The Computer Is Such a Hypocrite

[neptune2000]

The same is true with complaints about armies massed at the AIs border. Sometimes this border they are referring to is really a unit ...

Is that true? That would imply that the ai is checking tiles it can see rather than tiles it owns for encroaching borders and troops. Wow.

Have you by chance seen it complain when you're massing troops next to one of its units inside your own borders?

 

[Dralix]

Have you by chance seen it complain when you're massing troops next to one of its units inside your own borders?

Can't say I have, but I have had them complain when I had no units near their border, but was surrounding a settler/military unit combo in unclaimed territory. Not sure if the settler was significant or not. Maybe a settler counts as border even before founding a city?

 

[NukeAJS]

I've gotten "the bloodthirsty one" just from having the largest military (didn't even attack anyone -- yet).

 

[Crdnl Richelieu]

Recently, I had a game where on about turn 5, France laughed at my minuscule army - fair enough since I only had 1 warrior.

Imagine, my surprise on the next turn when I met Aztec and he proclaimed that he was awestruck and scared of my mighty army. Maybe he was taking the piss.

 

[kcwong]

Can't say I have, but I have had them complain when I had no units near their border, but was surrounding a settler/military unit combo in unclaimed territory. Not sure if the settler was significant or not. Maybe a settler counts as border even before founding a city?

I've been warned by an AI about my troops near his borders. What really happened was his embarked worker (it could be a galley, I don't remember) was in my coastal city's border, and I had two destroyers guarding the city. The AI was from another continent, so I had no other troops near him other than a single scout.

 

[basta]

Is that true? That would imply that the ai is checking tiles it can see rather than tiles it owns for encroaching borders and troops. Wow.

I think it is more that the scout is considered no differently than if it actually was a tile of AI territory.

Have you by chance seen it complain when you're massing troops next to one of its units inside your own borders?

--Often. This is a real nasty bug that is a major reason everyone thinks the AI is totally irrational. It causes the otherwise-inexplicable "Don't settle near us" and "Massing military" warnings, and doubtless does a lot to otherwise screw up AI behavior when the threshold isn't yet reached to send such warnings to you. I'm not sure if settlers/workers cause it, but scouts sure do.

And seeing as scouts are never disbanded by the AI, and if you give OB they'll be wandering about like drunk sailors, getting stuck somewhere on your territory, this just makes the whole mess worse.

I DoWed the Mongols one game just to get rid of a stuck scout; Khan was on another continent, the scout was stuck on a critical, unfinished road tile for 20+ turns, and he was giving me troop-massing warnings.

 

[gorillagogo]

I was in a game where Napoleon asked me to go to war with Oda and I picked the "give me 10 turns to prepare" option. A few turns later, Gandhi asked me to go to war with Oda and I did the same. When it came time to honor Napoleon's request I declared war and Gandhi immediately denounced me for being bloodthirsty. A few turns later Gandhi declared on Oda as well.

Ridiculous.

 

[EndoConvert]

Is that true? That would imply that the ai is checking tiles it can see rather than tiles it owns for encroaching borders and troops. Wow.

Have you by chance seen it complain when you're massing troops next to one of its units inside your own borders?

Yes, let me chime in with the others and confirm this definitely happens. The AI seems to see all tiles it is standing on as its own and will complain about your supposedly massing military even when your military is sitting close to home and it's the AI's own fault for scouting it. I've been on the other side of the world from the AI and gotten complaints from the AI about military massing "on their borders" because the AI's scouting units (not necessarily scouts, but any AI unit) walked up right next to my army. This bug makes it unnecessarily difficult to keep friendly relations with AIs.

In fact, there's a whole thread about this in the bug reports forum: see "[BUG] Diplomacy broken: AI complains about massing troops, but there are none".