Is there a way to stop the AI repeatedly asking for the same thing e.g. help with war

They should bring back the feature from Civ III where your foreign adviser would ask whether or not you wanted to meet with an AI leader when they tried to contact you.

It would be nice if someone could mod that. :)
 
Here's some ideas to help with diplomacy:

  • Help the world to develop into factions, if possible. One good idea I've seen from CFC is to split the world into two religions, then ally one faction against the other. This works best when you control as many holy cities as possible, because a civ that founds a religion is unlikely (at best) to change its religion. Make sure to conquer whomever founds the early religions (usually Isabella and/or Saladin). Consider also conquering the civ that builds the Apostolic Palace, if you didn't build it.
  • Choose one leader and give in to his/her requests. No, you can't be neutral in Civ 4, if you want to avoid the entire world hating you. This is by design. However, once you get that civ up to Friendly, you've got an ally that will stick by you (until your close borders bring them down to Pleased -- so choose a far-away civ). Ally yourself a sane warmonger, if possible. However, even Montezuma and Shaka can be befriended, and having those legions of units on your side can be useful. Send in Montezuma or Shaka to soften the targets, then swoop in and take the prize for yourself.
    [*]Get involved in wars that can't hurt you. When you see buzzards circling above an AI civ, get in on the action. Even if you never send a single troop, you'll get useful diplomatic bonuses with everyone who did. Is someone at war with a civ that's on the other side of the world? Declare war on them, too. Your target is too busy defending himself to send out galleons full of soldiers. Do you have a monopoly on Astronomy? Declare war with wild abandon. What are they going to do? Pillage your fishing boats? Let them fume over there. It'll slow down their technological advancement, as they build up troops they can't ship out.
    [*]Trade your technologies. Seriously. Hoarding your technological advances doesn't help you nearly as much as being a tech broker. Get in the habit of trading everything away as soon as you get it, unless you have a specific, good reason not to. Are you building a wonder? Then don't trade the tech. Are you researching Liberalism? Don't give out the prerequisites. Those are good reasons. Simply hoarding your technology is not a good reason. You get useful diplomatic bonuses for engaging in trade, and, even better, you can get half a dozen (or, potentially, even more) older technologies after trading your new technology to everyone. Use your head. Trading SS techs is stupid, and I'm not saying that you should throw away the game. Just stop hoarding.
    [*]Why do some people have such a big problem with giving in to AI demands? Is it some kind of threat to your masculinity (if male) or ego? Give me a break. I give in to AI demands all the time, because it's just a game. It's not reality. So many people complain that the AI doesn't make demands on other AI -- a legitimate complaint -- but what they don't realize is that they can use this game mechanic to their advantage. I get excited when AIs make demands and requests of me. It means that I can rack up even more diplomatic bonuses. What good are all these diplomatic bonuses? You can ask your friends for favors! You never know when they will spare something for a good friend. Keep asking. There's no cost. I've had people declare war for a good friend, give me brand new techs, and even gift me strategic resources! Once, I got uranium for free, just because I asked for it, on a lark.
    [*]Make sure you know the whole picture before you start getting involved in international affairs. If you trade with someone's worst enemy, you can become his new worst enemy. No, it doesn't make any sense to me, either, but consider this before you jump at the chance to trade techs with someone on unexplored continent.
    [*]Change to someone's favorite civics without being asked. You can get Tokugawa up to +6 just by going to his favorite civic. Of course, if they do ask, then you can get even more points. This is good for making friends quickly, when you need a U.N. vote to pass or war allies.
    [*]Play "always war" if you're sick and tired of always getting AIs making demands. Then you can turtle to your heart's content.


I haven't checked the War Academy in a while, but if there aren't any diplomatic tutorials, maybe we could write one up. I've seen quite a few diplomatic rants/calls for help lately.
 
Powerslave said:
Why do some people have such a big problem with giving in to AI demands? Is it some kind of threat to your masculinity (if male) or ego? Give me a break. I give in to AI demands all the time, because it's just a game. It's not reality. So many people complain that the AI doesn't make demands on other AI -- a legitimate complaint -- but what they don't realize is that they can use this game mechanic to their advantage. I get excited when AIs make demands and requests of me. It means that I can rack up even more diplomatic bonuses. What good are all these diplomatic bonuses? You can ask your friends for favors! You never know when they will spare something for a good friend. Keep asking. There's no cost. I've had people declare war for a good friend, give me brand new techs, and even gift me strategic resources! Once, I got uranium for free, just because I asked for it, on a lark.
Click to expand...

