They just know I am a bad guy

[infidel88]

In my recent play as Polynesia I was a bad bad guy. I was breaking promises, saying my troops are just passing by and killing everyone when they were greeting my troops with salt and bread. Basically I was Ramsay Bolton. And everyone hated me for that. However, there is one problem - noone could have known about it, since they didn't know the victims!

If I am on an island with Romans and wiped them out breaking promises, how can Babylon on other side of the world, who has no idea about Ceasar's existence know about it? For sake of roleplaying I can assume my people ratted me out, but how can I be a warmonger in eyes of Babylon if they only know my side of the story (which should be good version).
When Spaniards came to South America in XVI century they didn't just tell natives all the bad things they did in history, right?

 

[tu_79]

It's your karma, dude, it shows up.

 

[lunker]

Refugees.

Probably from their country to yours, and the stories live on through some shady pockets in your own cities.

 

[Magean]

When Spaniards came to South America in XVI century they didn't just tell natives all the bad things they did in history, right?

No, however the Japanese learned what happened to Precolombian natives when they heard about the Spaniards and the Americas. And they reacted accordingly. I'm not even making that up, I recall from some history book that the fate of native American civilizations played a part in the Tokugawa's distrust toward Christian missionaries and more specifically the Catholic ones.

Likewise, the reputation of, say, the Mongols, probably traveled faster than them. Although they'd never been in China, people in Europe probably knew Mongol hordes caused mass devastation in the far away empire of Cathay.

 

[Blue Ghost]

IIRC, warmonger penalties don't accrue with civs you haven't met yet, but the penalty for breaking a promise does. That does feel somewhat gamey and unintuitive.

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

It's like Pinocchio - the more you lie, the longer your nose is. The AI looks at you after you break a promise, thinks "oh, that is some fine promise-breaker" and knows not to trust you. You need to be a good boy for a bit longer to have the nose back to it's regular shape and length so they're fooled.