[Story] Is this confirmation bias or do your diplomatic actions influence your neighbours?

[tommytoxen]

in my current game i was friends with egypt, carthage, nederlands (all of us mutual friends). we've been friends for many, many years.

carthage was an enemy of china (they've denounced eachother over border disputes)

however carthage unfortunately decided to invent a new heathen religion that was spreading way too fast for my liking. if it spread to china it would go worldwide as from where china was it would jump to the rest of the world. so i ended our DOF and started amassing an army of missionaries

a few turns later china sent me a DOF request, which i accepted. that annoyed carthage and egypt, who sent me a warning.

another few turns later china sent me a request to join her in a war against carthage, which i said give me 10 turns to prepare, at which point i started shipping a supporting army and navy over to china's border with carthage along with as many inquisitors as i could amass hoping i'll take a few coastal cities at least (my army very small at this point so only playing a supporting role in the war so relying heavily on navy)

so, war broke out and the first crusade against carthage began.

egypt then ended his DOF with me
netherlands ended his DOF with both egypt and carthage, but requested that me and he renew our own DOF
then he made a DOF with china, and denounced carthage!

i'm not sure if this is just pure coincidence or confirmation bias but it was so smooth and way too much of a coincidence.

so if you're close with an AI they'll "mirror" your diplomatic alignments? I've seen similar happen before but nothing this coherent or deep. It's almost like the netherlands is doing whatever they can to remain friends with me. We're direct neighbours and rely heavily on trade with eachother

 

[Recursive]

in my current game i was friends with egypt, carthage, nederlands (all of us mutual friends). we've been friends for many, many years.

carthage was an enemy of china (they've denounced eachother over border disputes)

however carthage unfortunately decided to invent a new heathen religion that was spreading way too fast for my liking. if it spread to china it would go worldwide as from where china was it would jump to the rest of the world. so i ended our DOF and started amassing an army of missionaries

a few turns later china sent me a DOF request, which i accepted. that annoyed carthage and egypt, who sent me a warning.

another few turns later china sent me a request to join her in a war against carthage, which i said give me 10 turns to prepare, at which point i started shipping a supporting army and navy over to china's border with carthage along with as many inquisitors as i could amass hoping i'll take a few coastal cities at least (my army very small at this point so only playing a supporting role in the war so relying heavily on navy)

so, war broke out and the first crusade against carthage began.

egypt then ended his DOF with me
netherlands ended his DOF with both egypt and carthage, but requested that me and he renew our own DOF
then he made a DOF with china, and denounced carthage!

i'm not sure if this is just pure coincidence or confirmation bias but it was so smooth and way too much of a coincidence.

so if you're close with an AI they'll "mirror" your diplomatic alignments? I've seen similar happen before but nothing this coherent or deep. It's almost like the netherlands is doing whatever they can to remain friends with me. We're direct neighbours and rely heavily on trade with eachother

Not coincidence. Your diplomatic actions do influence your neighbors, and the AI is more likely to befriend your friends and denounce your enemies if they like you. I programmed the AI to 'reevaluate' its diplomatic alignment towards other civs when certain events happen, such as making or ending a DoF.

 

[tommytoxen]

Not coincidence. Your diplomatic actions do influence your neighbors, and the AI is more likely to befriend your friends and denounce your enemies if they like you. I programmed the AI to 'reevaluate' its diplomatic alignment towards other civs when certain events happen, such as making or ending a DoF.

amazing! as i said i've noticed similar happening before but not to this extent, his decisions seemed so coherent and "human-like" for lack of a better word. you're doing an amazing job in that sense then! i was so impressed how the alliances and diplomatic alignments changed so smoothly. they just.. made sense, y'know? without me he has no iron or caravans, without him i have no horses or gold.

his decisions seemed so logical i had to wonder. glad i found out it was more than just confirmation bias. seriously good job! i'm glad someone like you is behind AI logic!