Figuring out diplomacy

[madscientist]

OK, how do I figure out what the leaders think of me? I have met Hiawatha and Suleiman and I am not sure if they are happy or how to improve relations. I understand there are no number modifiers but I prefer not to just wait and see. Is there a screen I am missing???

[iggymnrr]

I wish there was some way too. After one game, it seems like diplo (king level) is something like: 2 AIs fight war, sign peace treaty, sign research agreement, get the free tech, go back to war. Sometimes they decide to include you in the loop.

[Syiss_]

The only ways I've found to gauge an AI's opinion of you is to offer a pact of cooperation (I assume they only decline if they dont like you), and also in the little diplomacy screen that you can access via the big button in the top right (I believe it looks like a globe), there will sometimes be the word HOSTILE next to an AI. This means they really dont like you I assume, but it doesn't always lead to a war declaration and I'm not sure what I have or haven't done to get it to go away.

Also, resource trade offers may be an indication. Sometimes a civ wants 4 of your resources for 1 of theirs, other times a straight up 1 for 1 trade is fine. I don't know if this is based on some valuation of the resource on their end or affected by diplomacy, but it may be something to look in to. At the very least it would be nice to know what causes it, even if its not attitude based.

One person also mentioned facial expressions (kind of like there was in Civ IV), but I find that with a lot of the leaders (Montezuma anyone?) its difficult if not impossible to accurately read their expression.

[Wulf38]

The only information you can get is by opening a dialog with them and seeing how they greet you. If they're polite, then they like you. However, they can "declare at pleased" and attack you even if they appear polite, so watch out.

From the way diplomacy has worked out in my domination win, and from the way some of the AI's messages are worded, there are some things I suspect can give you a global diplo hit with all/most leaders in the world:
- Attacking civs that are much weaker than you
- Wiping out a civ completely
- Declaring war in general
- Lying/backstabbing ("oh no, those troops that are encircling your capitol aren't going to attack you, they're just passing through... Surprise! Time for war!")
- Possibly attacking too many city states
- Possibly just growing too large (Montezuma told me that my cities "are like a plague spreading across the earth")

I'm not sure what the effect of giving them gifts is.

[QuothTheRaven]

If you hit F4 and check global politics, you'll see AIs that really hate you listed as "HOSTILE," which I guess is the Civ V equivalent of "furious."

Doesn't help much, but it's a start.

[wutname1]

Originally Posted by Wulf38

- Possibly attacking too many city states.

this will make them hate you i went on a lets take over africa war and after the 3rd or 4tf city state, i got a message that if i keep attacking city states that they were forming a alliance against me... and all the civs no longer would trade with me they just called me the blood thirsty warmonger, mind you it was even my first war 200 turns in of a 400 turn game

[vranasm]

well you can safely think that they hate you all the time and want to rip you in everything...

you won't make reliable ally out of major civs at least from my observations.

on the other hand there is still the "bug" with rage quitting after you crush their army with defensive position.

[JP1]

Figuring out how the AI feels about you isn't too hard, trying to establish the cause-effect relationship is the difficult part. Beyond the first meeting, an AI seems to be either obviously happy or obviously unhappy with you, without much middle ground... I seem to get AIs who seem perfectly happy with me, then act incredibly upset with me for one meeting, and then they're right back to being happy again just a few turns later.

I guess the closest to a neutral AI state is when they seem happy enough with you, but refuse Cooperation and Secrecy Pacts... They'll basically act nice enough, but refuse pretty much everything but reciprocal trades. If the AI is truly happy with you, then they will accept those pacts. It's usually really obvious if the AI is unhappy with you, as you'll get the angry faces and ugly remarks throughout the conversation... And if they're REALLY unhappy, you'll get the 'HOSTILE' next to their name in the F4 Diplomacy screen and they'll call the occasional diplomatic meeting just to call you a jerk so you can say, "You'll pay for this someday!"

Originally Posted by Wulf38

From the way diplomacy has worked out in my domination win, and from the way some of the AI's messages are worded, there are some things I suspect can give you a global diplo hit with all/most leaders in the world:
- Attacking civs that are much weaker than you
- Wiping out a civ completely
- Declaring war in general
- Lying/backstabbing ("oh no, those troops that are encircling your capitol aren't going to attack you, they're just passing through... Surprise! Time for war!")
- Possibly attacking too many city states
- Possibly just growing too large (Montezuma told me that my cities "are like a plague spreading across the earth")

I'm not sure what the effect of giving them gifts is.

Although I'm still trying to figure out all sorts of specifics, the biggest global diplo hits I have taken have been for attacking a weaker civ, and for killing off a city-state. Very early on in the game, I destroyed a city-state in a quest to befriend another, and for the rest of the game, people were calling me the bloodthirsty one, even though it was the only attack I made all game. :/