I was watching the history channel and a special on Rome was on and it got me thinking.
I've found that diplomacy in RTW struggles a bit. The player gets random demands which seem to make no sense from the computer... the notorious "accept or we will attack" to your "please dont attack" and then you never hear anything from them again. But also in wars against the AI, certain options make no sense.
I would love for once to have a nation which I have pounded or have the potential to pound into submission to agree to become my protectorate, or to give me a province which is my heart's desire... but to no avail. Every time they'd rather die free men then be my slaves or some remote province is too dear for them to part and they'd rather have their civilization wiped out rather than lose it.
If these facts are wrong I apologize and by all means correct me but: after the first punic war, one of the prices for peace for the Carthaginians was the forfeiture of their Sicilian holdings, and I think corsica and sardinia but Im not 100% sure on that one. Considering how badly they were getting whooped the loss of a few provinces is worth that of keeping your empire alive. Then you have the Numidians being a protectorate under Carthage and later Rome... that one Im not too sure on either but even so.

It makes sense! Why cant the AI see that? All of this whining leads up to my question of: Have any more options been added to diplomacy and has their been any progress in giving the AI diplomatic common sense?