Whats up with diplomacy and the AI?

You know, one of the things that really bugged me in MTW1 was crazy AI decision making, eg when a one province power would attack your faction- even though you own half the map- ie instant suicide.

Yet I dont really see any improvement in MTW2...

Im still getting weak powers attack me, ask for peace a few turns later (after not doing much in the way of attacking BTW) and the attack again a few turns after that- rinse, repeat etc etc

Furthermore- diplomats asking for money or they will attack demand...I actually did a test and accepted- after which they attacked anyway- yet no penalty seemed to be enacted...

In fact- the whole diplomacy angle seems messed up- my trust rating constantly seems to be at an very low level despite the fact that I never break any alliances, my relations with AI factions I dont have any contact with seems to arbitrarily drop for no reason. And the thing that really annoys me- alliances (especially between AI factions) seem to be readily agreed to and are broken a few turns later....yet Im the one with the poor trust reputation!?!?!...I do not get it. :help:

Is it just me or are others getting this?

You realise that playing on H or VH campaign sort of makes diplomacy pointless?

I play on H campaign and diplomacy is certainly not pointless. It is more polarized with you allies thinking you are great but everyone else's opinion of you dropping... But alliances do stick (with the odd backstabbing) and peace can the negiotiated...

Well expecting diplomacy to work as normal is not a good idea since your reputation is dropping every turn. I play on Hard too but i find that if i don't contact a faction every 5-10 turns the rep is going down fast unless i got marriage alliance

It depends on how you play the game. I mean if you move quickly and establish alliances early on, those guys will stick with you for most of the time. Backstabbing will happen but it's either rare or done when most of the enemies have been destroyed.

I mean the moment I broke an alliance off with one faction(Through diplomatic means), they attacked me.

These observations are based on normal difficulty settings...and it was the more non-sensical AI actions that I was really commenting on...as mentioned-very poor reputation yet doing nothing (that Im aware of) to deserve said labelling as 'very untrustworthy' for example...

On normal the AI is fine so you almost must be doing daft things to get it to hate you so much (like assasinating/breaking trade agreements/marching armies over their territory or not helping allies etc or bargaining too much in the diplomacy screen)

In Rome and Medieval II, the diplomacy AI and the Military AI work completely independent of each other. This is apparently what causes all the messed up descisions the AI makes. Also, on hard and very hard, the AI is programmed to be more hostile towards you.

Anyone who at this late stage still thinks the diplomacy and campaign AI aren't a joke is either playing a different game, a fanboy, or a bit simple. Even CA has admitted the AI will ask for an alliance one turn and then attack you the next because the diplomatic AI has absolutely no relationship to the military AI.

Which is why I won't be buying the next one until I know the diplomacy and AI is fixed.

Not from user reviews, though, because I bought MTW2 thinking that the AI was fixed from those.

it's no worse than any other game I've played

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In Rome and Medieval II, the diplomacy AI and the Military AI work completely independent of each other. This is apparently what causes all the messed up descisions the AI makes.

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This was stated by one of the CA guys in one of the Empire:TW announcement interviews & suddenly made sense of so many weird AI diplomacy/attack moves. (must be same for Shogun & M1TW as well)
For Empire, supposedly the two AI will be joined & more sensible.

@lancelot

try playing a high reputation campaign to compare with your normal campaign.

whilst you still get the odd stupid blockade/attack, it definitely improves the strategic experience.

in my current campaign i've maintained a very high rep throughout (as egypt) and the only backstabber was the pope (and then only because i nabbed palermo off sicily and he got into one of those expansionist moods)

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Originally Posted by Jason X

@lancelot

try playing a high reputation campaign to compare with your normal campaign.

whilst you still get the odd stupid blockade/attack, it definitely improves the strategic experience.

in my current campaign i've maintained a very high rep throughout (as egypt) and the only backstabber was the pope (and then only because i nabbed palermo off sicily and he got into one of those expansionist moods)

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Ahh, thank you- very interesting...I do have a tendancy to sack a city, although I rarely exterminate and I do tend to execute prisoners- although thats about the only 'bad' things I do...problem solved I guess!

Thinking back, I was getting perplexed as to why sacking faction X's city was affecting relations with seemingly everybody else.

Given the historical tendency for cities to be sacked, Im surprised at this being considered so bad, when it was more or less expected to happen- if not worse...

I agree with Jason X, playing a high reputation chivalry game transforms diplomacy from a useless tool to something that bears a little more fruit:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/.../diplomacy.jpg