It's better with a brutal challenge than a gentle nudge

[Janster]

A brutal challenge, inspires, to sell your game with some gentle AI not to scare people off, is going to bore people to death instead.

Up the ante, grow some balls, let us suffer and maybe people will be intrigued.

As it stands now, its all baloney.

[Fairin]

loading up the dwarf fortress AI... you asked for it!

(pritty sure once the basic mechanics are down AI is up for some serious optimization)

[Madbiologist]

There has been discussions, the AI is suppose to scale as you play. However, the option of a difficulty slider is still on the table (where I imagine a brutal setting can exist).

At the moment it is still being built up.

[Cumberlow]

As long as the AI is able to be brutal WITHOUT cheating then I would agree. Nothing spoils the challenge of a game for me more than a cheating AI. It's just lazy coding or lack of time due to the AI being left until last.

[Ashbery76]

Play online chess.

The A.I's main role is the help with the theme more than blatant cheating.The best cheating A.I can still be gamed anyway.

[Lithari]

Well, I tend to be put off of games when I find them too difficult, for me, its all about the gameplay, not the challenge, considering that easy or hard, the game is exactly the same, so I see no point in playing on higher difficulties, I mean, playing on a higher difficulty setting or a lower setting, the rewards tend to be identical, making it pointless.