My first game and some noob questions

[rafaelbn]

Hello!!

I just played my first Civ5 game yesterday! What an awsome game! That "just one more turn" effect is so funny! Just to you guys know I bought this game because of Angry Joe Show review. If you want a friend of yours to buy Civ5 make them watch it!

So my first game I played with Rome with map-style earth, map-size tiny, difficult warlord. In the end I had 5 cities all conected with railroads and four of them with the borders connected also. I attached the save game (it's way later my official victory because I need just some more turns )

I ended the game in turn 430 with a diplomacy victory (united nations voting). I don't know if that is good or bad but it was my first game and I enjoyed it very very much!!

What bothered me is that in the beginnig I founded cities near america and siam and both changed to guarded. I tryed donating units, gold and luxury but nothing made them be friendly anymore. And in late late game Siam out of nowhere became friendly again. But America stayed that way until the end!

So, is that a way of making a civ go from guarded to friendly again?

I think that is it... Ohhh... One more thing...

Any tips for me? I'm watching some Bibor's games on youtube to improve myself but I still need to practice right?

Cheers!!!
Rafael Bianco

 

[carbontaxes]

The way it seems to me (a noob) is that some AI's diplomacy modifiers are just too one-track-minded to ever be friendly with you especially after you trigger a major negative like having lands that they covet. You can see what your negative diplomacy modifiers with each civ are in the Diplomacy Overview screen. So yeah a lot of civs are just not going to be Friendly with you again after a certain situation takes place. Friendly/other-than-Friendly isn't terribly important anyway because sometimes it's also way too fickle.

Like you can have Hostile Mongolia who just met you actually give you inter-turn taunts like "Imma kill you" messages just to let you know that he wants to kill you. Then he finally declares war on you, and you repel all his invasion army. Then suddenly he's friendly.

 

[JimboThrasher]

I would recommend to just take your time and learn the mechanics correctly. Gradually start to determine your city food/production/gold management personally and just understand how the game works.

Also, always treasure your early units. Upgrades can become very powerful and loosing an initial warior can really suck.

I have never, ever donated a unit to another civ... but i understand what you were trying to do. I wouldn't waste gold and units on a civ, but trading does help. lux 4 lux. open borders... maybe bride a civ to go to war with another. Civs do look at trade history, but it doesn't have the greatest weight.

Many times, the distance from your civ to theirs has a large influence on their view of you. Or it could just be the personallity of the civ. Either way, theres alot that goes into their attitude and you'll figure it out the more you play. Thats why I recommend just learning how everythign works so that you can identify what kind of effects your decisions create.

 

[apocalypse105]

Well the problem is that you try to be friends with people who dont like you because you settle to close to them you can have good trading partners if they are far away from you or if a other civilization is between you and him.

Its good if you are neigbhour with SIam and let say bismark is olso and bismarks hates SIam to denounce siam.. To make germany happy

The hole diplomacy system is about who are you friends with and who you aren't...

But overal diplomacy is non existent and doesn't offer a lot of options because the Ai wants to win and is programmed to and you can't interact a lot with them unfortently... Thats one negatif point of civ but I thinx angry joe said that in his review

 

[Adjuvant]

It's difficult to make meaningful relationships with ai neighbors at the lower difficulties. Your potential for growth and development, particularly technologically, doesn't make them "hate you" per say, but rather "fear you" so they group up and attack you. Otherwise, it would be a meaningless cake walk.

 

[SlithyTove]

Diplomacy is a bit.... odd in Civ 5. Thinking of them as other players trying to win rather than other civilizations helps understand their behavior which can often seem bipolar and sociopathic. Simply put, you do not have ANY "friends" in Civ, just temporary partners.

Particularly, anyone you share a land border with is problematic. They want to expand to win the game and the most likely expansion is directly into you. Unless you out-army them heavily, expect any friendliness with neighbors to be a ruse to lull you into false security. Make friends with people far away. For example on the other side of your nearby enemy. That way your nearby enemy gets hit from both sides in war conditions.

Also, pay attention to how is allied to who and to what city-state. Signing a Declaration of Friendship without close attention can cause a death-spiral in your relations if you aren't careful.

If you are at all powerful in the mid to late game, expect everyone to hate you. They think you are winning and they don't like that.

Diplomacy is not complicated in Civ, but it is not intuitive and takes some time to learn. But, rest assured, it comes with time.

 

[rafaelbn]

Diplomacy is a bit.... odd in Civ 5. Thinking of them as other players trying to win rather than other civilizations helps understand their behavior which can often seem bipolar and sociopathic. Simply put, you do not have ANY "friends" in Civ, just temporary partners.

Hum... Never thought of that... And actually makes a lot of sense!
Thanks a lot SlithyTove!

 

[bcaiko]

As other folks on here have pointed out, should you want a "temporary partner." There are a few things you can do:

*Choose sides in a denouncement/war;
*Avoid getting warmonger penalties (by starting more than one war or by taking over a Citystate);
*Make frequent trades (and the AI does seem to give you a bigger positive diplomatic bonus when the trade is in their favor. FYI - a standard luxury will net you 240 gold at the friendly status);
*Declare friendships only with AIs who you're sure you won't scuffle with for a good long time or at all. AIs from off your continent are often your best partners.

Also, the AI players have different "personalities". On normal settings, Ghandi is much more likely than Ghengis to get miffed if you declare a few wars. Often I find the warmongering Civs are my best partners, so long as I maintain a sizable military and make sure they have a more delectable target somewhere else.

 

[Maktaka]

*Avoid getting warmonger penalties (by starting more than one war or by taking over a Citystate)

To expand on that, you get warmonger for initiating wars or wiping out civilizations. Fighting defensive wars, taking cities (including capitals), and wiping out city states allied with opponents when in a defensive war do not incur any penalty. For emphasis on that last one, the city state MUST be allied with the opposing AI at the time of their capture. If they're just still at war with you because you haven't declared peace with them even though their alliance lapsed with the opposing AI, you will receive a healthy chunk of progress towards accruing a warmonger penalty. Wiping out Rome and wiping out Warsaw have the same impact towards the warmonger penalty.

Note that if you have a defensive pact with an AI who is attacked and you honor your agreement, you will be the aggressor as you will declare war on your ally's attacker even though you weren't the one who started the whole imbroglio.

It's actually possible (theoretically anyway) to achieve a complete domination victory without ever getting a warmonger penalty.