How to calculate the distance the AI accepts your cities

[Bejeraste]

Hi guys.
Sorry if this was posted somewhere else. I searched, but maybe I didn't use correct keywords.
So, a short story first:
I was playing a game that I got stuck in between 2 AI warring at me for about 90% of the game. I only managed to build 2 cities and I was using most of all my production just to defend myself (bowman, longbowman, rifleman, and when I was about to get industrialism I got attacked by another 2 AI - game over).
Eventually I realized that I could create a new city in a terrible spot and give in exchange of peace. It worked!
Then I started thinking that I could actually use that to harm the AI, giving a city so far from their capital that the maintenance would cripple them.
Sure enough the next game I played I found myself in dire straights again (I usually play Prince but this time I was trying Emperor).
So, good old open border, and roaming settler became the fun for me. After travelling quite a bit and find a barbarian (yes, settler travelling alone. No wonder I get my a$$ kicked hahah) I decided to just settle down to give the city to AI.
But it was red, as well as some other cities there were actually legit and not so far from them.
That lead me to believe there is some maths behind it. The AI probably calculates a maximum distance from capital, or maximum maintenance. Or maybe even evaluates the tiles around it (which I doubt because the AI is always making cities in tundra/desert/ice... which usually allows a total of like 4-8 food [plus the 2/1/1 of the city itself]).
Did anybody ever investigate it? Or, if not, does anybody have a clue what things to look for? I could run some tests, but I strongly believe the maximum distance (if distance is the issue) changes over time (or with techs).
Thanks so much!
Cheers!!

 

[AcaMetis]

I don't recall the exact specifics off-hand, needless to say that it's a complicated story. But generally speaking, IIRC, an AI will only accept a city on the same landmass as it's capitol, if the city is closer to it's capitol than yours, if it's not too distant from the AI's capitol (I believe the limit is 11 tiles out, where diagonals count as 1.5 IIRC?), and if the AI is not in financial trouble. Note that an AI with less than four cities (IIRC) will always accept a gift city, and if cities have culture in them that makes the whole mess deeply complicated . There's a post about that out there somewhere, unfortunately I don't recall where.

As far as I know, that's it. Nothing else influences how far out an AI will accept a gift city. Not their tech level, not the city's quality, not the city's maintenance cost or proximity to Genghis Khan's borders, not the AI's attitude towards you, nothing. Gift cities are actually a very commonly used tactic in higher level play, especially when playing an Imperialistic leader. It's very useful to, say, gift a city or two to Shaka, which will get him to pleased with you if both were liberations, on the borders of someone he doesn't like, which makes them land targets of each other and might even bring their relationship down a notch because of border tensions. A Pleased Shaka who's got a cautious or annoyed land target neighbour is much less likely to plot war on you.

 

[Bejeraste]

Thank you so much for your answer! Now I can make some tests, with this "at least 4", 11 tiles away and closer to their capitol.

proximity to Genghis Khan's borders

HAHAHAHAHA Very foolish to accept such gift!

and if cities have culture in them that makes the whole mess deeply complicated

Hmmm... their culture? My culture? Any culture at all? My initial idea was to take a boat, fill it settlers, found cities near the arctic, and kindly donate them to all the AI players hahahah

There's a post about that out there somewhere

If you have any idea how to find it, please tell me. I will continue searching for it meanwhile!

if both were liberations

Don't you get any relationship bonus if you give a city that is not liberation?

on the borders of someone he doesn't like

That's actually brilliant!

 

[Anysense]

There it is in prepare to cringe thread. I don't know why you bother weith such advanced stuff, though. Might as welll have learned to beat prince.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/prepare-to-cringe-bad-maps-deity.647427/page-6#post-15508869

 

[AcaMetis]

Don't you get any relationship bonus if you give a city that is not liberation?

You do, but a different bonus.Gifting an AI a city will contribute to your Fair Trade diplo, same as trading techs with them, which caps out at +4 and depends on how much you've traded relative to how long you've known any given AI. So, over time, it will decay. Liberating cities gets you +1.5 diplo per city, although the game will truncate any decimals, and IIRC that bonus lasts the entire game.

Giving an AI a city early will keep you at +4 Fair Trade for a while, and for most AIs that's enough to raise you up to Pleased/Cautious if an AI was Cautious/Annoyed before, mind, it's by no means essential that every city gift counts as a liberation. It's just better if it does, since it's extra diplo points on top that never goes away.

 

[Lennier]

I don't think the gift city has to be on the same land mass; I think if the city is close enough to the AI's land mass it will accept the gift. In my last game, I was trying to get the AP religion (Judaism) into two AIs on the "other" continent who wouldn't OB with me (Toku and HC) in order to open up an AP victory. There was a one-tile island three tiles away from HC's capitol, so I plopped down a settler with a Jewish missionary on it, crated the city, converted it to Judaism, and liberated it to HC. Toku was a bit more complicated. There were several islands off of his territory, empty one ~3 tiles from his nearest city and one with a barb city ~3 tiles from that one. I conquered the barb city, converted it to Judaism, and Toku refused to take it. So I plopped a settler with a Jewish missionary on the closer island, created a city, converted it to Judaism, and Toku would accept that city as a gift.

 

[soundjata]

If my memory is correct the AI will accept a city < 9 tiles away from it's capitol.

 

[soundjata]

or any distance away provided it does not own more than 5 cities...