The game has been around for almost 6 years. Whatever game you think you want has probably already been made.
That's no excuse, there are still tons of mods in development for Civ4 which is even older, but then again Civ4 is the better game in the first place.
That being said, just because you don't understand the system doesn't mean the AI are psychopaths. They have reasons for doing what they do, you just don't understand what you're doing to them.
So what is Askia's, being on an entirely different continent and having seen nothing more from me than a single trireme, reason for thinking I'm expanding too aggressively? What is Maria's reason to hate my guts even though our borders
DON'T touch, she settled a city on the other side of the continent herself, and we have a common enemy who declared war on us both? Suleiman I can kind of understand getting into a two front war because the latest city I settled is closer to his capital than mine and he probably thinks I'm easy pickings. Venice I can kind of understand because I laughed in their face when they told me to not settle so close to them and they probably just declared because they did so together with the Ottomans who they can use for all the heavy work. With Enrico's and Suleiman's behavior I don't have a problem, their behavior is, if pretty aggressive, a somewhat reasonable reaction to my own actions. What I do have a problem with is Maria acting against her own interests by treating me like dirt even though I did literally
nothing she has a reason for taking offense with, and I am for all intents and purposes the only potential friend she has seeing as we both share a common enemy who just razed one of her cities.
Maria's behavior is akin to Stalin telling the Americans and British off when they were trying to help him after the invasion by Hitler. At least there they had ideology to ensure hatred before and after, but not during the freaking war for survival. Here Maria doesn't even have that, and her attitude makes no bloody sense whatsoever, be it in a gameplay or a realistic sense, and is just immersion breaking.
To say nothing about Askia!
Unmodded civ is actually TOO carebear for me. I don't like it because it's too easy to be friends with everyone on the map and never be at war with anyone. That's one of the reasons Acken's mod is such a breath of fresh air to me - I shouldn't get along with my neighbors. Our borders SHOULDN'T touch. We should be clawing tooth and nail for territory. That's the way the world has been for the entirety of civilization on this planet, and we shouldn't be all touchy feely about things.
My borders don't touch with anyone on the entire planet and still everyone hates my guts.
There is nothing touchy feely about this, Maria is acting against
her own best interests by demanding three resources for any one of hers from the guy that is her war ally and wants to help her fight back the Ottoman invaders that
razed one of her cities. That's not realpolitik, that is suicidal behavior against all logic that has probably never happened in history.
Suleiman attacking me makes a bit of sense. Venice attacking me makes a bit of sense. Portugal hating me makes no sense and Askia having a negative modifier for me settling too aggressively is beyond immersion breaking.