Moochcraft

[vormuir]

Quick question: can anyone tell me how the AI decides whether or not to give you money?

Talking about "could you spare this for a good friend", not tribute.

Obviously you must be at least Friendly with that civ. And you can't come begging too often. I remember reading somewhere that once you've asked, there's a 100% chance they'll say "no" the next time, decreasing by 5% per turn. If that's right, then you wouldn't want to ask more than once every twenty turns.

Anyway. Mooching has become a significant part of my strategy! The AIs are usually reluctant to part with techs, but will often turn loose a couple of hundred GP -- and in the early and middle game, this can make all the difference.

Anyone have the details?


Waldo

 

[Martinus]

Heh, I never tried it. Gotta try in one of my games.

 

[Killroyan]

As far as I know it all depends on the leader. I have had leaders giving me money at pleasantalready. And of course they will give you money sooner if you are a lot higher in power. For precize numbers I think you have to wait for some of the cracks. But mooching really helps a lot. You can get several hundreds several times easily during the game.

 

[Guardian_PL]

While we all wait for some wisecrackers with formulas and exact description/solution I can only add from my experience that it's enough to be at pleased and You can start asking them for When they have a LOT it's good to ask them for a bit less (I mean leave them poor leaders few coins for beer, ok? xP) than 100% of gold = more chances to get it. And I'm not sure, but 20 turns seems like a reasonable delay. It's not cheesy, AI keeps asking for most ridiculous stuff, why we shouldn't? Also, instead of gold some cheap tech can also given (Y'know, sailing, priesthood etc).

That's about all I know

 

[6K Man]

Quick question: can anyone tell me how the AI decides whether or not to give you money?

Talking about "could you spare this for a good friend", not tribute.

Obviously you must be at least Friendly with that civ. And you can't come begging too often. I remember reading somewhere that once you've asked, there's a 100% chance they'll say "no" the next time, decreasing by 5% per turn. If that's right, then you wouldn't want to ask more than once every twenty turns.

Anyway. Mooching has become a significant part of my strategy! The AIs are usually reluctant to part with techs, but will often turn loose a couple of hundred GP -- and in the early and middle game, this can make all the difference.

Anyone have the details?


Waldo

Well, I try to make a point of asking anyone who's Friendly/Pleased with me, every few turns, provided they have enough cash to make it worthwhile. As noted, gifts can be had at "Pleased", not just "Friendly".

Some observations - in one game, I found that Cyrus would not give me anything for free, at all. Regardless of how good our relations were (he was Friendly). He was second in score most of the game; I was first. I'm not sure if this is a similar effect to Tokugawa refusing to trade techs, which I've heard about.

- I'm not sure if there is a limit to how many times a civ will give gifts. At times, it's seemed that whenever their attitude moves (from Pleased>Friendly or Friendly>Pleased), a gift can be had, but I can't say for sure. Just in case there is a limit on how many times a gift can be had, I try to only ask for gifts when the AI has a fair bit of cash (say 200+ gold) to make it worthwhile.

- I find that if an AI is willing to gift you any cash, it's willing to gift all its cash. So if the AI says no to giving you 300 gold, there's no point in asking for 200, 100, 50, etc.

 

[Guardian_PL]

- I find that if an AI is willing to gift you any cash, it's willing to gift all its cash. So if the AI says no to giving you 300 gold, there's no point in asking for 200, 100, 50, etc.

Ah, see, while we are still not enlightened to this matter I'll explain my another superstition mentioned above. Once You'll ask, there's no point in further asking for a while, so it has to be one shot. What I've found (or not xPPP) is that AI in my games were much acquiescent (boy, had to look for this word for a while! ) when whenever they had a lot gold (say, above 300) to trade I had more success when I asked only for say 220. Or 180. Whatever.
My experience only.

P.S. Maybe someone was lucky enough to be gifted with 1280 gold in modern era? I wasn't.