AI Bribes My CS Ally While We're at War!

[wcbarney]

Just managed to squeak out a cultural win on Emperor, standard time, standard continents. I really don't know why, because I was #5 in techs about the entire game, and the three top civs could have completed their space ships 25-50 turns ago. Anyway, I was at war with Arabia (who was #1 in about every category, and had a score about triple my score) for nearly the entire game. I was separated from his homeland by an isthmus controlled by Geneva. Near the start of our war Arabia conquered Geneva, and a dozen turns later I liberated the CS. OK, Geneva is now my best bud -- an ally with about 250 influence points. Well, Arabia eventually builds the U.N., and we go through a series of U.N. votes over the years. I never have quite enough votes to win (7/10, 8/10, once 9/10), but Arabia never comes closer than 6/10. Then, wham! Geneva is suddenly the new ally of Arabia How did that happen??

So, OK, I cheated & reloaded a couple of turns back, and pumped 500g more into Geneva; did this twice more, and now I have over 350 influence points. Then the time came that Geneva flipped again, and I didn't have any money to back up & pay more bribe money. Geneva still voted for me in the U.N., but was no longer the handy buffer between me and Arabia, which totally sucked!

How did this happen?? Perhaps another civ (like Siam, who I was also on poor terms with the entire game) bribed Geneva away from me, and then Arabia took over from Siam?? But there was no notice that "Geneva is now the ally of Siam," followed by "Geneva is now the ally of Arabia," and -- oh, by the way -- "Geneva has declared war on you!" That could have happened, I suppose, but I don't think either Siam or Arabia had enough money to overcome my 350 influence points.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

AI stockpile a lot of money and can often outbid you on higher levels. As an example, in a recent UN win for me I was paying a city state 1000 gold/turn and Sal kept out-bidding me between turns. This continued for 10 turns+ until the election, though he never seemed to bribe other city states at the same time, instead just vying for the one. We literally both had > 10000 influence. If you're not blocking that entirely, I can see an outbid happening easily.

If you declare war on sal or are at war, it should be impossible to bribe the CS off you, in theory.

 

[BjoernLars]

I think for CS voting for UN, their loyalties lie with the person they had the best relationship throughout the game, not the person that bought them at the end. I personally think that would make the game much more interesting and the UN less of a sham.

Let's say you are on turn 400, and on turn 390 you bought 100 Influence Points for a CS (for the first time). You would be the Ally and reap the benefits of Luxuries and anything else that goes along with it. But your total "UN Voting Points" would be as follows:

390/400*100 + 391/400*99 + 392/400*98 + ... + 400/400 * 90 = 1032.

Each turn of influence (both positive and negative) would add be added to your "UN Voting Points". But, with each turn, the previous points added get minutely smaller, so that way the points earned in the beginning of the game would have a much decreased value.

Example: 100 Influence points on turn 20 in a 400 turn game would only add 5 points to the "UN Voting Points".

20/400*100

99 Influence points on turn 21 in a 400 turn game would only add 5.2 points.

21/400*99

All the points would be accumulative from each turn.

Obviously, all the points would alter minutely with each new turn in the game. But I think with this idea, CS that have had long and prosperous relations with a Civ throughout the game would still Vote for that Civ even if they were bought up at the last second by a rich Civ.