"Surely, you must be joking!" - Why?

[bippukt]

I am attaching a screenshot of my current Noble game and for some reason Roosevelt doesn't want to give me Aluminum although he has 2 of them. My question is - Why? I guess it is one of the following:

1. He is going for the Space Race and doesn't want me to get the advantage of double production. I have already completed the Apollo Program.

2. He has Gandhi as vassal, so he wants to share the Aluminium with him? This seems unreasonable to me.

Unfortunately, Aluminium is required for the most advanced troops. Fortunately, Zara Yaqoob is willing to give me one for 101 GPT. So, I am going to take that, upgrade my numerous tanks to modern armor and...

Well, you already guessed that, didn't you? I am going to attack Zara Yaqoob and vassalize him and then demand it in tribute

 

[djvandrake]

AI's are very stingy with military resources, and usually will charge you the moon for them. One time I had to give Wang Kon 6 resources for Aluminum, and we were at "friendly" diplo.

 

[DanF5771]

Roosevelt probably wants all his Aluminum for himself (plus more of your Copper/Iron/Stone) because he founded Creative Constructions (?)

 

[LordBuildaholic]

"Surely, you must be joking!"

"Oh I'm not joking...and don't call me Shirley."


On a serious note, I rarely ever trade a strategic resource myself, so I can't expect the AI to do it either.

 

[Big_I]

Roosevelt probably wants all his Aluminum for himself (plus more of your Copper/Iron/Stone) because he founded Creative Constructions (?)

I think you got, I think because he has a corporation that uses aluminum, he wants as much aluminum as possible, so won't be trading it with you.

 

[Onionsoilder]

Yeah, it's because of the corporation. If he founded Sid's Sushi, he wouldn't trade any fish, clam, crabs or rice.

 

[Theoden]

Are you able to build anything that requires Aluminium yet? I find that when the AI says that I "must be joking", it's usually because the resource would be useless to me (at that specific moment).

 

[salty mud]

I find that they say that when you are already in possesion of the resource. I had coal, and Mansa Musa refused to trade coal with me, stating "surely, you must be joking!"

 

[bestbrian]

Why didn't you take it from them earlier?

 

[Onionsoilder]

I find that they say that when you are already in possesion of the resource. I had coal, and Mansa Musa refused to trade coal with me, stating "surely, you must be joking!"

Note that this goes away if YOU found a corporation that uses that resource. For example, if you found Mining Inc, the A.I. will trade you more then one Coal, Iron, Copper, etc, usually for about 50% off what they usually charge. If you spread the corporation to their cities though, they will cancel the deal.

 

[Cutlass]

Note that this goes away if YOU found a corporation that uses that resource. For example, if you found Mining Inc, the A.I. will trade you more then one Coal, Iron, Copper, etc, usually for about 50% off what they usually charge. If you spread the corporation to their cities though, they will cancel the deal.

That's not always true though. Sometimes even with the corp I would still get the "joking" comments

 

[bippukt]

Why didn't you take it from them earlier?

Because Roosevelt didn't have Industrialism then

Roosevelt probably wants all his Aluminum for himself (plus more of your Copper/Iron/Stone) because he founded Creative Constructions (?)

Yes, I think that's the case. He founded creative constructions and now he wants it all

AI's are very stingy with military resources, and usually will charge you the moon for them. One time I had to give Wang Kon 6 resources for Aluminum, and we were at "friendly" diplo.

I had to pay 101 GPT to Zara Yaqoob to get Aluminium...talk about paying through the nose

Note that this goes away if YOU found a corporation that uses that resource. For example, if you found Mining Inc, the A.I. will trade you more then one Coal, Iron, Copper, etc, usually for about 50% off what they usually charge. If you spread the corporation to their cities though, they will cancel the deal.

I guess I should play with corporations more, or at least find out more about their working.

Thanks guys for your responses. Here, this is for you

 

[bestbrian]

I would hope (and assume) that you'd gotten Industrialism first, seen the availible sources of Aluminum, and, knowing their value, mobilized and taken them with your army of tanks and infantry from your weaker rivals. Why wait for the AI to discover, mine, and produce stuff for you? Just my humble opinion.

 

[bippukt]

I would hope (and assume) that you'd gotten Industrialism first, seen the availible sources of Aluminum, and, knowing their value, mobilized and taken them with your army of tanks and infantry from your weaker rivals. Why wait for the AI to discover, mine, and produce stuff for you? Just my humble opinion.

This map had 8 civs, including me, Roosevelt (Friendly), Gandhi (Roosevelt's vassal)(Firendly), Suryavarman (my vassal), Justinian (my vassal), Saladin (my vassal), Joao II (my vassal) and Zara Yaqoob, the wonder hog. Now, I and my vassals controlled much more than half of the map and still had NO Aluminium. Also, oil was very scarce. So, I had to go for the civs who had oil first - Saladin and Joao II. They were also much weaker than Zara. Also Roosevelt and Gandhi had been very friendly towards me and combined, they had quite a lot of units. Attacking Zara was the easier route IMO.

 

[Justy]

"Surely, you must be joking!"

"Oh I'm not joking...and don't call me Shirley."

Damn! I hate being beat to these.

I always thought that quote came up on the mouseover when you already had that resource. That quote usually goes away when you found a corporation which can utilize the extra resources. I guess that there is more criteria which brings it up.

 

[bippukt]

Damn! I hate being beat to these.

I always thought that quote came up on the mouseover when you already had that resource. That quote usually goes away when you found a corporation which can utilize the extra resources. I guess that there is more criteria which brings it up.

As several people have mentioned here, you can get the message if the AI has a corporation which utilizes the resource. Quite fair, I suppose.

BTW, I have no idea what quotes you guys are talking about.

 

[Justy]

As several people have mentioned here, you can get the message if the AI has a corporation which utilizes the resource. Quite fair, I suppose.

BTW, I have no idea what quotes you guys are talking about.

The reason I made my statement was I thought that I've seen that quote before the discovery and founding of a corporation.

As for the quote it is from the movie Airplane! A great movie by the way.

 

[bestbrian]

"I knew I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue".

 

[Bowsling]

What can I make out this forum?

"I can make a hat, ..."

 

[Shogun Gunner]

Hey....you're Kareem Abdul Jabbar!
No, I'm not. I'm Rodger Murdoch, your co-pilot.