How close is too close

Feyd Rautha

Feyd Rautha

King
Joined
Jun 29, 2006
Messages
607
Location
Louisville, KY
In a recent game on an archipelago map I was expanding towards small islands in order to nab resources and "claim the land for Jolly Old England" when I came across a location that I knew was rather close to Alexander (six tiles away most of them ocean).

I settled the colony and he rode up making a point to say ... Please don't settle near us. I apologized profusely and sent a second settler a ways north (same island but probably 12 hexes from his border mostly the remainder of the island) and a few turns later I settled that colony and he called me a villain! The nerve!

Either way, I was sure that I was far enough away and yet he was all upset so it led me to question how far is far enough? Has anyone encountered issues with this in their games? I mean I've heard stories of the AI settling a city in a bubble within your main city hub and yet I give the guy enough room between us to settle another city and he gets cross?
 
Thread necro, yes, but I have the exact same problem and question.

How far do you have to be for the AI not to warn/denounce/declare war eventually? I gave massive gifts to a civ after I got a warning and I was still denounced and attacked. Ridiculous.

Is it based on distance from a city? From their borders? Territory they "claimed" at the beginning of the game (like based on a distance from the starting city)? Anything on the same continent?
 
Just tell him that you can settle any land you want. The diplo hit for ignore his request is +15, if you break it the hit is +20. The more positive the number more worse relation, with +50 at "Unforgivable". Not much of a difference.
 
it seems like basically any city you found thats in that AI's direction at all will set this off. i.e., if your new city is closer to his capital than anyone else's capital. I generally agree with Glassmage, if you're not sure, just tell them to bugger off. Against Alex, it probably doesn't matter much anyway; you'll be at war before too long one way or another.
 
What's really hilarious is when good old Alex or one of the other lovable civs settles in a small area left open 'cause your own cities just haven't expanded quite that far yet; then you get the "don't settle so close to us ..." crap.:crazyeye:
 
Which is actually very much like some humans I know.

wcbarney said:
What's really hilarious is when good old Alex or one of the other lovable civs settles in a small area left open 'cause your own cities just haven't expanded quite that far yet; then you get the "don't settle so close to us ..." crap.:crazyeye:
Click to expand...
 
chazzycat said:
it seems like basically any city you found thats in that AI's direction at all will set this off. i.e., if your new city is closer to his capital than anyone else's capital.
Click to expand...

So it's distance from the capital, not just any city? Because it seems to me that I've also had them compliain about slightly expanding my borders when their capital was very far away too...
 
You almost can't worry about this as the diplomacy currently functions. If you hadn't settled that island, he might have. Then he's still mad that you're settled too close to him. You literally "can't win for losing" with the AI's viewpoint on borders.
 
Yeah, it's so broken. I'm going back to Civ IV, for real. The only thing that will bother me are the Stacks Of Doom coming from Bismarck and Tokugawa.
 
To each their own (literally - do what is more fun). I enjoy being an aggressive expansionist and provoking the AI into war. Reaping the benefits of being declared on is a beautiful thing.
 
I have come to believe that any border expansion - as in, within an existing city from a culture pop - will trigger the "You're a lying villain" message. Which is why I always, always refuse thier "Don't settle" requests. Because I am a culture-monger, and my rivals can go jump in a lake. ;)
 
In my experience this and "stop buying tiles near me" are extremely finicky and seem a bit buggy. For example once I purchased several tiles on the same turn near an AI civ. On the next turn they came to me and asked me to stop buying tiles. I told them "Sorry" and I didn't buy anymore, as I had no intentions to anyway. But next turn (or a couple later) the same AI comes back saying I broke my word, etc etc.

When in doubt just tell them off. Like mentioned above, the diplomacy hit is less for that than when "you break your word".
 
When the AI players say "don't settle near us" they consider the entire map to be near them. At least that's as much sense as I can make of it. I've wondered if the settling thing comes up when you settle land they consider "theirs" that they want to expand to. Of course, this could be anywhere and there's no way to tell what they think should belong to them.

I still say there should be some prompt or something reminding you of your promise and asking if you're sure you want to found a city when it would affect your agreement with the AI, because as it is there's really no way to tell what it is exactly you agreed not to do. :/
 
Occasionally I'm offered early DoFs by my immediate neighbors, because I'm often delaying expansion to nab the GL, and so seem like a reasonable guy and a good neighbor, and I always accept.

Then you can turn the tables and plop your cities next to them. :D
 
CoolLizy said:
When the AI players say "don't settle near us" they consider the entire map to be near them. At least that's as much sense as I can make of it. I've wondered if the settling thing comes up when you settle land they consider "theirs" that they want to expand to. Of course, this could be anywhere and there's no way to tell what they think should belong to them.

I still say there should be some prompt or something reminding you of your promise and asking if you're sure you want to found a city when it would affect your agreement with the AI, because as it is there's really no way to tell what it is exactly you agreed not to do. :/
Click to expand...


Good points. I didn't start playing V until the first big patch came out. In one of my early games my ineptitude put me into a two city "empire" along a narrow strip of coast. Gandhi was crushing me in expansion, resources, techs, everything. Despite the fact that I had nowhere else to go, Gandhi, was all about "Don't settle too near to us." There was one more bit of coast on which to build a city and when I did so, Gandhi DOW'd and it was game over.

Sometimes the reasons for the "Don't settle..." message are obvious and understandable. At other times I have no idea why a nearby, or even not so nearby civ, decides that I'm stepping on its toes. It is sometimes annoying enough to make this Culture lover into a fire breathing warmonger. :mad:
 
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