Whats up with diplomacy and the AI?

[lancelot]

You know, one of the things that really bugged me in MTW1 was crazy AI decision making, eg when a one province power would attack your faction- even though you own half the map- ie instant suicide.

Yet I dont really see any improvement in MTW2...

Im still getting weak powers attack me, ask for peace a few turns later (after not doing much in the way of attacking BTW) and the attack again a few turns after that- rinse, repeat etc etc

Furthermore- diplomats asking for money or they will attack demand...I actually did a test and accepted- after which they attacked anyway- yet no penalty seemed to be enacted...

In fact- the whole diplomacy angle seems messed up- my trust rating constantly seems to be at an very low level despite the fact that I never break any alliances, my relations with AI factions I dont have any contact with seems to arbitrarily drop for no reason. And the thing that really annoys me- alliances (especially between AI factions) seem to be readily agreed to and are broken a few turns later....yet Im the one with the poor trust reputation!?!?!...I do not get it.

Is it just me or are others getting this?

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

You realise that playing on H or VH campaign sort of makes diplomacy pointless?

[Bob the Insane]

I play on H campaign and diplomacy is certainly not pointless. It is more polarized with you allies thinking you are great but everyone else's opinion of you dropping... But alliances do stick (with the odd backstabbing) and peace can the negiotiated...

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

Well expecting diplomacy to work as normal is not a good idea since your reputation is dropping every turn. I play on Hard too but i find that if i don't contact a faction every 5-10 turns the rep is going down fast unless i got marriage alliance

[nameless]

It depends on how you play the game. I mean if you move quickly and establish alliances early on, those guys will stick with you for most of the time. Backstabbing will happen but it's either rare or done when most of the enemies have been destroyed.

I mean the moment I broke an alliance off with one faction(Through diplomatic means), they attacked me.

[lancelot]

These observations are based on normal difficulty settings...and it was the more non-sensical AI actions that I was really commenting on...as mentioned-very poor reputation yet doing nothing (that Im aware of) to deserve said labelling as 'very untrustworthy' for example...