Diplomacy

[Draknith]

I would love to be able to go into dioplomacy and broker a "loan" deal whereby I could lend or borrow a large sum of money and pay back a small amount plus interest each turn. Hence I could borrow 1000 gold from the AI, and pay back 11 or 12 gold per turn for 10 turns.

Also, I would love to have a market system whereby when I go to buy or sell resources/luxeries there is a world price that goes up or down depending on the nations supply or demand for the product. Hence I could go in and sell furs to Mansa at a world price of 4 gold per turn, however if I have a monopoly on that resource I could then sell it for what I desire...

 

[Ddude97]

Or in other words you'd like a world market. Yeah that would be cool.

 

[Auncien]

One thing the AI's have always lacked (and I understand the complexities associated with this...) is the ability to make decisions that are in their self interest. by this I mean if three states occupy a sub continent and if I'm on one end, the AI with which I'm dealing is in the center and another AI is on the far end, the AI in the center should consider carefully the implications of declaring war on me. I have seen so many cases in which such a scenario happened with either the center AI declaring war on me or the guy on the other end, only to have the unaggressed party swoop in from behind and take advantage of the middle civ's weakness.

The player can make such a judgement call and it gives us a huge advantage. The AI either needs to be able to evaluate geopolitical situations more effectively or a lot of scripting needs to happen to ensure that they at least are aware of the possibility of such a scenario occuring and that their actions will alter the overall system in advantageous or disadvantageous ways.

... of course then we'd be playing against Skynet =)

 

[Pacifist46]

Also, an AI that monitors victory conditions more closely.
Like, if some mediocre/bottom of the totem-pole civ on the other side of the world is sneaking towards culture, I don't want to be the only one who whips out an intercontinental invasion force to suicide-attack their continent just to raze his culture-cities.
And also collaboration with other AIs eg. agreeing to gang up on a really powerful dude.
And more focussing by AI civs on victory conditions.
And yep, less annoying demands.

 

[Auncien]

Also, an AI that monitors victory conditions more closely.
Like, if some mediocre/bottom of the totem-pole civ on the other side of the world is sneaking towards culture, I don't want to be the only one who whips out an intercontinental invasion force to suicide-attack their continent just to raze his culture-cities.
And also collaboration with other AIs eg. agreeing to gang up on a really powerful dude.
And more focussing by AI civs on victory conditions.
And yep, less annoying demands.

Yes this exactly. The AIs need to hate hegemons because people hate them for good reasons. The AIs need to understand the potential consequences of the developments of the game, if not really understanding then simply noting that the AI playbook says "don't let someone get too close to a cultural victory." The AI needs to "fear" other AIs as well as the human player.

 

[Ddude97]

The AI needs to "fear" other AIs as well as the human player.

Exactly! just doing that would make the game so much better/interesting

 

[warpstorm]

Hence I could borrow 1000 gold from the AI, and pay back 11 or 12 gold per turn for 10 turns.

Well, that would be a great deal (for you). I hope the AI wouldn't take it.

I figure you meant borrow 100 gold.

 

[Shurdus]

I hate the random demands to declare war on an enemy. It shouldn't be so frequent and if you have said 'no' once they shouldn't have to ask you again 2 turns later. I find this as annoying as I did in previous Civs the fact that units of other nations would roam your countryside and you had to ask them to leave. Next turn again, again, again, until they declared war over it.

What I miss about these demands is an option to negotiate it: Okay, Monty, you want me to attack your longtime enemies, the Mongols. What's in it for me? You gonna give me some money? Hand over a border city you capture from them? You give me some tech? You accept my state religion? You set your trade routes to trade with me?

With better diplomacy you could even coordinate attacks. You should be able to discuss a very basic attack plan. Attack together in the south? Do an amphibious assault? Divide cities between you? Etc.

Next to religion another source of diplomacy/war is trade. You have the trading of resources and money, but also the trade routes. Maybe that could be explored more. If you do me a favor, my profitable Amsterdam trade routes will be directed more towards your Civ.

It would indeed be nice if the AI tried to 'bribe' us into war like we have to bribe them. We have to pay handsome cash in order to get an AI to go to war, while the AI tells us 'go to war or else.' A little more equality would be nice there.

 

[Mesodius]

It would indeed be nice if the AI tried to 'bribe' us into war like we have to bribe them. We have to pay handsome cash in order to get an AI to go to war, while the AI tells us 'go to war or else.' A little more equality would be nice there.

In other words, you want it to be more like Civ 3, where you could actually broker a deal where the AI pays you to help them, instead of making unrealistic demands without offering anything, then becoming your enemy when you do not comply. As I said in my previous post in this thread, they broke the diplomacy system going into Civ 4.

 

[zehcoutinho]

Regarding the annoying requests, there's one thing that for me is absurd, and that I think they should have fixed in the expansions is to not allow AIs to ask us to go to war when we're already in a war. It would be our version of that "have enough in our hands right now". Because it's ridiculous that you're fighting like 5 civs and someone comes asking you to go to war with them.

 

[V. Soma]

Uh, well, I guess it too late to ask for civ5 to have it but here is a way to diplomacy I would like

It is that the fact itself that you approach a civ with any deal/question/treaty whatever should not be automatically easy and simple - you have to GET the chance to have "appointment".

I mean:

If you are not so good friends then you can't get to the leader each turn...
Definitely not many times in the SAME turn...
Also, the relation you have also would affect that in a talk you can discuss sg for a long time or not.

YOu have to KEEP the contact alive - like RFC with the embassy thing.

All in all, I think a dynamic way of handling the diplo contact itself would be great.