I've been playing for a while now and there's a problem I've been trying to solve to no avail. It may be just the way the game is hard-coded, but I'd like the civ community's advice.

Here's my question. Is there any way to make the AI's attacks less frequent and preferably less random? Whenever I'm playing a game, it seems like the AI attacks at random. I want the AI to attack, but not constantly--as soon as I finish one war, within just a couple of turns I've another one on my hands. I've reduced all the AI's aggression in the Civ editor to the lowest level, and I've set the game on "Least Aggressive" and I'm still too busy fighting off my neighbors to do anything else. Its not as if I don't want the AI to attack, but a it would be nice for it to be a little less frequent--I'd also like the AI to take into account past relations (getting randomly attacked by my allies is...irritating :lol:). But that may be asking for a miracle.

Any suggestions?

Not sure, although it'd be nice.

I have no answer to your question, but a comment nonetheless.

I used to shy away from war, but found, working with my own mod, that I'd prefer some kind of conquest/landmass early victory over some cheap victory way late in the game. Also, with my own mod and all the inter-calculations needed to ascribe different units from different civs with individual stats, that it's actually more interesting if there are wars going on constantly, wheter I'm involved or not.

Perhaps your approach is in err rather than the hard coding. ::shrugs::

It's simple just get a bigger army than them, and they won't touch you. If you're in a state of constant war that's becauase the AI sees you as weak, and easy to steal territory away from.

It's simple just get a bigger army than them, and they won't touch you. If you're in a state of constant war that's becauase the AI sees you as weak, and easy to steal territory away from.

Not true!

I am superior compared to the Vikings in my current game, all they have are spears and horses, while I have muskets and knights. They still keep on attacking me (But failing miserably)

It's simple just get a bigger army than them, and they won't touch you. If you're in a state of constant war that's becauase the AI sees you as weak, and easy to steal territory away from.

I thought that was the problem too, but I've had games where I'm almost to a domination victory and someone with only three or four cities and an entire era behind me decides to invade...

No, nc-1701 is right. In general, if you are more powerful than the AI, the AI is a lot less likely to attack you. If all the AI civs are constantly attacking you it is probably because they think you're weak. This is calculated in terms of army size as well as unit stats.

Of course it doesn't mean that every AI invasion will be caused by this. But if you're getting attacked constantly this is probably one of the factors behind it.

The ai gets more aggresive on crowded maps. I don't know if you can use that knowledge for anything, but it's true atleast.

You can see how your army is rated compared to another civ in the military advisor screen. When you select an opponent, the advisor will tell you whether they are rated as stronger, weaker, or the same strength as you.

Usually a civ that is significantly weaker than you will only attack if it's desperate (needs your resources, nowhere to expand, etc).

- always pay tribute (rather obvious)
- have embassies everywhere (they increase AI's mood towards you)
- keep trades with AI all the time (as above, it's probably the most important thing); buy luxuries even if you don't need them, trade them techs/resources even if they offer very little, or nothing
- keep RoPs at all times, but never MMPs

using the above, especially trading, you can win the game without a single war, even being the weakest civ (e.g. 1 city).

Hmm, you've brought up some interesting points. My armies usually aren't huge, but enough to blunt someone's first assault and go on a limited offensive whilst I build up a stronger army. That may be part of it. I'm also not a big trader, I guess I'll have to work on that lol. I'm also usually pretty anti-RoPs since the AI seems to use them against me.

Looks like there are quite a few things going into my problem.

Embryodead, why "never MMPs"? Other than the "darned allies have dragged me into another war [pissed] ", of course.

Just what you said - an MMP guarantees that you'll be dragged into war, sooner or later.

Just so we're clear lol

Something I have noticed is that AI's seem to prefer to attack the 'player' in the lead. Even if they are totally out-classed and difficult to reach.
You didn't say if you are leading in VPs but I think you probably are. This is a problem with the AI as such a strategy makes sense in the closing stages of the game but less so in the early/middle game. If you want less attacks build a decent strength military, remember the AI 'advisors' attach more 'value' to high attack units than defensive/artillery units. And try to not get into the lead too early, playing on higher difficulty levels will help with this.
For example in an 'epic' solo Monarch game playing as the Ottomans and trailing Spain by about 1000 pts and the Celts by 300 pts, these two keep going to war with each other, with the Celts attacking Spain even though they aren't as powerful as Spain. My military is weak compaired to Spain but average compaired to the Celts this in the early Industrial age.

You can see how your army is rated compared to another civ in the military advisor screen.

The logic for how the AI determines this can be found here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=83599).

-Oz