Diplomacy

[KingMattRoe]

I apologize again if this belonged in the Newbie's thread, but I did read through several pages and couldn't find anything about it and seeing as the search engine is disabled, I guess I am just going to have to post!

I have the newest patch of Civ III - not PTW, just good ol' Civ III. Now, here is the deal: why does every other nation hate me?

Seriously, no matter what I do, no-one likes me. I can't get Right of Passage, Protection Pacts, Trade Embargo's - hell, I could give an entire nation my entire stock of technology, huge ammounts of money, world and territory maps, and within 5 or 6 turns, their back to being "Annoyed" with me!

I have only played the game on the bottom few levels so far, so maybe it is different to be diplomatic on harder levels (my thinking being that the harder the game level the more realistic it is and as such, civilizations are more willing to deal with you.)

Is there something I am doing wrong? How do I get peaceful status with a nation? It's not like anyone is declaring war on me, but no-one, and I mean no-one is willing to ally with me. What do I do?

And whilst I am on the topic: how come other nations don't declare war on one another, or on you? I haven't once fallen foul to a sneak attack from any nation, nor have any other nation gone to war. Now if I am simply being impatient and just haven't had it occur yet, then feel free to give me a verbal slap and to tell me to stop being a stupid newbie. But if I have stumble across some programming plot to kill off all sorts of diplomatic fun, so help me...I'll be cross!

 

[Turner]

Need to trade, trade, trade. If you don't trade, then the AI thinks you are snubbing it. Trade resources, lux's, techs, maps, (although some people, yours truly included, don't like trading the map. Even the the AI already knows it.).

As for the AI attacking, or not, as the case may be. . . One asks, what level are you playing? In the higher levels, don't worry, they'll attackyou. Also, when you get the pop up, and the AI demands something but offers nothing in return, then there's a chance they'll declare war if you don't give in. The AI also tends to not attack, regardless of level, when your army is bigger than theirs. They declare war less when you ask them to leave or declare war when your army is bigger than theirs as well.

As for asking in the newbie thread, don't bother wading through it next time, just go ahead and post a question in it. Most of us here monitor that thread, and we'll pipe up with the answer. And what with the search fucntion disabled right now. . .

 

[wilbill]

Diplomacy and the AI's attitude toward you work about the same at all levels of play.
Have you established embassies with the other civs? Embassies are an important step toward good diplomatic relations. Trade often with the AI's. Trade techs, maps, luxuries, whatever you have that they want and vice versa.
Read this thread - it'll explain how to keep the AI's happy with you.

AI Attitude

Welcome to CFC!

 

[FenrysWulf]

In my experience, the AI seems to get mad at you if you are better than they are. If they are stronger than you they are more likely to look favorably on you, although they still won't trade with you because you don't have anything they want. It's just jealousy though. I don't see any reason why you should go out of your way to make them like you though. Shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out, that's my motto.
One way you can get an alliance is if someone else is at war. If you ask them to ally against that country they are at war with, they'll jump at the chance, and that will improve your relations for awhile.
Nations seem to declare war most often when you have an isolated city or two somewhere away from your main continent. The AI likes to attack these, and rarely attacks your main continent in any force, assuming they don't share a continent with you. They will build up troops next to your city, but if you have show friendly moves turned off you probably won't notice, and then all of a sudden they declare war and swoop down on you. If this hasn't happened to you, you're just lucky. I don't think it really matters how powerful you are, because they attack isolated spots that they think they can pry away from you.

 

[KingMattRoe]

Thanks for all the help folks - I really appreciate it.

The reason I want to be on good terms with other Civ's is for two reasons - trade and declaration of war pacts. I remember from Civ II that if you get your allies to declare war on your enemy, it is a great way to keep em occupied at home so you can build up a nice old force.

Now, I have just remembered that in order to do that you have to have embassies. In Civ II, when you discovered writing, it asked you if you wanted to set up embassies. Well, according to the Civlopedia in Civ III, the same thing applies. Except I have never been given the option of starting embassies. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can do it?

 

[Turner]

If you have already made contact with another civ by the time you get writing, then a pop up asks you if you want to establish embassies.

Check out This post in the FAQ Thread to establish embassies. In PTW,click on the 'e' next to the unit indicator in the lower right hand side of the screen, and you can build an embassy with any met civ in that list.

 

[Frisian Warrior]

Double click on the star of your capital to establish embassies. I don't know why they removed that popup after the discovery of writing.
I have another question here. Why would the strounger pay the weaker when they draw up an MPP? It seems to work that way but I would like to know the reasoning behind this.