Errrr...? Let's see:
I usualy don't give in to demands cos doing so would be suicidal. E.g. if I'd join some random war everytime I'm asked to, I'd be constantly at war with 3/4 of the globe.
Then the AI asks to drop relations to others all_the_time. Now how's giving in to that smart? All it does is get me +0 (+1?) with the demanding civ and -1 with the other AND of course I'll lose resources, cash, territorial access aso. So at best, I'd lose. Brilliant.
 
Underdawg said:
It does. They won't go to war with you at friendly; they will never plan to go to war with you when they are at friendly, it is in the code, it has value of 0. However, there are certain cases where a friendly civ will declare war on you. Other than the obvious Apostolic Palace crusade order, there is another less obvious one. A civ at pleased can choose to go to war with you, it has to first trigger that that civ will go to war with you, but it will not declare right away, it will declare later as it builds up its forces. When it is ready (whenever that is), it will then declare war even if relations have already went up to friendly in that time.

Hope that made sense.
Click to expand...

Therefore, I was right.

(PS: I knew all that)
 
Like I said, choose one person or faction to buddy up to, and tell the others to go away. You need to be choosy.
 
Bursk said:
I've built the Shwedagon Paya, am running Free Religion and doing my very best to remain Swiss-like in my neutrality, but the bickering AIs keep trying to involve me in their matters.

Monty and Darius have been at war for quite some time, and I have been asked three times by each one to declare war on the other. Look, I said no the first time. If I do change my mind then I'll declare war on the relevant party, so stop asking me!

But of course, because they both keep asking me, both now dislike me because I've turned them down three times. So even though the war has absolutely nothing to do with me (it's not actually taking place anywhere near my land) I've managed to get two Civs to dislike me. This is a load of crap. How would the AI like it if I kept asking it the same thing? Oh, that's right, it wouldn't care since there are no negatives to the AI turning down one of your requests.

So, please, can someone tell me how I can either limit the AI requests to one per type e.g. Monty will only ask me once to declare war on Darius, or keep the repeated requests, but make the -1 for my refusal only take effect the first time of asking.
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Figures, using Islam to indulge you power lust, I see. j/k ;)

I recommend you to give one of them something to declare peace and then you'll have the cancel deals problem.
 
they need to give us the "refuse to talk" option too. i hate being threatened by bottom civs that only have a couple cities all the time.
 
The AI should have a very complex system of decision making regarding these leader contact requests if they had it too between each other.
A bad choice could ruin there chances for a good play very much.
So i don't expect this to appear in Civ4.
Though you can turn off all these requests towards humans too if it felt bad to you.
 
You can refuse to sell a tech. Just refuse to sell it.
I've declared war on someone who was friendly with me -- if i'm comquering the world and my next civ to conquer happens to be friendly ... Friendly is temporary, all diplomacy status can be changed very quickly by a few actions. So also in the real world.
 
Bothered by the same continuos interuptions I decided to try always peace, the interuptions continue, give me cash, give me tech, they are just not backed by the threat of war, but they are followed by a wave of spys, not quite the peace I was looking for.
 
This thread has covered several of the huge errors in logic and immersion for the diplomatic process, exacerbated by their frequent repetition.

One more suggestion I would like to throw out there is a 'challenge' button... I need an option to say "bring it RIGHT NOW - you just made a big mistake" -- when they are in my office threatening me for a (invariably top end) tech. An analogue of sending them back just the head of their ambassador. Then, AI declares war, and they take the reputation hit. Or maybe they can't threaten me again, because I have called their bluff.

Another suggestion: the 'lessen' button. When they ask for help, there should be a counter-offer stage. No, the AI can't have the cutting-edge tech, but I would like positive relations, so maybe the AI could get a little something. No middle ground kills immersion.

Repeating these interactions without these options is aggravating, and makes me vote for the suggestion (offered by many) that we need the option to turn away their ambassador. Closed door policies don't break immersion. It wouldn't mean that neutrality wouldn't have some small diplomatic price tag, but it would solve soooooooooo many things.

If anyone has modded this, please please mention it!

Cheers!
- Occam
 
Powerslave : I'm trading all along and am good (really) on the diplo side, and yet I opened one of these threads complaining about diplo. It's not about "turtling your heart's content" or anything like that : it's about having a diplo that looks like a diplo and not like facing a bunch of jackals trying to get every piece of you every damn turn in the game.

