What are the different ways to improve relations with another civ.?

[Gary King]

What are the different ways to improve relations with another civ.? And what is the best way, and the maximum amount of points you can get for certain categories?

For instance, I read that "Your trade negotiations have been fair and forthright" can only max. out at +4?

Thanks!

 

[carl corey]

Having the same religion can get you quite a bonus, depending on the AI. Isabella will just love you for it, but beware not to switch religions on her or you'll be her next target. I think I saw +7 due to religion - not sure about it; definitely more than +4. I think also Monty likes you for your religion, but don't think for one second that that means he won't backstab you. He's the reason for: "your best friend is the person whose betrail shocks you the most".

Other ways to improve:
- open borders
- peace
- running their favorite civic when they also run it

- trading resources
- trading techs

- giving resources (even without them asking for them)
- giving techs (same as above)

- going in a war against the same civ
- having a defensive pact with them

- giving in to demands (techs, money, stop trading with worst enemy, going to war when they ask, civics switch)

I think that's it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Religion is by far the best modifier, but they all stack up. If you play it correctly you can get them to friendly. Don't try to do so with everybody, it's rarely possible since they will be mad for trading with their enemies, for having defensive pacts with others, etc, and it's hard to get everybody under the same religion.

That said, see this thread: Lust for Gold. It's vanilla cIV, but it still applies. The goal was to start with Isabella and have the biggest shrine income by 1600AD. A couple of people, myself included, went the totally peaceful way, and converting everybody to the same religion to prevent any wars and any "worst enemy" cases was a very important part of my game. I made Mansa Musa switch 3 times (!) from Buddhism which he founded, and was going to do it any number of times needed to keep everyone happy. I gave him techs and money for it, didn't care, I was in front at techs anyway (my lead shrank later because of all the gifts) and I had no use for money anyway since I wasn't rushing anything nor upgrading units. I also gave techs and resources to both Vicky and Caesar to secure Defensive Pacts with them, since my military "power" was a little bit of a joke.

 

[Gumbolt]

I left Japan one city after 3-4 wars hoping to get their final tech for free. It never worked.

I was -9 for razing cities.
-12 for declaring war and branded their worst enemy.

Only left last city as on hill useless terrain and 2 longbowmen upgraded to +100% defence. Yeah religion is a big stopper to sharing techs. Declaring war is too. Chances are you will attack someones friend sooner or later. I find you reach the point where the AI couldnt care if you gave it all your techs for free. Even after a war they would refuse to give away techs as so angry after the 3rd-4th war. Best option is to trade for techs you need then start the war but alphabet is sometimes slow coming once you have grabbed other key techs.

 

[Supreme Shogun]

Just want to add a point to Gumbolt's - Razing a Holy City will net you major negative points for relations.

Also, There's a Warlords related one "We're concerned our rival is one of your vassals " Not a big hit but usually -1 or -2.

 

[Gary King]

Having the same religion can get you quite a bonus, depending on the AI. Isabella will just love you for it, but beware not to switch religions on her or you'll be her next target. I think I saw +7 due to religion - not sure about it; definitely more than +4. I think also Monty likes you for your religion, but don't think for one second that that means he won't backstab you. He's the reason for: "your best friend is the person whose betrail shocks you the most".

Other ways to improve:
- open borders
- peace
- running their favorite civic when they also run it

- trading resources
- trading techs

- giving resources (even without them asking for them)
- giving techs (same as above)

- going in a war against the same civ
- having a defensive pact with them

- giving in to demands (techs, money, stop trading with worst enemy, going to war when they ask, civics switch)

I think that's it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Religion is by far the best modifier, but they all stack up. If you play it correctly you can get them to friendly. Don't try to do so with everybody, it's rarely possible since they will be mad for trading with their enemies, for having defensive pacts with others, etc, and it's hard to get everybody under the same religion.

That said, see this thread: Lust for Gold. It's vanilla cIV, but it still applies. The goal was to start with Isabella and have the biggest shrine income by 1600AD. A couple of people, myself included, went the totally peaceful way, and converting everybody to the same religion to prevent any wars and any "worst enemy" cases was a very important part of my game. I made Mansa Musa switch 3 times (!) from Buddhism which he founded, and was going to do it any number of times needed to keep everyone happy. I gave him techs and money for it, didn't care, I was in front at techs anyway (my lead shrank later because of all the gifts) and I had no use for money anyway since I wasn't rushing anything nor upgrading units. I also gave techs and resources to both Vicky and Caesar to secure Defensive Pacts with them, since my military "power" was a little bit of a joke.

Thanks, I've found all of those methods out in my own games
Do you know what their limits are? Like, how far positive can you go before you can't go any further? For instance, it's impossible to get +10 on open borders, I'm fairly certain.

Also, in one game, another civ. had my religion, he was at about +10 and he was Pleased, and yet he declared war on me (I had a defensive pact with him, too.) How does something like that happen?

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Thanks, I've found all of those methods out in my own games
Do you know what their limits are? Like, how far positive can you go before you can't go any further? For instance, it's impossible to get +10 on open borders, I'm fairly certain.

Also, in one game, another civ. had my religion, he was at about +10 and he was Pleased, and yet he declared war on me (I had a defensive pact with him, too.) How does something like that happen?

That's really strange. I've never heard of/experienced that before. Maybe he called war on 1 of ur vassals and in turn caused war with you. I can't really think of anything else that would've caused that besides putting the game settings on aggressive AI.

 

[carl corey]

Who was the civ, by the way? Some warmongers will start a war with you even when pleased if they think you're weak enough. Never happened to me while I had a Defensive Pact though. On second thought, I never have DP with those. I find them, they're close, they die.

I haven't seen open borders to go more than +2. Same with peace. I think favorite civic can go up a little more. Most of them are +1s, +2s, "trade negotiations" can go up to 4 I think, and religion can go really far. Had +7, not sure about more.

 

[Gary King]

Also, how many + do you need to have in order to be Friendly with the civ.?