Improving The Diplomatic System with a new status

[gladoscc]

A lot of people dislike the AI turning on you, when you've being friends for the rest of the game. This isn't bad, but when it happens in every game, it makes trying to be allies with the AI civs useless.

I propose a new allied status. It should be somewhat hard to get, but when you are allied with someone, they will never backstab you, and you the warmonger penalty will not apply to you for that civ.

To be allied, I'm thinking of (1) one full friendship (2) current status friendly (3) you went to a military campaign against them. Then, you will be able to ally with them, and they will declare war on everyone you do, and you are expected to declare war on everyone they do. (If you don't, the alliance is broken)

 

[DavidCAD]

If you are talking about Friendly/Hostile/Guarded/etc then an extra status isn't going to prevent the AI from going to war with you.

The Civ5 AI is not the Civ4 AI - it's not a spreadsheet that you just need to punch in the right numbers and it will love you for life. If you are winning the game (especially by killing every other civ one by one) then the AI has every right to declare war on its own terms rather then sit around like a blind idiot until you decide it's that AIs time to die.

Treat everything the AI shows you - the status, the little bullet points, the 'your army looks kind of weak' jabs - as the AI's way of communicating over the table banter and showing facial expressions/emotions. Just like another human player. And just like a human player what they communicate to you vs what they privately think may be two different things. And just like a human giving gifts only goes so far - you need to have common interests and a feeling of safety to be friends. When they start calling you a 'warmonger' it means the AI thinks that you are a threat waiting to happen - you're gobbling up everyone on the map, and it's only a matter of time before they become your next obvious meal (unless they attack you first!).