Diplomacy is broken

[Didz]

The faction should balance the merits of 500-2500 florins right now with long-term hatred by all other factions and near-constant warfare; it doesn't. This means it is not looking after its own long-term interests. At least some of the time, it should do.

True, and I think this is a good measure of the poor quality of the strategic AI. Because, quite clearly if the strategic AI is willing to accept these missions for the short-term benefit they represent but not take into account the long term impact they will have on its factions future, then it seems equally likely that this is exactly how it deals with every other opportunity it is offerred during the game.

So, its reasonable to assume that, at best, what the AI is doing is reacting to short term tactical opportunities rather than thinking strategically and, at worse, what is happening is that it is simply being driven by a series of reactive triggers and not actually employing any artificial intelligence at all.