We've already established though the allies will not attack your enemies, if they do it has nothing to do with you. So the AI gatherine allies and then attacking you if you're much stronger than them IS suicidal, especially when their allies don't even share borders with you.

I mean at the moment its insane. Why would you declare war on the worlds greatest super power when you are piddling weak and have no chance of victory? There is no grand alliance of nations to unite and wipe them out since the different factions just work independantly. Further, they offer to forgive your transgression and end the war when you're about to be wiped out, but *refuse*?

Personally I think it needs to be restructured a bit. They need to really tweak reputation. In my mind I would think the following should affect reputation:
Declaring war on an ally should obviously drop it significantly, more so if mil rights were granted to you.
Declaring war on someone that is neutral but which is not at war with any of your allies should drop it.
Sticking to a ceasefire should raise it.
Gifting a city back to a faction that used to own it should raise it.
Belonging to alliances should raise it slowly.
Ending alliances or traderights should lower it, except when it is forced due to war on an ally.
Killing rebels / enemies in allied territory when mil rights are granted should raise it.
Doing deals which are generous or higher should raise it slightly, but not including gifting .

I think that relations should not be able to decay past reasonable/so-so. As it stands there are other nations in the world which are just so far away that you cannot have diplomatic relations with them without some serious effort. As it stands you can finally defeat your enemies and meet some new nations that you had never seen before, only to discover that the relations are already very poor and they are itching for war just because of the natural decay in relations.


If reputation worked that way, then it would be good if their decision to go to war with you was dependant on the reputation of both sides. The decision of going to war should be a balancing act- how much stronger is this nation? How much can I trust that they won't attack me? How unscrupulous am I to take advantage of them if their borders are weak?

Also, they shouldn't suicide at your walls if they recognise you as being a much stronger nation. Wouldn't it be smarter for them to garrison up and wait for an incursion that may or may not come? If it doesn't, maybe the political situation will change and the whole world will ally against the super power and you can join in later.