Why do my relationships always deteriorate in the mid game?

[SerbianYugoThief]

Seems like no matter how strong a friendship I form with civs in the early game, almost all of them fall apart by the time the congress gets going, regardless of how little conquest I've done. I was wondering if this was by design or if there's something I'm doing wrong.

 

[Lifeordeath]

From my knowledge it is sorta by design. Assuming you're starting to take the lead around the renaissance to early modern period then yes the ai will always start to hate you as they see you as a threat to win. There's a setting called disable victory competiveness(or something along that line) if you don't like that feature and want to get rid of it, but it is kinda a part of balancing so the end game isn't a complete runaway just click end turn until you win

 

[SerbianYugoThief]

That's fair. I kinda wish it kicked in a little later but I understand why it does when it does.

 

[Bryan317]

The size of your military affects how well the AI respects you. So while you may not necessarily need your military all the way to its cap, you should always try to reach it at about the mid game. This makes it much less likely that the AI will become hostile with you.

Always talk cordially. I know it's tempting sometimes to tell the AI to "get over it." But in terms of gameplay this has absolutely no use IMO. Even if you plan on being hostile with somebody you should do it deceptively. Be polite to them all the way up to the point of backstabbing them. However try to avoid breaking Declarations of friendships or anything that would make you seem untrustworthy to other civilizations.

Aggressiveness will play a role in how other civs perceive you. If you're being a warmonger then others won't like it. They also don't care who the aggressor is. Even if you were being invaded and turned the tide to take another City. The AI will still consider you the warmonger.

 

[phantomaxl1207]

How much land/Cities do have compared to other Civs?

 

[lunker]

I find that I'm able to maintain some relationships depending on the situation. A lot of negative modifiers will show up around that time but if your strategic interests are aligned you can still be friends with a lot of civs. Usually 3 factors are enough for me:

- having a medium-size military
- denouncing the people they denounce (or killing the units of someone they're at war with)
- avoiding territorial disputes by not expanding towards them

Civs also secretly hate when you have more than one vassal so I tend to dismiss them if I'm worried about diplomacy.

 

[Anarcomu]

Well treated vassals and dead people generally don't pose problem diplomacy-wise. If you have problem with your vassal, just take the diplo-focused ideology - namely, Autocracy (Iron Hand policy).
I routinely get declaration of friendship with my vassals - though I never manage to with dead people. Will work on that.

 

[Bryan317]

Iron Hand is practically OP. This is the preferred route for a domination victory that's for sure. I like giving my vassels as many conquered cites as they'll accept to lower my own unhappiness.

I think you can generally control two vassals while maintaining decent relationships with other civilizations. You need to have a strong military to back up your arrogance for taking 2 vassels. And yes they'll always have a little bit of the negative modifier that says they are concerned about your acquisition of multiple vassels. But I find 2 to be the sweet spot. Well at least until I'm guaranteed to win then it doesn't matter.

 

[SerbianYugoThief]

How much land/Cities do have compared to other Civs?

7 in my current game. Most civs either match that or have 5-6 unless someone's currently rolling them out of the game city by city.

 

[azum4roll]

2 vassals on Standard 8-civ game automatically makes you the worst warmonger, even if they're both voluntary.

 

[Amecareth]

Also, they really don't like when you compete for city-states

 

[Bryan317]

2 vassals on Standard 8-civ game automatically makes you the worst warmonger, even if they're both voluntary.

I do play with large number of civs. I was thinking of that after I posted that my so-called "Sweet Spot" may depend upon the number of civilizations that are currently still in play.

 

[Zhao Yun]

Seems like no matter how strong a friendship I form with civs in the early game, almost all of them fall apart by the time the congress gets going, regardless of how little conquest I've done. I was wondering if this was by design or if there's something I'm doing wrong.

There are quite a few factors. You have to know what makes each civ tick, some of which will be shown in the transparent diplo information. A warmonger with no other neighbour will attempt to kill you, no matter what you do. Diplo civs like Austria, Siam etc. will hate it if you have many cs alliances. Similar with religion.
AI tend to gang up on weaker civs, make sure it's not you. You can trade small favours, but most importantly, you should watch very carefully who is friends with whom, who denounces whom and then choose your side, or stay out of it. Early joined wars or denounciations can work wonders for a good long term relationship, even if you have a certain amount of border dispute or religious rivalry. Often friendships work in triangles, watch out for those. Some civs are just a little bit wary of upsetting several civs at once.
If you're going domination, you might not care too much about anything, but even so, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. So you might befriend them and kill them last as a reward, or swiftly, that's also ok.
When you get ahead or close to winning, civs can turn on you. Usually though, you are then either ahead in tech, especially military tech and can defend yourself. Or, you have many cs alliances or even defensive pacts which will makes civs think twice about attacking you.

 

[Bryan317]

Definitely recommend transparent diplomacy option. I don't feel it gives you any advantages or exploits. It's just informative.

 

[Zanteogo]

Turn off victory competition from menu options. It makes it possible to have good relations as long as your not aggressive and agree to the "please stop" requests. It however makes the game way easier as the AI will let you walk to victory. It's good for roleplay though.

Just turing off endgame aggression in the options helps stop the dog pile when you get close to winning.

The AI has become way smarter at not doing suicide bribed wars. You need to keep a heavy military to stop them from doing this through.