Inconsistent Diplomacy in 1.0.0.62

I had been at war with Washington, but we were in the middle of a 10-turn peace treaty.

Washington approached me with the complaint that Bismark was really getting on his nerves, and wouldn't it be great to declare war on him?

I asked him for 10 turns to prepare, to which he responded, Wonderful!"

After about 3 turns I had my troops in place, and the peace deal with Washington still had 2-3 turns to go.

I approached him and "Discussed", Should we declare war on...Bismark?

His response was something like, "I've told you before, and my answer is still the same, no!"

Oh, really? Well, just who was it that came to me 3 turns earlier with the great idea to go to war with Bismark then?

REPRODUCED.

Patch version 1.0.0.621

Not with the same settings - I had planned to post my own bug report but found this on searching. I am not sure if I still have the autosave but will attempt to find out and post it if I can.

I had never been at war with Egypt and Japan asked me to Declare War. I asked for 10 turns to prepare. Several turns later I was ready and asked Japan to declare. Same response as John-SJ received: "I've told you before, and my answer is still no."

This is completely false as I had never asked Japan to declare war on anyone at any point in the game. He asked me!

My surmise is this is not a technical bug but a design flaw; that "10 turns to prepare" is being treated like a 10-turn peace treaty.

I expected that since he had been ready to go to war and I was the one needing time, Japan would be happy to declare war before the 10 turns were up. At the very least I expected a diplomatic response somehow indicating "we want to wait ___ more turns." I certainly did not expect him to deny any desire for war when we presently had a treaty (I checked) to auto-declare in a few more turns!

The treaty did take effect: after the full 10 turns were up both I (playing Elizabeth) and Japan auto-declared on Egypt.

For future experiment: I wonder if I would have been able to declare on Egypt unilaterally during the 10-turn period, or if I would have had to wait for the auto-declare after 10 turns.

Also see similar report: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=391937&highlight=declare+war

The same problem happens with a pact of secrecy. The AI approaches you for a pact of secrecy and you decline. A few turns later you begin to appreciate the offer and ask the AI for the pact, only to be told "We've been through this before and my answer is still no!".

I'm guessing that a lazy programmer has used the same data flags to signify both the player refusing an AI offer and also the AI refusing a player offer. The AI needs to act in a way that differentiates between the two.

And this is why there should be an interface which explains WHY the AI's attitude is what it is. The argument, "But it's more realistic this way!" is the stupidest answer I have ever heard: realism does not entail turn-based-strategy on a computer with RNG combat-outcomes. A good game design is playable.