long time reader, first time poster...
I haven't seen any subjects that covered this, so I hope I can start some discussion.
I'm a noble/prince level player. My most recent strategy has been working toward earlier domination/conquest victories. What I've found is that by picking a nearby civ with a tech or two that I want, and attacking and beating them into submission, I can usually make them give me their technology with a peace treaty, leaving them in a situation they will never be able to recover from. This allows me to center my research solely on the next technology that can expand my military advantage, using extortion/gunpoint diplomacy to fill in the rest of the tech tree. Additionally, because my trading with other countries is considerably less using this approach, other civs are not able to benefit from my research, adding to my advantage.
This strategy has been effective to an extent, but I would like to know what factors into an AI civ's decision of what they will trade in peace treaty negotiations. My expectation was that if I put another civilization in a bad enough situation they would likely pay almost any price for survival. For instance, I took Hannibal's capital, razed all but his youngest city, and attacked that until he only had an archer with .3 HP left. He had Compass, Horseback Riding and Monarchy. I expected he would give me all of those, but even in the face of assured defeat he only was willing to give me one technology. I took Compass, since it cost the most beakers. Later on, I was beating down Huayna Capac, and with three cities remaining was able to get him to include Divine Right in the peace settlement, which, of course, is worth more beakers than Compass, Horseback Riding and Monarchy combined.
Obvious differences here are that there were two different leaders, who may each have their own tolerance to extortion, and by the time I was working Huayna over I'd turned my empire pretty much into a cavalry farm, so the rest of the game was just a marching exercise (that is to say, my relative strength was much greater later when I was taking on Huayna). If anyone has input, particularly specific criteria the AI considers in peace treaty negotiations, it is appreciated.
I haven't seen any subjects that covered this, so I hope I can start some discussion.
I'm a noble/prince level player. My most recent strategy has been working toward earlier domination/conquest victories. What I've found is that by picking a nearby civ with a tech or two that I want, and attacking and beating them into submission, I can usually make them give me their technology with a peace treaty, leaving them in a situation they will never be able to recover from. This allows me to center my research solely on the next technology that can expand my military advantage, using extortion/gunpoint diplomacy to fill in the rest of the tech tree. Additionally, because my trading with other countries is considerably less using this approach, other civs are not able to benefit from my research, adding to my advantage.
This strategy has been effective to an extent, but I would like to know what factors into an AI civ's decision of what they will trade in peace treaty negotiations. My expectation was that if I put another civilization in a bad enough situation they would likely pay almost any price for survival. For instance, I took Hannibal's capital, razed all but his youngest city, and attacked that until he only had an archer with .3 HP left. He had Compass, Horseback Riding and Monarchy. I expected he would give me all of those, but even in the face of assured defeat he only was willing to give me one technology. I took Compass, since it cost the most beakers. Later on, I was beating down Huayna Capac, and with three cities remaining was able to get him to include Divine Right in the peace settlement, which, of course, is worth more beakers than Compass, Horseback Riding and Monarchy combined.
Obvious differences here are that there were two different leaders, who may each have their own tolerance to extortion, and by the time I was working Huayna over I'd turned my empire pretty much into a cavalry farm, so the rest of the game was just a marching exercise (that is to say, my relative strength was much greater later when I was taking on Huayna). If anyone has input, particularly specific criteria the AI considers in peace treaty negotiations, it is appreciated.
