Cheapskate Economics

[Drewski]

Personally, The OP sounds to me like a huge exploit...but its an interesting find ;)

The diplomacy is so screwed up in RTW though, that I suppose there are exploits, and exploits.....

And on a similar theme, what the heck does "Please Do Not Attack, Accept or We Will Attack" possibly mean?, when you are already at war with said stooopid ai? So if I attack you will attack back? well doh...

I love any kind of rationale behind the inclusion of that bit of code...

EDIT: And no offence to anyone at all intended, but if you are constantly exploiting the extra mnai the ai get on very hard (i.e. effectively converting it into free currency for yourselves) , then you are actually playing at a lvl below H/M, as the only advantage the ai gets is its extra cash. You're only real struggle, comes from managing your finances in a way you can keep building and support the requisite armies. Take that away and well....

Just my opinion btw...

[Maion Maroneios]

An exploit, yes and certainly interesting, but I wouldn't continue doing it. Mainly, this is going to make relations between you and the AI bad. Very bad. And this means, no getting any deals in the future.

Maion

[Rilder]

An exploit, yes and certainly interesting, but I wouldn't continue doing it. Mainly, this is going to make relations between you and the AI bad. Very bad. And this means, no getting any deals in the future.

Maion

This is different then usual, how?

[Maion Maroneios]

Maion

[Aemilius Paulus]

Well, I play on alex.exe and the AI diplomacy is supposed to be significantly improved. I will see how this trick does in my campaign...

[Zradha Pahlavan]

That's funny, whenever I play the AI hates me with a vengeance. They never give in to even the most generous request for a trade agreement.
Also, sometimes various factions that I am not at war with and which are nowhere near me launch crusades against me. At one point the Macedonians (which had lost much of their stuff to the other Greeks) decided to send all four of their finest armies along the long path from their homeland all the way to Seleucia just to attack me.

[DaciaJC]

An exploit, yes and certainly interesting, but I wouldn't continue doing it. Mainly, this is going to make relations between you and the AI bad. Very bad. And this means, no getting any deals in the future.

Maion

This is what strikes me as interesting, the fact that those factions that I am ripping off continue to make these kind of deals, and that those factions that I was allied with before this exploit continue to be my willing brothers-in-arms. The factions seem to be completely oblivious to my fraud.

However, as Drewski pointed out so well, doing this exploit effectively lowers the challenge, and so I'll be giving back the mnai I "stole".

Strange that I should be the only one who has had this happen, as I recall it occurring in my first Getai campaign, but I had not known how to take advantage of it.

Oh, and I suppose I should ask: if I make a money offer to a faction, and they reply by gifting me with some mnai... would that be considered an exploit as well (if I accept the offer)?

[Zarax]

Personally, The OP sounds to me like a huge exploit...but its an interesting find ;)

The diplomacy is so screwed up in RTW though, that I suppose there are exploits, and exploits.....

And on a similar theme, what the heck does "Please Do Not Attack, Accept or We Will Attack" possibly mean?, when you are already at war with said stooopid ai? So if I attack you will attack back? well doh...

I love any kind of rationale behind the inclusion of that bit of code...

I reached the conclusion that AI follows orders pretty much like if they had senate missions themselves.
If you check the senate text there is a actually a mission in which you have to ask please do not attack.
Unfortunately as diplomatic AI is disjointed from the mission AI (as you can see when senate is active for the player) and hostile to you they will try to comply by threathening you.

And that's pretty much the source of some of the most blatant AI faults.

[Drewski]

I reached the conclusion that AI follows orders pretty much like if they had senate missions themselves.
If you check the senate text there is a actually a mission in which you have to ask please do not attack.
Unfortunately as diplomatic AI is disjointed from the mission AI (as you can see when senate is active for the player) and hostile to you they will try to comply by threathening you.

And that's pretty much the source of some of the most blatant AI faults.

Sounds quite logical on your part to me....

I just wished the diplomacy had been made at least a little clearer..

E.g. I want a peace treaty with ai X. So I offer a peace treaty and trade rights to X. Now there seem to be 3 responses..

a) is some form of "End the war, that's a good joke", which while often irritating and silly when you have beaten an ai down to its last city or two, is at least straight forward and understandable.

b) is "yes we accept" (or sometimes with a demand thrown in)

c) is the one the winds me up :- "We cannot meet this offer and must refuse"...again what the heck is that supposed to mean?? You get it too when you offer your map, as a straight swap for their map...If it's supposed to mean "We are unwilling to (trade) peace or trade maps at this time", then I wish it would say so....for a complex game, its highly simplistic.