What are ways to gain favor with the AI in civ 5?

[Txurce]

Hmmm, I didn't know giving the AI gifts made a difference. Does it matter if its a worthless gift like iron when everybody is in modern?

Does gifting a unit give a positive modifier too?

I don't think you can gift units to the AI - only to CS. The first 3 of those strengthen your relationship.

On question #2 I was more interested in finding out if going back on that promise causes the rest of the world to dislike me more or just the civ that made contact.

Going back on a promise to a civ to declare war only causes that civ to dislike you more.

I could be wrong here but doesn't the game say that more valuable gifts to the AI makes them more favorable? IE the amount of favor you get for it being calculated much the same way as in which the AI judges how much gold a certain resource is worth?

That's what it says. I don't know if that's how it works.

Another way to gain favor is to not declare war or denounce your own friends. If you make a declaration of friendship with someone, make sure to wait about 50 turns before declaring war/denouncing.

I don't know if a DoF expires in 50 turns. Has somebody confirmed that?

 

[legionstrike22]

I don't think you can gift units to the AI - only to CS. The first 3 of those strengthen your relationship.

units can be gifted to civs. Askia (songhai) and I were wrapping up a successful annihilation of China when I noticed a wounded swordsman on the verge of a defeat at the hands of a straggling chinese warrior. I was able to gift it to Askia and gain favor with him even though he lost it the next turn To gift a civ a unit, move him into the receiving territory and open up the additional commands option at the bottom of the unit command list. Then choose the button whose icon is a present.

 

[Txurce]

I had never noticed that, buried as it is and seemingly undocumented - thanks.

 

[Ran88dom99]

"We denounced the same person" is the bonus I saw.

how do you see a diplomacy bonus?

 

[Txurce]

It's the green (or non-red) bullet points you see when you hover over a particular AI's attitude (friendly, etc) toward you. The negatives are in red.

 

[Ran88dom99]

thanks

 

[notadummy]

I don't know if a DoF expires in 50 turns. Has somebody confirmed that?

I believe W a i n y confirmed that it his Persian LP (?) or perhaps it was one of Maddjinn's LP's. Maybe someone else can confirm this...but I strongly remember hearing it somewhere.

@Ran88dom99
If you hover your mouse over the 'status' of an AI civ, then you can see the reasons for why they are hostile, friendly, etc. The green things are good, the red are negative.

edit: got ninja'd by Txurce...

 

[Txurce]

I believe W a i n y confirmed that it his Persian LP (?) or perhaps it was one of Maddjinn's LP's. Maybe someone else can confirm this...but I strongly remember hearing it somewhere.

Thanks - I always forget to keep track, then become frustrated waiting for it to end. It would help if the game viewed it as a deal.

 

[MkLh]

Is there any positive bonus for denouncing a country that the AI is at odds with?

No one seems to know if there is, so at least it can't be very strong. On the other hand, denouncing angries the target which means no more juicy trades and RAs for you. Thus denouncing a civ seems like a very bad idea unless you're going to wipe off that civ immediately afterwards.

 

[MkLh]

The AI backstabs you no matter how friendly you appear to be with them. Thats my experience at least. So i dont waste anything on giving stuff to them. On the other hand i try not to piss them off too much.

This. If you don't mess things up, it's a norm that most civs have "Friendly" status with you. Of course they are not true friends (if it's possible at all), but who cares as "Friendly" is enough for getting good trades and RAs.

 

[Txurce]

No one seems to know if there is, so at least it can't be very strong. On the other hand, denouncing angries the target which means no more juicy trades and RAs for you. Thus denouncing a civ seems like a very bad idea unless you're going to wipe off that civ immediately afterwards.

There is a positive bonus to denouncing the same civ as someone else - that's why it appears on the "plus" side of the diplomacy ledger. I don't know just how much it's worth. There were a couple of threads many months back by someone who thoroughly broke all this down. It could well have the numerical equivalents for all of the bonuses and maluses.

 

[MkLh]

There is a positive bonus to denouncing the same civ as someone else - that's why it appears on the "plus" side of the diplomacy ledger. I don't know just how much it's worth. There were a couple of threads many months back by someone who thoroughly broke all this down. It could well have the numerical equivalents for all of the bonuses and maluses.

Apparently you get some kind of a positive modifier from denouncing, but does it really matter? If the civ you're denouncing drops to guarded or hostile, it may turn very costly as you lose all trading opportunies with that civ possibly for the rest of the game.

In CiV you probably should try to have decent relations with all or most civs instead of trying to be very really good friends with some civs and hated by all others. Reasons for that are: 1) you can't make really reliable friends no matter what you do and 2) having decent relations instead of being hated now gives a big boost as you get RAs and other good trades. In CIV, this was often other way round.

 

[Txurce]

Apparently you get some kind of a positive modifier from denouncing, but does it really matter? If the civ you're denouncing drops to guarded or hostile, it may turn very costly as you lose all trading opportunies with that civ possibly for the rest of the game.

In CiV you probably should try to have decent relations with all or most civs instead of trying to be very really good friends with some civs and hated by all others. Reasons for that are: 1) you can't make really reliable friends no matter what you do and 2) having decent relations instead of being hated now gives a big boost as you get RAs and other good trades. In CIV, this was often other way round.

I play with the VEM mod, where there is a clear benefit to DoF's (and diplomacy overall has more of a purpose). But I think you're right with regard to the vanilla game. With the exception of conquest victories, where it doesn't much matter what the locals think of you, it's hard to make reliable friends, and the ones you have don't provide much benefit other than peace (and that only up to a point).