Map non-trading and reputation

Well, I was playing as the Babylonians, and my reputation was pretty low due to an early war with the Germans, so the AI civs were less than very willing to trade with me. I really wanted to get somebody's world map, because I was pretty isolated and ignorant on my continent with hostile neighbours, whereas all the AI civs swipped maps. So I tried to buy the Chinese one. Mao refused even really generous offers, so in the end I saved the game just to see what'd make him trade. He steadfastly refused, despite that I offered my World Map, some 1200 gold, plus 200 per turn, plus a couple techs ... principled guy ...

Also, exactly how can you start a war without blackening your reputation? In said game, everybody got mad at me when I declared war on the Germans, who repeatedly violated my and when asked to live, simply stepped back to their territory and back into mine in the same turn - a pretty blatant provocation in my eyes, but evidently not in the AI's.

According to the book; your reputation is based not on how peaceful or how warlike you are toward your neighbors, but how often you keep your word. breaking treaties and alliances can blacken your reputation. SAVAGELY RAZING the city of an ennemy or using right of passage to set up cannon to bomb. your opponent's cities are likely to be deplored throughout the know world, espionnage can also damage standing.

You can declare war safely in 2 ways:

• Call them up. Tell them, "That's it! Prepare for war!"
• Call them up. Cancel the peace treaty agreement.

These actions are safe given that:

• You have no ROP with them currently.
• Your current peace treaty does not have turns left agreed upon.
• You have no units in their territory.
• To a lesser degree of cruelty, you have no per-turn deals of gold, resources, or luxuries still active with them.

You can not, without getting a black mark:

• Surprise attack. i.e. just start attacking their units.
• Declare war under conditions above.

Once you have the black mark, I don't think you can remove it. These conditions are there so people can't do a surprise attack exploit over & over again.

Sorry, just found out about this list thing. Liking it too much, I think.

He steadfastly refused, despite that I offered my World Map, some 1200 gold, plus 200 per turn, plus a couple techs ... principled guy ...

Click to expand...

Were you able to afford 200 gold per turn? If you don't have that much net income/turn, of course they will never accept it.

Search for the thread "Sneaky tactics during peace" - in there`s tips on how to provoke the AI to declare war IIRC

Originally posted by The Last Conformist
Well, I was playing as the Babylonians, and my reputation was pretty low due to an early war with the Germans, so the AI civs were less than very willing to trade with me.

Click to expand...

Go to the diplomacy screen and click on "active." You can safely cancel peace treaties there -- as long as they have been in effect for at least 20 turns.



HONOR
It is not a dishonor to declare war to protect your people. It is only a dishonor to say one thing and do another. Declare war before you attack.