Allies and Defensive pacts...

[KAuss]

Well, playing my frist every cutural win last night on epic took some very different actions on my part... I fought no wars at all, and only got about 7 cities by time I was done with the game... 6 for 90% of the time too...

Long story short, I was lucky enough to have found 3 religions and spread my first one to my bordering civs... They converted and it kept me relatively safe with a power rank of 10 out of 10...

Then in the later game, I decided to form military pact with my close civs to ensure I stay safe when I switch on the culture slider... I got 2 / 3 to join me which was good enough... I was tech leader for the whole game (on nobel of course) and had econ up the ying yang +175 with 100% slider...

Then all of a sudden, Ghandi from out of the blue and a whole island out of nowhere decided it was a good idea to send three calvary shore side to wreck a few of my improvments... I mean seriously, who attacks someone with a force of three civs under a defensive pact? The war was little more than trash talk, since I dispatched those three calvaries in about 2 turns... Ghandi never showed up again...

What ticked me off though, was the fact that both my allies just ended up peacing with Ghandi after 3 turns of war... I'm like WTH? What the hell is the pact good for if you're just going to call it off when I get attacked? Not to mention I've even seen the AI turn on you with it on... Thats just plain stupid...

This brings me to my next point... As much of a "struggle" game as Civ tries to be... I just don't see why there isn't much of an "alliance" thing one can build up during the middle of a game instead of presetting it as a team game from the get go...

I would have +304684968401 in diplo relations but yet, they rather side with another civ than me... I provide free tech, free resource, free gold, YET they do NOTHING in return... Except the assurance that they won't harras you this turn...

It really bites it to know this game is generally a "all for you and you for you" type situation every game... No one to rely on, no one to trust...

I've once had Nepolean gift me a tech after he built UN to try to make me vote for him I guess... This was the ONLY time I've seen anything like it in about 15 plus games I've played... Not to mention he was probably only +5 or so on diplo relations... Yet we're half a world away...

The world is a very hostile place, but this is the first game I've ever played when you're totally playing you against the world all the time...

Anyone else play Space Empires? THAT game has some AWESOME diplo relations...

Civ is a way more fun "pick me up game" cause I do finish epic huge map games in 5 hours tops, but Space Empires game can take a month or more to play a single game...

I hope the patch will shine new light on things...

 

[MusicLaunch]

Ya, on the note of the other Civs not being too loyal:

I once had a game in which Mongolia declared war on me, and I invited the Romans to join in (in exchange, I gave them one of the newest technologies at the time). Then after 3 turns, then signed peace... [dot] [dot] [dot]... Thanks ... for nothing, Rome... I was pretty friendly with Rome too, I guess their personality is just gimme techs and I pretend to help =)

Although the diplomatic relations are not as good as I wanted them to be, the personalities really show. Asoka (the other Indian leader) gave me at least two free techs because I was so far behind (this is another game, where I was rushed and I was defending my one city motherland against three civ's for half the game. no, the Indians did not build the UN) So, personalities do show.

On another note, it seems like when a civ adopts Free Religion, you can't make them switch back to a civic that has a religion... (the UN was not build in this game either) Am I missing something?

 

[KAuss]

Half the options in the game for diplo actions are red for 90% of the game... Makes no sense... Then when they finally turn white and you can ask for it... They'll coupe with it for 5 turns and switch back...

The diplo part of Civ 4 is sooo broken... The AI is generally an obsticle between your goal... Not another civ...

Personalities I would say yes, they do show up in my games too... However, what good are personalities if it don't carry over to political decisions?

In Civ 4, I never get the feeling I want to "help" another Civ, because they really aren't greatful for it... They'll keep asking though... Time and time again... Everytime, (even if they're a good diplo friend) it seems to me that they're taking advantage of my infrastructure more than they're "being an ally..."

When I play other turn based games, you can actually form alliances and act as a team... You actually see the Civ you help grow defned you, and you do the same... So if you're a warmonger, the AI would lend you techs for protection and what not...

THIS would really open up Civ to a lot more people because not everyone is good at doing every aspect of this game... However, this game's AI is too weak to support this...