AI Diplomacy

[Duuk]

One thing that I wish would be included in a patch.

Either the AI should not declare war on a person it does not share a border with, or the "stop trading with <person>" option should ALWAYS be available, possibly with the caveat "or face war".

I can't even imagine how many times I've been at war with my neighbor's neighbor and they have open borders. My only option is to attack the idiot with the open borders.

 

[neferator]

It does bug me that civs on the opposite side of the world with nothing to gain from a war like to send invasion forces across the entire map just (seemingly) to annoy the human player... been like that in every civ game I've played though My most extreme example was Shaka deciding for no reason at all he was going to dedicate his game to wiping me out and my 'friends' in Egypt wouldn't even make 'stop trading' an option so sailing freely across the border he came.

 

[enchanter100]

Yup, more often or not it seems as if civs are against you...

 

[Englor]

Then I guess this is why it is good that it's called a game and stands to deliver as such.
On the other hand, I guess difficulty level, tighter-nit AI coding and leader charachteristics could make something, productive, worthwhile and beneficial from this acknowledgement.

First I believe that all AI players should be able to determine distances and values of conquest due to their knowledge of the world at any given time of achieved exploration. One noticable thing about aggressavists, is that they can sometimes make bold moves, and now another idea has popped into my head about a third buyproduct, from what to facets govern a leaders personality. Say, aggressive and imperialistic nations like to, "spread it out" as might be easy to understand.
And determinging wheather it's on aggressive AI, and at a high difficulty level, the thing that ensures a player remembers it's a game is that, aggressive leaders are always looking at you like you're a dry-aged slow roasting prime rib of extacy, that needs a hefty wooping.

Anyways, it's also concievable that natins may tap an amplified reason for war that holds a history of malcontent for any reason.

So to recap, AI surveylance and proficiency, personality, quarrel factor and gamedifficulty may be engineered to house these properties so that they do not pop up as unwelcome patterns in the coded software.

 

[neferator]

Of course it is a game, but I like it to be a little bit more realistic than someone sending random massive armies across the entire globe in 500BC... if you know what I mean I can't think of anyone who sent an army from one corner of Eurasia to the other just to attack one nation that long ago... or indeed, ever (Alexander, Mongols etc don't count as they were hardly 'just passing through' the other nations in the way)

 

[Duuk]

One thing some people aren't grasping is that the AI is utter crap at conquest.

This is especially because the AI has a hard time determining that a brutal war against a neighbor is more valuable in the long run than a short capture-and-burn raid against someone on the other side of the world.

The AI is pretty good at actually mobilizing units, but really does a lousy job of knowing, "If I conquer the person next to me, it doubles my size, then I'll be a huge threat to the player" and instead says, "If I send a giant stack to attack a city of the player and burn it, it'll annoy the piss out of him", which often results in the aggressive civ getting conquered because it got NO VALUE from the attacking troops.

Case in point: Ask yourself how often you raze a city vs how often you keep it to expand your empire. Now ask yourself when you last saw Isabella of Spain NOT burn a city.

 

[neferator]

Actually I think we do grasp that - and that's what's annoying us

 

[JonnyB]

This has also worked to my advantage, I was paid to join a war by an AI who was pleased with me. The opposition was so far away that I then decided there was no point in sending units, so I did nothing. Eventually the two A.I's declared peace and I followed suit. I got paid to do nothing and still got the diplomacy bonus for "helping".

 

[Godsmiter]

This has also worked to my advantage, I was paid to join a war by an AI who was pleased with me. The opposition was so far away that I then decided there was no point in sending units, so I did nothing. Eventually the two A.I's declared peace and I followed suit. I got paid to do nothing and still got the diplomacy bonus for "helping".

That's a good idea- I do that sometimes- I may send a few of my experienced units over there just to gain some extra XP- but only if things are going very well in our favor.

 

[voek]

I think it should be possible that the AI gives YOU tech for assisting in war or that you should be able to ask for it (and actualy get something). I want to be bribed!!

 

[cabert]

I think it should be possible that the AI gives YOU tech for assisting in war or that you should be able to ask for it (and actualy get something). I want to be bribed!!

same for me!
though i usually ask for something for free after i agreed to join a war or to cancel a trade, and more often than not it works

 

[Codex]

This has also worked to my advantage, I was paid to join a war by an AI who was pleased with me. The opposition was so far away that I then decided there was no point in sending units, so I did nothing. Eventually the two A.I's declared peace and I followed suit. I got paid to do nothing and still got the diplomacy bonus for "helping".

Well, you weren't trading with the mutual opposition, so your ally did get something from the bargain. And the opposition might have done things like launched (or prepared to launch) a naval expedition, cancelling it once the war was over; i.e., your (passive) participation in the war probably served as a distraction. This is why human players -- me, at least -- try to suck in allies for wars, even if I don't expect any active support.

This was a particularly effective strategy in CIII, where the AI just couldn't cope with multiple threats and could be baited endless in fruitless persuit. I'm not as familiar with the Civ4 AI yet, but I'm sure to try out this phoney war alliance as often as I can, as long as the price is right!

 

[neferator]

I think it should be possible that the AI gives YOU tech for assisting in war or that you should be able to ask for it (and actualy get something). I want to be bribed!!

Good point. I seem to recall this did happen in earlier civ games... I'm sure I went to war more than once because an AI offered me something ridiculous like 10,000 gold...