What is the "Research Agreement blocked path" exploit?
This is not a diplomacy tutorial. The true test of diplomacy is when a person does the opposite of what is suggested and things do not work out. I just tried the same settings as here and played a few maps until I got Spain as a neighbor. On turn 7 Issy was surprised that I hadn't been run over by barbs. (Not possible in the game.) On turn 8 she denounced me. So I DoWed on the spot. I didn't do a thing to prosecute the war. After a few turns, I got a peace treaty + 135 gold for doing nothing at all. Now try and tell me that diplomacy is working.
You mean doesn't work in civ V. The OP also made a comparison to civ IV. Try loading up an emperor level game there. DoW before turn 10 and show a profit by turn 20 without lifting a figure or any semblance of a military. Then come back and tell me how well diplomacy is working in civ V.When they first meet you civs can be one of a mix of attitudes towards you. This is determined by RNG but with some civs having a bias towards particular states. Issy happened to be negatively disposed towards you from the outset. This is nothing to complain about, not everyone you meet wants to be your friend and some people or groups hate anyone different to them. The same is true in the Civ world.
Then she dissed the size of your army. It had nothing to do with the actual likelihood of you being overcome by barbarians. When a civ doesn't like you and you have a lower military power rating than them they will mock you about it. Your army doesn't even have to be small, just smaller than theirs. She's serious, she insults you and denounces you. So her actions up till this point are perfectly understandable. She doesn't like you on first meeting, and she's letting you know about it too.
Your actions on the other hand are quite strange. After she insults you you decide to declare war. This isn't bad in itself but what you do is very odd. You say that she offered you a peace 'after a few turns'. It's highly likely that you killed some of her units, or she lost them elsewhere, during these turns and her power rating dropped below yours, or at least to near parity. Now she wants to buy you out of the war as you are a threat to her.
And you decide to take her up on the offer for what? 135 = peanuts. You just declared war, increasing your warmonger hate with other civs and making it more likely that sooner rather than later you won't be able to get full price for trades or have secure RAs. You didn't even denounce her before you DoW, which would have increased your relations with other civs who have denounced her in the past or near future. You want to get more out of this than 135.
Her actions I understand, but IMO yours on the other hand show a serious lack of understanding of how diplomacy works in Civ 5
You mean doesn't work in civ V. The OP also made a comparison to civ IV. Try loading up an emperor level game there. DoW before turn 10 and show a profit by turn 20 without lifting a figure or any semblance of a military. Then come back and tell me how well diplomacy is working in civ V.
Granted I probably sounded overly harsh. But all items presented do not constitute proof of working diplomacy. The only proof is to show that doing the opposite of what is recommended fails. At this point in time it doesn't fail. So nothing has been proven.
I'd like to be able to ask them directly, thanks. Having to sift through diplomacy menus and figuring out "who denounced/friendship'd who" can get rather annoying. Is it wrong to add this feature in, when it has been in other Civ games?
Its a fine tutorial as far as tutorials goes. I only maintain that all the supposed fixes only mask the fact that the diplomacy system is broken. Both the AI and UI lie to a person's face. UI says an AI wants friendly relations, but it means only if they ask but not if I do. Dishonesty is at the core of diplomacy. I make most decisions based on where my gold is coming from. It is better to spend my time coin collecting than lie detecting. A person can play a nearly peaceful game based on gold considerations alone while following the advice of this tutorial can go haywire. The thing I do the same as here is have a military on hand whether I build myself or have a CS do it. Carrying a big stick is always nice.Different levels of infraction have different consequences. An early DoW (pre turn 10) means that you and the AI haven't all met each other yet, and therefore the tree of relations has yet to include everyone. If you go and declare war on Isabella 20 turns later, the repercussions are likely to be much more severe. By this time you are both likely to have met most of the civs between the 2 of you (depending on map size) therefore that declaration is going to be seen by a good percentage of the civs.
The diplomacy system in V is different from the others, so it takes a different angle of approach. It is partially unnecessary in V, but can be a great asset when used correctly, which I think is what this tutorial is really about.
This is not a diplomacy tutorial. The true test of diplomacy is when a person does the opposite of what is suggested and things do not work out. I just tried the same settings as here and played a few maps until I got Spain as a neighbor. On turn 7 Issy was surprised that I hadn't been run over by barbs. (Not possible in the game.) On turn 8 she denounced me. So I DoWed on the spot. I didn't do a thing to prosecute the war. After a few turns, I got a peace treaty + 135 gold for doing nothing at all. Now try and tell me that diplomacy is working.
I can usually play a pretty peaceful game, ignoring the diplo stuff altogether. Trying to understand it's dishonest roots only makes me mad. So ignore, and peacefully inoway.Well, Spain acted like Greece did in my game. There's not really anything you can do about that, but you can influence your other neighbours to join you in an alliance against Spain. This makes them less likely to go to war against you, and more likely to become your friend. Civs have a bit random personalities from game to game, and Spain can surely be a crazy one. I don't think I've ever seen psychopath AIs only hate the player though, so ask around, bribe, sign a DoF. (But be prepared to pay the "gifts")
If you get a peace treaty + 135 gold, then that must mean you have a stronger army than hers. No wonder she wants peace then.