Diplomacy

[Uniqueuponhim]

I'm going crazy in this game I'm playing, the AI players keep saying and doing different things. I'm playing as the Gaians on Transcend, using the social models Police, Green and Knowledge.

Now, Morgan keeps reprimanding me for being Green, but he seems to have no problem at all signing a pact with me. On the other hand, Zakharov has nothing but praise for me being knowledge, yet won't even sign a peace treaty! Half the time I have a truce, and the other half, a vendetta with him. I've never started a war with him once, he always initiates it, and I almost always end it by caving in and giving him some tech. I've tried giving him free stuff, everything, but he won't sign a peace treaty and NEVER wants to trade techs. For most of the game he was always slightly ahead of me in total power, but recently I've pulled ahead of him significantly, and now he's even behind Miriam (who is literally at war with every faction on the planet, and about to overtake me in total power). Right now, I'm leading the world in total power, I have more than 2/3 of the secret projects, more energy credits than I know what to do with (at this point I have enough that I can rush-build every secret project from now on) yet he insists on making outrageous demands and declaring vendetta when I don't comply, even though I'm more powerful than him and he's already losing a war against Miriam. What the hell is up with this, that isn't like Zakharov at all! He should be begging for my help, not acting like a stubborn ass.

Right now, I'm pact brothers with Morgan, Lal and Yang, nobody is at war with anyone except Miriam, my integrity is "Noble"... What is going on here, why is my diplomacy with Zakharov not working? He seems perfectly fine and dandy and happy to see me every time I open communications, but whenever I ask him anything, god forbid he do anything that could possibly benefit both of us. He basically expects me to give him every tech I research for free.

 

[Proletariat]

My memory of playing against the University is a bit blurry, since they're either not in the game or I end up crushing them too early to really gauge their behaviour; but from I can remember, they do tend to be rather militant from time to time, usually to their own detriment. In my current Pirates game, we made contact early on and signed a treaty only to have him declare when I refused to give him 75 credits. Seeing as how nobody except me even had Flexibility at the time and it was an ocean map, they pretty much lost before it even started.

As for Morgan, I think it's just a case of pragmatism trumping ideology, since they pretty much rely on peaceful commerce to survive.

 

[Uniqueuponhim]

This is wierd... at the beginning of one of my turns, I had sent a message to Zakharov, just to see if he had changed his mind regarding a treaty, and I had no luck. A bit later on in the turn, a misclick caused me to declare a vendetta against Morgan by accident (Who now only has a treaty with me) so I reloaded the autosave to do the turn over again. This time, I decided to try to butter up Zakharov a bit before asking him, but when I contacted him, the first thing he did was offer me a treaty, before I had a chance to do anything. Next, I asked him to call off his vendetta against the Hive and he complied, then I asked for a pact of brotherhood. He responded that he would sign a pact if I would join him against Yang (odd since I just got him to sign a truce) but the wierd thing is, when I declined his request, he still signed the pact, and now he acts like he's been my best buddy all along (despite the fact that he's declared vendetta on me at least 3 times in the past.) That's quite the 180, especially for a replay of the same turn. Not that I'm complaining.

On another Diplomacy note, I notice all of the AIs always want to cause global warming and raise sea levels, but sea squares have no minerals (until very late in the game with fungus) so I can't understand why they would want to. Luckily, as the governor, I'm able to veto these requests. The one time I proposed lowering sea levels with a global shade, every single other person voted nay. What's up with that?

 

[Proletariat]

I think the AI is just crazy that way. Looking back at some of my old saves from my current game, some of those who voted against raising water levels eventually voted for it later in the game. In one turn, everyone except the Gaians and University voted against melting the caps, yet when I reload and try to launch solar shade, the Gaians still voted for the proposal, and Peacekeepers and Spartans both rejected it, while the University and Believers abstained.

It's not completely random, mind you. I've noticed a tendency for factions with a lot of water bases to want to raise water levels, and vice versa. After that though, it's anybody's guess. Faction loyalty certainly doesn't seem to make any difference.

He responded that he would sign a pact if I would join him against Yang (odd since I just got him to sign a truce) but the wierd thing is, when I declined his request, he still signed the pact,

This isn't unusual. I've been often been asked to declare against another faction during the signing of a pact, even though I've already given the other party credits or tech, but whether I agree or not doesn't seem to effect the pact nor their attitudes towards me. I'm not sure if this is a problem with dialogue or something else.