Avoiding The "Twenty Settlements" Betrayals

[Lorenzo_H]

I don´t take allies, and those who I ally with are only allies until I have crushed my enemies on opposite fronts. Dont trust anybody and kill everyone even pope

Agreed to the fullest possible degree. Expect to kill them all, everyone, on all sides.

The AI factions don't know whats good for them anyway. Recently as Scotland on VH/VH, I was rampaging down through England, proceeding to wipe them out for my French allies. I conquered Caen and Rennes and other such places that the English had in Northern France, effectively saving the French. They then betrayed me, I thought, alright fine, and proceeded to take Paris, Bruges and 3 other French territories, wiping out several of their stacks/generals in the process. They were then begging for peace, and it was very satisfying for the offer of "Ceasefire and 3000 florins for 13 turns" still appear as a "generous" on the diplomacy screen. Denmark later attacked me, so I sacked Antwerp with reinforcements from Nottingham.

[Sir Beane]

I'd like to recommend Lands to Conquer. It's a fantastic mod for A.I and diplomacy that does an extremely good job of making the opponents behave more realistically.

As a bonus it also does a great job of keeping the overall feel of the game the same, although it changes more than VanillaMod

Using Lands to Conquer you certianly don't seem to get backstabbed as much, and friends tend to stay friends for much longer. It's also a more challenging, balanced game.

It was made by Lusted, and so good that CA hired him!

[TheSeated]

Wow CA hired Lusted? Thats awesome and a good move on CA's part. They need people like Lusted, just like every company needs people who are passionate about what they do.

[Sir Beane]

Wow CA hired Lusted? Thats awesome and a good move on CA's part. They need people like Lusted, just like every company needs people who are passionate about what they do.

He pops by every now and then, under the name Jack Lusted. He's definitely working on Empire, as a bug tester I think.