To know what I think of these incessant demands, see this thread. That's really the one thing that could make me throw this game by the window.

Someone please mod a "blow off the head of that bloody beggar with a shotgun" answer to demands, preferably with lots of blood and brain bits flying around. I need it. A "get th f##k out of my empire right now and never show your ugly face in my palace again or I'll feed you to the dogs" option would be appreciated too.

I think I may be a little bit too involved in the game, but hell, that's the way I like to play it. Who's the king ? :king:
 
I have a very simple solution: do NOT open borders with everyone. Not having open borders or any trades with the AI greatly decreases their chances of asking you to join a war.

The best diplomatic policy, however, is NOT a Swiss-styled diplomacy. Switzerland in real life isn't loved by many countries, and even though they are not part of the EU, they are uncontestibly European. Remaining absolutely neutral towards everybody will get yourself carved by everyone else.
 
If i'm on land with other civs, I refuse open borders until i'm ready. I want to block in my space first. Reaction, I siuppose, from CivIII when you were constantly bombarded with settlers. But eventually you need open borders for trade. By mid game I build Customs Houses and all my port cities (12 to 20) have four or five trade routes, mostly foreign, at 5 gold each. You can win, of course, without the trade dollars, but it does help.
 
Navarre said:
Powerslave : I'm trading all along and am good (really) on the diplo side, and yet I opened one of these threads complaining about diplo. It's not about "turtling your heart's content" or anything like that : it's about having a diplo that looks like a diplo and not like facing a bunch of jackals trying to get every piece of you every damn turn in the game.
Click to expand...

Civ 4 is a wargame, not a realistic model of reality. The diplomacy system is not supposed to be realistic. Once you learn how to use it, you can win the game without a standing military. Bribe other AIs to do your dirty work for you.

Your problem, from reading your other thread, is the same as this original poster: you want to turtle. Well, that doesn't work in this game. Sorry. You're going to have to either play as a warmonger (essentially "always war") or give up some of your precious tech when the AIs come calling. You need to choose sides when AIs are at war with each other. When two of your friends are at war, bribe one to stop the war.

Stop turtling and use diplomacy; otherwise, the diplomacy system is going to use you, and you'll end up getting all pissed off.
 
Spitefire said:
just to point out the diplo system in the gal civ games is whole mage tons worth better, so the programmers are lazy, stupid, being told to cut corners by upper management (the bosses would never publicly admit that one) or some combonation of the 3.
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While I agree with you Galciv2 has a good diplomacy yet it also has it's weakest and at first it was way too powerful. Brad has to continue to work on diplomacy to keep the game challenging. I would say civ4 diplomacy is different which is to me a good thing.
 
Powerslave said:
Your problem, from reading your other thread, is the same as this original poster: you want to turtle. Well, that doesn't work in this game. Sorry. You're going to have to either play as a warmonger (essentially "always war") or give up some of your precious tech when the AIs come calling. You need to choose sides when AIs are at war with each other. When two of your friends are at war, bribe one to stop the war.

Stop turtling and use diplomacy; otherwise, the diplomacy system is going to use you, and you'll end up getting all pissed off.
Click to expand...
Well, read again. I've already said I don't turtle. I like the diplo. I trade a lot, I make friends, enemies, and I get open borders with everyone but Toku as soon as I can in most of the cases, excepted if a strategic reason says I shouldn't with a leader.

The thing is, I don't see Civ as a wargame. It's not, in any case. And I don't want to play it like it was. War is a minor and for me quite inconsistant part of the game. That's just another event. So apparently you don't have any problem with doing things that are totally absurd for the "civilization leader" you're supposed to play, I mean give tributes and such to mechanically increase your diplo modifiers, thinking as a player and not as a empire leader, but for others that just breaks all the immersion and thus all the fun, and I'm one of these.

Civ 4 is a wargame, not a realistic model of reality. The diplomacy system is not supposed to be realistic.
Click to expand...
Well, that's the point we won't agree upon. There are good wargames, and CivIV is definitely not one of them. As a wargame, it's really, really poor. It's an empire building simulation including war as an element amongst many, and as it it's the most advanced ever. But the diplomacy system needs to be realistic, or at least a little bit realistic, not totally biaised against the player as it is now.
 
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