Vassals and Capitulation

[Tyrant Roger]

In Warlords an AI that you are defeating in war can choose to either capitulate to you or to a different AI. What are the variables that cause the AI to pick between these options?

Can you influence the choice the AI makes? If so, how?

In my most recent game the losing AI capitulated to a second AI who then immediately declared war on me. If memory serves, several games ago a losing AI capitulated to a second AI and the second AI did not declare war on me. If I am correct about this, what factors influence whether the second AI declares war on you?

On a somewhat related note, I believe there is an exploit in Warlords which needs to be fixed. In a recent game a vassal state showed 16 gold per turn surplus so I traded one of my extra resources to it, pocketed the money, but the vassal still showed 16 GPT so I traded a second spare resource for this amount and repeated this process for about 5 surplus resources. Did wonders for my GPT rate, but it did seem like an exploit. Have others seen this and do you regard this as an exploit?

 

[Sisiutil]

On a somewhat related note, I believe there is an exploit in Warlords which needs to be fixed. In a recent game a vassal state showed 16 gold per turn surplus so I traded one of my extra resources to it, pocketed the money, but the vassal still showed 16 GPT so I traded a second spare resource for this amount and repeated this process for about 5 surplus resources. Did wonders for my GPT rate, but it did seem like an exploit. Have others seen this and do you regard this as an exploit?

Not when you do it like this, no.

I don't have Warlords yet, but I've seen this in vanilla civ. Basically, the available GPT you see in the diplomacy screen, as I have been led to understand it, is how much the AI civ is willing to spend on a single trade with you, NOT the total GPT it has available. For example, an AI civ that is "pleased" with you is generally willing to spend more GPT (assuming it's available) than one that is "cautious" or "annoyed". If the AI civ has the gold to spend, by all means, go for it.

What I have come to regard as an exploit is the tactic of gifting the AI your own GPT then having the AI spend it on your resources; ten turns later you cancel the GPT gifts, but NOT the resource-for-gold trades. This effectively drives the AI civ into a deficit. I've come to regard it as an exploit because outside of declaring war on you, the AI will seemingly never cancel those now-unequal and crippling trades.

 

[Tyrant Roger]

Thanks Sisiutil for your reply.

What concerns me is that I could never get an independent AI to enter into five successive 16 GPT for extra resource trades. I believe the vassal state must accept the proposed trade or be at war with the dominant state [i.e. me]. It is also hard for me to fathom how a new vassal state could afford 80 GPT after I reduced it to a few cities and largely destroyed its economy.

 

[carl corey]

I traded for around 150 gpt total with a peacetime vassal. Stupid one, too, since it feared a civ half a world away who declared war because the whipping boy on our continent cried for help. But I digress.

150 gpt is a lot. I traded everything I could. I stopped any resource-resource trades with it and traded those for gold. (24 gpt for one resource) Traded other continent's resources too. SHOW. ME. THE MONEY!

Edit: all to say, the vassal system should be fixed. Way too good when peacetime, way too bad wartime.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well the reason for that is that the AI adjusts its science slider after each trade... so that it won't keep doing it indefintiely... it'll keep doing it until it is at 0% science though.

As for why the AI chooses who to capitulate too, I would assume the two standard thing when the AI makes a decision, Likability and Power.

The AI will want a strong master who can actually defend it (the fact that you are the one currently crushing them may help) it may want a close AI, and it should also tend to want a master that it likes.

I'm not sure what the weighting is on those, but I can be pretty certain those are the ones.


In any case the AI Gifting gold exploit could be solved simply, each 10 turns the AI reviews a deal, and sees if it is worth it NOW. if it isn't, then it sees how bad the deal is now and if it is bad enough to risk the 'cancelled trade' hit. (if it is the AI cancels the deal/offers to renegotiate it, if it is not, the AI begins to deduct points from the 'traded fairly' portion of the diplomacy). (You should have some way of seeing deals they see as 'unfair' so You can cancel them without any hit to either side.)