Quote Originally Posted by Fisherking View Post
I had hoped that the diplomacy could be almost a game in its self. Staying out of war would bring benefits.

Sadly a lot were crying out for blind aggression. I find that so very predictable and it is never a surprise…even when seemingly friendly states now declare war. If they were stronger than you and could prosecute such a thing it would make it a tad more interesting, but sadly they lack any reason for going to war and not even enough troops most of the time to give a good account of themselves.
They just turn into the next target.

Naval invasions are okay but not coupled with blind aggression.

There should be some rewards for being at peace and penalties for war.

Aggression is only suitable if a faction has the means to actually accomplish something, and once accomplished they should search out grounds for peace.
I had a diplomatic surprise playing as Spanish (on VH difficulty) the other day. Of course, on turn #2 the Dutch declared war on me and I dragged France (my ally) into the brawl. The next turn, France offered me Newfounland in exchange for Flanders, giving me an easy way out of the lowlands war activity, but that's not where the surprise was. A turn later, Westphalia declared war on the Dutch and was hammering their European armies hard from that point on. A turn later the surprise came in the form of Dutch peace proposal to ME... They even offered me some cash to leave them alone in their mess.

It made perfect sense to me. So, the AI IS ABLE to make peace. For some reason, it does not work between the AI factions themselves or happens only way too rarely.