Silly behavoir from the AI

[alvan]

The more I play this game the more I get frustrated with civs going from 'Cautious' to 'Furious' only based through these three: You refused to give us tribute! You didnt give us help! You didnt help us during war-time!

I mean, comeon! Like I would go to war with my 'Pleased' Gandhi (neighbour) because 'Annoyed' Monty (on another continent) asks me!

Also a question, does the AI spam these things to eachother?

 

[Underdawg]

Also a question, does the AI spam these things to eachother?

Yes, they do.

I think it's fine. Not too hard to manipulate who will be your friend and who will be your enemy.

 

[Woodreaux]

I've been trying to improve my grip on diplomacy and I've learned many things from this forum and game experience.

• For one thing, Monty is just a psycho, period. Personally, I find it's just safer to preemptively destroy him as early as possible.
• Cathy is very needy. She'll constantly try to bum techs or offer total rip off trades. She even demands tribute when she's really in no position to demand anything. Worse, she's impossible to please. Her propositions are insane, but if you don't agree to her terms, she'll stay mad at you for the rest of her life. My advice: same as Monty. On a positive note, unlike Monty who just spams cities with no buildings, when you conquer her cities, you'll find she adds improvements.
• Ghengis Khan also has a large stick up his posterior. I've assisted him in war, but the small "our mutual military struggle brings us closure together" doesn't do much to offset the penalties from denying him tribute. In one game, I agreed to help him wipe out the Zulus. 5 turns after we became brothers in arms, he was furious with me and refused to speak.
• The ceremonial-ball-playing Incan always wants you to stop trading with people. Fortunately, he's not much of a War Machine because he's too busy teching. So it's unlikely he'll attack you.
• I haven't really noticed whether or not the AI's are constantly bugging each other, but you can this information by checking out the attitude matrix of Diplomacy screen [F4]. It gives all the opinion score and modifier info between the AI, just like when you mouse over the leaders' names on the map. I periodically check this the table when I'm deciding with whom I'm going to offer trades.

In a similar thread I created, a couple of nice posters called Bhruic and KMadCandy provided some great links:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=244799
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=204328

It helps explain the mechanics of the individual AI leaders and how they do and don't get along. Basically, for the psycho leaders you have 2 choices: A: become their b!+@h in order to remain friendly with them or B: try to isolate them diplomatically and keep a powerful military standing at the ready to address their inevitable declaration of war.

 

[Lord Neil]

I just hate when someone who is pleased with me declares war just to gain land.

 

[Spearthrower]

The more I play this game the more I get frustrated with civs going from 'Cautious' to 'Furious' only based through these three: You refused to give us tribute! You didnt give us help! You didnt help us during war-time!

I mean, comeon! Like I would go to war with my 'Pleased' Gandhi (neighbour) because 'Annoyed' Monty (on another continent) asks me!

Basically, you have chosen to not enter into diplomatic relations with these people and you have to pay the price. You can give the AI what they want when they demand and it will make them like you more and then not demand from you..... you can enter into fake wars with them - you declare but not actually do anything and wait until you can make peace with the target. These are parts of the game that model diplomatic relations.

Basically, you should get into a habit of deciding early on who is your friend and who is your enemy.... and failing anything catastrophic happening throughout the game (one of your friends looking like they might win for example) this should remain throughout. Thus you get a bunch of people who are happy to help you and a bunch of people you can make war on to your profit.

In the case you stated about Monty.... he's a nutbag.... that's his AI. You don't need to worry about Monty as he is likely to declare war on you anyway, so just ignore his demands and expect an attack.

Also a question, does the AI spam these things to eachother?

Far far less than to the human in my experience.

 

[Infantry#14]

i think in general those minor diplomatic penalties like declare war on our friends, you didnt help us in wartime, you refuse to help us should decay over time like trading w/ worst enemy.

In one game, I refuse too many offers from the Zulu to stop trading w/ his worst enemy. Eventually, I became his new worst enemy because those penalty stacked up.

 

[Bushface]

I'm a firm believer in the pre-emptive strike. Declare war on everybody before they declare war on you, though preferably not on all your rivals at once. As for diplomatic attitudes, I ignore them, being a treacherous fellow when playing Civ.