What keeps the AI happy?

[Sim_One]

I know that if: you use their favorite social engineering, sign treaties or pacts, trade techs, sign military alliances, and give them an occasional bribe of credits will keep them happy. But sometimes despite all that I still see moods like obstinate, ambivalent, etc. What's the deal? It seems that if I plot a base and it reduces an AI's territory, that tends to make him/her unhappy. Is this true? Also there seems to be a lot of jealousy around. If I am more powerful they don't like it.

 

[kundor]

Yes, a more powerful human always raises the AIs ire, especially on higher difficulty levels. However, in SMAC it is much more possible to keep up an alliance than in the civ games. If you get a good strong alliance going, with matching social engineering, they may still break it but they're not as likely as in any Civ game.
Of course, just beat them into submission and they'll be happy with you forever

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

Keeping the AI happy is not important. As some as the human plyer has a little bit of develope he is faily secure. After that the only reasonable from the AI to the Human is "May I be your b***h please?"

 

[Sukenis]

Always remember that no matter how much you stroke them, the number 1 and 2 factions (on the powerchart) will fight if the ai can do anything about it.

Also keeping a mutual enemy is a good way to keep a faction friendly towards you. Later in the game you never want to be at peace with everyone. Pick the least liked faction and go to war with them. This will boosts your freindlyness with all there enemies.

 

[Sim_One]

Originally posted by Sukenis
Always remember that no matter how much you stroke them, the number 1 and 2 factions (on the powerchart) will fight if the ai can do anything about it.

Also keeping a mutual enemy is a good way to keep a faction friendly towards you. Later in the game you never want to be at peace with everyone. Pick the least liked faction and go to war with them. This will boosts your freindlyness with all there enemies.

I like staying in peace (and in pact if possible) so that I can get extra income from commerce. I'm playing under specialist difficulty right now and so it's easy to win without too many wars. But judging from what all of you are saying it's better to stay in war? Also can someone answer the question about whether if I build a base and it reduces an AI's territory it would make him mad? It seems to be the case.

 

[MajorGeneral2]

Don't you get ticked off when the AI founds a base and reduces your territory? Though I'm not sure how signifigant it is, reducing another's territory does make them slightly upset. As for wars, it looks good to another faction if your helping fight someone they despise.

 

[Talar]

I've also noticed that they get annoyed if I place bases too close to their borders, they also get really annoyed if you are allied with someone they don't like.

 

[LordAzreal]

Every time I play as the Gaians, Peacekeepers or Uni, I end up allied to the other two for the whole game, with Miriam and Yang as enemies (they fight each other too), with Santiago and Morgan as sometime enemies. In these sorts of games, I might try to get a diplomatic victory (sign pacts between previously mentioned factions, eradicate Yang and Miriam, beat Morgan and Santiago into submission or bribe them into pacts if possible).

When playing as my favourite faction (Spartans), I just can't please anyone, since the Peacekeepers are gone by the time I decide to run Democratic, nobody likes Planned economy, and nobody else likes Power. This sort of game is where I aim towards conquest. Believers and Morganites are much the same since Fundamentalist and Free Market aren't very popular SE choices amongst the factions either.

Also, being the top dog means that pleasing the others will be difficult. However, I'm in a position where I don't care how the others think of me, since I'll be able to bribe votes for governor (if I don't have enough votes under my own faction to win on its own), and transcendence, conquest or cornering the energy market won't be far off at this point.

Whether or not it matters that I can't please anyone depends on the faction I'm using and the victory I aim for. I figure its no use exhausting resources or using bad SE choice for the sake of pleasing them when all their base will eventually belong to me.