Diplomacy

[Logan774]

I play Persia on emperor and so far I've had trouble with making friends with the ai. I do what they ask, try not to settle too close or anything else that annoys them until I'm ready to take over the world. Problem is the minute they ask me to go to war with them when they ask (I have to declare against somebody, so I figure it might as well be against the person they want me to) they immediately declare war on me.

The best example of this is in the game I was just in. Russia declared on me and I responded by taking everything they had except for one city. I couldn't take that city because the French, who had just asked me to go to war with them against the Songhai, disliked the fact I declared war against the Songhai and declared on me, bringing the Iroquois with them. My immortals slaughtered both armies, but what gives? Is the ai broken right now? In cIV going to war helped relations with your neighbors. Does it not matter in this one?

 

[NZV]

I don't really get it either. There doesn't seem to be a way to form a solid friendship with another Civ like in 4.

My favorite bit of "diplomacy" was a few hours ago as Greece. China is on the same continent as me, and we get along okay. Been playing super peaceful the whole game. Then the Ottomans destroy China entirely. So I go to war with the Ottomans and drive them out of China's old capital. I liberate it back to China. I even gift them the worker that was inside.

Next turn, the Chinese leader (with one city and no military) tells me that I'm pathetic despite being by far the strongest Civ, and the diplo screen shows her as hostile. So apparently doing her a gigantic favor made her like me -less- than before? What the hell, Civ5? Whatever, the Ottomans wiped her ungrateful ass off the planet again a couple dozen turns later.

 

[TheFourthDoctor]

I had a similar situation in my game. Monty took one of Ghandi's cities. I later went to war with Monty (not at the request of Ghandi) but decided to give Ghandi back his city. A turn or so later, Ghandi appeared to tell me - essentially - that he didn't like me.

I was surprised to find that when I took Ghandi's city when it was occupied by Monty that there was no option to liberate it. I could only annex, raze or turn it into a puppet. I had to then separately contact Ghandi and give it away.

There is something underwhelming about handing a city back to an ungrateful leader...

 

[Seven05]

I'm in the middle of a pretty peaceful game right now just to mess with diplomacy. I've refused every pact of secrecy and open borders deal, I do reseach pacts whenever the AI has enough cash for it and I am constantly trading luxury resources. I've accepted the few pacts of cooperation I've been offered and I haven't joined any wars. While nobody seems to love me, nobody hates me either and I have no problems getting favorable trade deals to go through.

The one thing that seems to annoy the AI to no end is conquering cities. If you capture a city they view you as aggressive even if you gift it to somebody else that turn. If you attack and take a city that gives you the option to liberate it (capitals of conquered civs and city states) and you decide to liberate it nobody gets mad at you other than the person you declared war on.

So, if you play your cards right and either wait until somebody declares war on you or only declare war on unpopular civs you can play peacefully. In fact, you can go to war with people somewhat often and as long as you don't take any cities it's easy to get back on good terms.

Early wars are easier to get away with if you completely destroy the civs on your continent before they meet the rest of the world. You can keep doing that to a degree even once everybody knows each other as long as you don't conquer too many cities. Just avoid conquering city states if you don't want a bad reputation.

 

[aryah]

hope these are just bugs