The warmonger penalty is still funny and unrealistic.

To start off; this is not a rant. I actually won this game with the highest score. But let's talk about the warmonger penalty. It's still funny and unrealistic.

I have a DoF with America and Indonesia. We're all against Ethiopia. All of a sudden; I attack Persia. Neither Washington nor Indonesia has a DoF with Persia. Instantly Washington and Indonesia denounce me.

That's unrealistic. Why denounce me when I attacked a Civ you have no DoF with? The funny part is Washington later attacks Persia and takes a few of his cities. What a hypocrite.

What's also funny is later in the game both America and Indonesia ask for a DoF again. So I'm friends with them until almost the end of the game; where I decide to finally wipe out Ethiopia.

Now, the whole world hates Ethiopia and Washington himself has taken some of Ethiopia's cities. But I finally decide to take out the civilization that everyone hates and boom; two civs I had a DoF with hate me. That's just unrealistic.

I took out a Civ you hated the whole game and you denounce me? Unrealistic.

One more question. Why does the game seem to ignore when an AI does an early DoW on you? In this game both Persia and Siam early DoW'd me; but the other AI's seem to ignore it.

Just some things I've noticed in my latest game.

Keep in mind that warmonger hate is just a tag for a range of concerns that the AI has about your conquering. What it comes down to is, are you a threat to them? Your early conquest of several Persian cities alarmed your friends. And should it not alarm them? Of course it should. Then, over time (with the reduced penalties for earlier era warmongering), they got comfortable that you were not a steamrolling maniac. And then you did it again. Yeah, they probably disliked Ethiopia, but again you showed that you were a threat.

Next time, drag them into the war with you. Or bribe Ethiopia to DOW them and then DOW Ethiopia. Learn the mechanics -- don't just complain when they catch you by surprise.

Yeah, that one time I planned on stomping a Civ and I got lucky they attacked me first so after I built up and went in their face everyone was like "good on ya, the warmongering bastard had it coming"

Go Full Honor. Then warring becomes a boon DESPITE any diplomatic penalties. i.e. the pluses start to outweight the minuses.