How often should I beg?

[krille]

I just had great success begging some basic worker techs from a couple of Pleased AI:s (Marathon, turn 145). Great I thought!

But how good is their memory of my begging? For how long do they remember that they gave me a gift? I know CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml says:

<MemoryDecay>
	<MemoryType>MEMORY_GIVE_HELP</MemoryType>
	<iMemoryRand>200</iMemoryRand>
</MemoryDecay>

But this only means (if I can remember correctly) that the AI:s have a 1 in 200 chance of forgetting that another player (Human or AI) gave them help. For how long do they remember that THEY gave help?

I guess this all boils down to this: How often should I beg for stuff? (How many turns should I wait between beggings.)

 

[flaming_iles]

I think it depends on the A.I you're using. Willem and Asoka are usually two of the more generous leaders (I once got a luxury resource off Asoka for free at 'pleased'!)

It also depends on what you're asking for. if you continually ask for small things like small sums of gold, the A.I will give them to you more often, but if you keep asking for big things like techs and large amounts of gold, they'll take longer to be willing to give you something again.

asking for stuff is an undervalued tactic in civ IMHO, it can often give you an advantage over your rivals in a tough game, and asking your friends for help won't give you any negative modifiers either.

 

[Refar]

I think the one you quoted goes to they memory of help they received.

With begging it works roughly like this:

If they concider the request reasonable (are genrally willing to give in) they will make a random check in order to know if they actually give in. If you ask for to much, they will just refuse anyway.

The chance to get a "go" in that random check is 0 if you just requested help (No matter if they agreed or not) and it does increase with each turn passing after you asked. IIRC it increases by 5% per turn, so begging again after 20 you woulld have 100% chance to get it, if the request is reasonable at all.

There was a thread with more detail on that (i.e. the numbers, in case i remembered wrong), which i cant find right now....

EDIT: As to flaminf_iles comment: What leader, waht stuff you are asking for and how much they like you at all, does matter for the decision "If the request is reasoanble". The time-driven probability check works the same for all leaders.
So while you could get more from Asoka, because he's such a friendly guy, the time you have to wait for begging him again would be the same as for any other leader.

 

[Sempronio]

Does begging count for WFYABTA?

 

[krille]

Interesting, so I assume I can safely ask for something every 20 turns then? Does this vary with game speed btw (I usually play at Epic or Marathon)?

What about when the AI gives me stuff (such as techs)? Does this put me down to 0% again?

Sempronio > Yes, any tech you receive from any other Civilization for any reason counts towards WFYABTA.

 

[Sempronio]

Many thanks

 

[Refar]

If you get a tech from Begging, it does count for WFYABTA. However most of the time they will refuse to give you a tech anyway (Because they think it's un-reasonable, not because of the time limit...).
I usually just beg for some Gold.

I know from experience that around 20 turns works fine on Normal and Epic.

I think the time does not scale with gamespeed. Even if you could try it more often on Normal... But then again - they need some time to collect something worth begging for anyway...
Never tried playing Marathon.

Asking for something without offering stuff in return will bring the counter down to 0% again (no matter if get it or not). I dont know what happens if the AI does gift you something, without you asking for it. Never happened to me

 

[krille]

Refar > In my current game (OCC, Deity, Aggressive AI, Tiny Pangea, Low Sea, No Tech Brokering, 6 AIs) I've been gifted maybe 5 techs so far (without even begging for them!). And I only just discovered Civil Service. They're only ever giving me VERY common techs that are sort of low-end and I've received them from AI:s that are Pleased+ with me. Not sure why they are so nice. They shouldn't be. But I really shouldn't have enabled No Tech Brokering as I'm falling further and further behind...

 

[aziraphale]

This might be a stupid question, but what is WFYABTA?

 

[krille]

We Fear You Are Becoming Too Advanced