Question about Tradeable Cities with AI

[y10]

When I enter the trade screen with an AI, the Cities tab is always grayed out. The message that I get is, "The AI has no tradeable cities, or you do not have an embassy.", when I do have an embassy, and it very much looks like they have cities that should be up for trade. I'm playing on version 4.16.2 of VP. Does anyone know if this is a glitch or if I am misunderstanding what conditions make a city tradeable?

 

[azum4roll]

You can't sell cities founded by yourself.

 

[y10]

Thank you for the information. I didn't know that that was a condition. Is that relatively new, or did I just never notice that?

 

[axatin]

It was added maybe a year ago.

 

[ellamvik]

Oh thanks, I was wondering about that also. A bit limiting to be honest. A couple of times I have founded a city specifically for trading for a neighbor's city so I wouldn't have to conquer it and we both would be better off in terms of compact territory as well as resources. Happens especially when the neighbor is behind in technology and doesn't settle land close to them over a narrow ocean and pushes on my region instead. Then when they can travel the ocean they already have enough cities for the moment and don't expand overseas right away. I ended up conquering theirs and then giving away my distant city using IGE, but that's a half-assed solution.

 

[azum4roll]

That was very exploitive so we removed it. Now there's an exploit to sell conquered cities to a third party for a high price (everything they have), which should also be dealt with.