that tactic is way too effective against novices" getting turned off.