The diplomacy is just so bad

[japanesesamurai]

What is up with the ridiculously stupid diplomacy in this game?
For example:
I am japan on a small island with india and korea.
Korea declares on india.
I have mutual open borders with india. I am on good terms w/ them. We have a declared friendship and all.
India is getting is *ss kicked. I offer to join the war. Ghandi says “thank you, friend”.
Great. I move my troops on the next turn. India goes: “why are your troops on my border?”
What?
And then on the same turn, I’m not kidding, Ghandi is pissed off or something because he thinks I’m a warmonger, because im at war with korea, to help him from getting his ass kicked. I even politely denounced korea 5 turns before i joined ghandi’s war.

Is this game for real? I understand he has an “agenda” but what the hell. This is super wonky buggy gameplay
I experienced similar things in previous games, but this is just ridiculous

 

[leandrombraz]

We discussed the troops on my border thing recently.

Gandhi's agenda is "Never declares wars for which he can be branded a warmonger, and likes peaceful civilizations. Heavily dislikes warmongers", which iirc is triggered when you get warmongering/grievances. The message you got from him is just the way the game tells you that you triggered his agenda, so don't take it too seriously, it's just the game telling you that a number you might care about changed. This number affect diplomacy but the message doesn't indicate an imediate change in relationship. In other words, he isn't really pissed, not yet, he just desaprove your aggressiveness. Go to his diplo screen, click on the relationship tab (it's a heart icon iirc), if you still have more positive points than negative, you're fine.

 

[japanesesamurai]

I’m aware of how the mechanic works. Why the message and the modifiers are triggered.
And it makes zero sense.
This is suppose to be a strategy game.
This is really poorly designed. It breakes the game immensely.
But I guess the issue is solved by not putting Ghandi on the map

 

[criZp]

The "diplo AI" is just full-on ******** in this game. It's why I always just play isolationist nowadays. Can't be bothered to put up with all the crap.

Anyway there's a liberation casus belli that you can use to protect your friends and liberate their cities. But I think you have to wait until your friend lose a city before you can use it.

 

[leandrombraz]

I’m aware of how the mechanic works. Why the message and the modifiers are triggered.
And it makes zero sense.
This is suppose to be a strategy game.
This is really poorly designed. It breakes the game immensely.
But I guess the issue is solved by not putting Ghandi on the map

More often than not, the actual effect (negative agenda) doesn't have any impact on the game. Gandhi will stay your friend and he will renew the friendship, unless you forget to renew it on the same turn it end or you get a really egregious amount of grievances, by which point the negative agenda barely matters, you got worse issues. The way Gandhi's agenda trigger is definitely flawed and nonsensical in this kind of situation, something I hope Firaxis will try to improve eventually, but it doesn't come even close of breaking the game, it's just an annoyance.

 

[criZp]

For some people, the immersion into the game world matters quite a lot.

 

[japanesesamurai]

Yes also, but from a strategic point of view, this is game breaking. A simple plan like this ( = help civ x and make alliance and fair trade a possibility. At the same time cripple civ y) should work in a strategy game. Or might not work, but for different reasons. Not because it is written poorly. I should have gained positive points instead of negative ones with Gandhi. I saved his people for crying out loud
CIV games are ton of fun because of the multiple victory conditions. But silly stuff like this make the game more of a silly nonsensical cartoon episode instead of a strategy game. I’ve played a ton of EU4 and being able to come up with little plans in a sandbox environment is what makes these kind of games so interesting. Even a game like Metal Gear Solid 5 is 100x better in terms of AI and how you interact with AI. There’s a sandbox. There’s a bunch of stuff thrown at you and you play with it.
While the leaders in civ V sometimes looked erratic, their behavior made much more sense if you knew how to play the game.
On a positive note, if you’re close to a victory, AI will (try to) crush you. They will buckle up and destroy you with nuclear weaponry. Which is a huge step up from civ 5.