Confused about diplomacy

[Zakor]

Well, I'm doing well in a game, and I'm trying to give some money to a few of my neighbors, in hopes that they will be formidable opponents later.

I tried giving my neighbor 30000 in tribute. The interface wanted me to request something in return, it seems. I demanded 1000 in return. The computer was unable to comply. W T F ????

Is there any tips that you can give me in giving land to an opponent? I am generally unsuccessful in that. Trying specifically to give land to SPQR, but I've also had problems giving to nearly any other faction. Any ideas/hints? What am I missing?

[professorspatula]

When gifting money, ask for something 'valuable' in return. Map information works well. Give them 10K for x amount of turns in return for map information. I find allies accept gifts better, although every faction tends to be wary when you start throwing money and gifts at them. You're basically saying, 'I'm rich and wealthy, and you're not... here have some bread crumbs'. It's no wonder they get annoyed when you treat them like charity cases.

Don't expect the factions you give money to, to suddenly become stronger though. I had a campaign where I sat in Hibernia with a fat wad of cash and gifted money to whoever I thought deserved it. Even with hundreds of thousands of denarii given over a sustained period of time, some of the factions were just as stupid as before, and it was only when I stole their enemies cities and gifted them to the faction I was helping, that they turned the corner and finally became powerful.

If you try to offer money and the AI won't accept it, change the amount you are offering and the period of time you will give them tributes. Often less money per turn, over more turns is more likely to be accepted than say, a big cash sum at once.

[Conqueror]

Or, you could simply click the "offer the presented items as a gift" button instead of the "make offer" button. Then they will accept it ~:)

[professorspatula]

True, although I find gifts tend to annoy the AI factions after a bit, to the point where they spit in your food the next time your diplomat shows up for dinner.

[Mongoose]

WTH? that has to be one of the most moronic things about the Diplomatic AI. :furious3:

Does this help the AI at all? Does it?

[Rodion Romanovich]

The diplomacy AI can be quite strange sometimes:

I had an AI faction (Scipii, I was Numidia), who proposed this to me when we were at war with each other after a repulsed Scipii attack on one of my settlements:

OFFERS
accept or we will attack

DEMANDS
please do not attack

I pressed accept, and the answer was "your acceptance is as gracious as it is wise"

Many times this has also happened: an AI faction has only 1 province left after getting a serious beating by my forces, and they desperately ask for a ceasefire:

OFFERS
ceasefire

DEMANDS
give us 1000 denarii

I made a counter-proposal

OFFERS
ceasefire

DEMANDS
-

and got the answer: "end the fighting? this is a good joke! [...]"

[Conqueror]

I had an AI faction (Scipii, I was Numidia), who proposed this to me when we were at war with each other after a repulsed Scipii attack on one of my settlements:

OFFERS
accept or we will attack

DEMANDS
please do not attack

I pressed accept, and the answer was "your acceptance is as gracious as it is wise"

I had the exact same thing (with same factions too!) and the very SAME turn a Scipii army attacks my city :dizzy2: The faction leaders must have some of those insanity traits...

[Rodion Romanovich]

I had the exact same thing (with same factions too!) and the very SAME turn a Scipii army attacks my city :dizzy2: The faction leaders must have some of those insanity traits...

:dizzy2: crazy, because that's exactly what happened to me! Don't tell me it was Lilybaeum they attacked for you too... ~:eek:

[Zakor]

Or, you could simply click the "offer the presented items as a gift" button instead of the "make offer" button. Then they will accept it ~:)
Whoops. Drugs are bad! Thanks for straightening me out. I feel stupid.

[Conqueror]

Don't tell me it was Lilybaeum they attacked for you too... ~:eek:
It was! This is just scary. :eeeek:

[CMcMahon]

I like it when you have them holed up in their last city, with nothing more than the factin leader, faction heir, and a couple token peasant units, with a full stack army in your 20+ city, super rich nation, just a turn away from sieging, and you tell your diplomat to go there and ask if they want to ceasefire and give you some money so you can have your troops do something actually useful instead of wasting a pair of turns sieging a nation that's more of an annoyance than a threat... and they reply with a "haha, we will kick your ass on the field of battle!"

And then you kill the defenders with minimal losses, exterminate their people, raze their temples, and then go on to the next nation of diplomatic retards.

[professorspatula]

I think in some circumstances, it would make sense for them to tell you to get lost in that situation though. Occasionally, they may be too proud and full of hatred and mistrust in you to be interested in anything you have to offer, even if it means certain death for them. It would be very bizarre for a faction to wage of a war against another faction, destroy virtually all of them, then suddenly act like a benevolent Father Christmas figure, and offer gifts and money and decide they want to be friends. Though if that were the case, and they hated you that much, the diplomat of the desperate faction should say something more along the lines of, 'We'd rather die hating you than be treated like children and offered your scraps', than be the cocky morons they typically sound like.

[katank]

They should still have things such as offer us proper terms like moving away thy army and then we'll accept type of deals.

It's spectacularly retarded.

oodles of cash often still fail to save the miserable AI.