Reputation and attitude

wombatoftruth

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 17, 2004
Messages
35
This is an area of game play I'd like to see changed a bit-hopefully this isn't a repost of somebody else's wishes:

If you play for an extended period of time, it's fairly safe to say that the AIs are going to develop a negative attitude toward you. In fact, if you ever go to war with an AI civ, they'll be at least angry with you for the rest of the game, and there's nothing you can do about it. If the two of you later sign an alliance against another civ, they'll be happy with you so long as the alliance lasts, but once it's over, their temporary attitude changes.

I'd like to see the AIs' attitudes change over time, gradually working toward a neutral one from either of the two extremes, either furious or gracious, unless there are new events affecting it. I think this would both make game play more enjoyable and more realistic. After all, does Spain hold a grudge against the U.S. for taking Cuba in 1898? Are Americans still upset with the British for burning the White House? Does anybody still hate Mongolia? Of course not. While some historical grudges have certainly lasted (France v Britian from the 15th to 19th century, for example) for quite some time, nations that were once at each other's throats are often close allies later on. Perhaps every so many turns, the AIs' attitudes toward each other and the player's civ should move closer to the middle of the spectrum. They could of course still become furious if you raze half their cities, but eventually, they'd forgive you. Obviously things like least favorite government type could still have an impact, simply by applying an upper limit to the attitude one civ could have for another.

I think reputation would also benfit from a similar treatment. Given time, and repeated demonstrations of trustworthyness, the AIs should become more willing to trade gpt or ROP with you. An interesting change would also be to allow for revolutions to affect reputation as well-making civs that did not trust you before more willing to afterwards, and civs that did trust less likely to after, though of course this would wane over time as well. After all, there's nothing quite like blaming the last administration, or regime. "Why yes Theodora, I realize we have been less than trustworthy before, but we were under a despotic tyrant then, and are now a republic."

I'd love to hear what others think of this.
 
in all my games, except for the diplomatic victories, all the ai's have been negative towards me. Sometimes id go to war just for this reason...after i have watched some of the succession games, some have hinted how to keep your neighbours happy. now that it is apparent, i dunno if i want it to be changed...
 
brinko said:
in all my games, except for the diplomatic victories, all the ai's have been negative towards me. Sometimes id go to war just for this reason...after i have watched some of the succession games, some have hinted how to keep your neighbours happy. now that it is apparent, i dunno if i want it to be changed...

I think it is the way you play the game. In my current game, the 5 remaining civs were all polite with me, even though I conquered the 2 civs on my own continent, and even though I'm ahead in techs, etc.

Most of the world was at peace most of the game. It wasn't until an MPP angered an opponent that things turned sour; and after conquering the target civ, only that other civ in the MPP remained angry with me.

Some games I end up being the guy that everyone hates from the start, but not all. It seems the key is is to establish good relationships and reputation as early as possible.

Try giving away luxuries and even resources to the weakest civs. Make ROPs.
 
I reckon that the very basis of your reputation with another nation should be about what you have in common. So a shared or very similar culture group, religion and government should play a role in your base reputation. This will be further boosted by any cross-cultural flow which occurs between your nations (via passive or active means).
This base reputation would then be increased or decreased by your in-game actions (acts of kindness and generosity vs acts of cruelty and greed). How generous or cruel a civ believes your actions to be would also depend on their current level of 'relative social morality' (i.e. do they believe genocide is unacceptable, do they think slavery is wrong-that kind of thing).

How reputation translates into actions, though, will ultimately depend on 'relative strengths'. If you are, in relative terms, much culturally, economically or militarily stronger than another civ, then even if your reputation with them is quite low, they may not take any DIRECT action against you-as they either fear you, are in awe of you or desire what you have. Civs in such a position, though, will still probably refuse to do business with you unless it is genuinely in their interest (your diplomatic tone is very important in this regard), and they will probably resort to trying to undermine you in secret!

Anyway, I hope that made sense.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.
 
Maybe if your civ owns workers of another nationality (slave labor since these workers are not paid) or if you starve of citizens of another nationality in cities you control (genocide), it should affect their attitudes towards you. I don't think nations are happy with other nations who hold POWs from them.
 
One more thing, maybe how much another Civ likes you could affect how likely a city will flip to your side, or vise versa, as opposed to it being based on just culture and armies garrisoned in the city.
 
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