Can I turn bribing off it just ticks me off!

[MiniKiller]

it happens way to often and its ticking me off. Im so sick of having a huge general with like +100% to bribery cost and losse him. I just wiped out all the greek cities but one and the a***** bribe 3 cities back.

wtf its more trouble than its worth and i just want to turn it off. (oh the 2 citities were taken in back to back turns)

[Maltz]

Maybe you can bribe off/assassinate all the enemy diplomats before they cause trouble. Some clans use tons of diplomats which can be a royal pain in the arse Diplomats cost only 50 to upkeep, so it is ok to bribe them and let them walk around. Plus they are good "narrow path blockers".

[eeyoredragon]

Plus they are good "narrow path blockers".

That's by far the most innovative use of a diplomat I've heard so far

[Sinner]

I think it should be possible to turn off bribing as an option by editing the descr_character.txt file.

Looking at the entry for family members & diplomats, both have an available action of bribe.

type named character

actions moving_normal, moving_quickmarch, garrison, assault, attack, besiege, entrench, ambush, diplomacy, bribe, exchange, building_fort, building_watchtower

and

type diplomat

actions moving_normal, diplomacy, bribe

I would guess that removing the bribe action should do it.

[MiniKiller]

to block a path, not bad lol there so damn annoying there like those lil i dunno just lil nats that fly around ur head and u cant kill em but they keep landing on u lol.

i wish i could tone down the bribing or make it harder rather than turn it completey off but it just happens to much.

[solypsist]

it's a good idea to keep one agent of each type attached to a banner.

the assassins come in handy for dispatching nearby diplomats.

[Red Harvest]

I usually bring one diplomat along with my army. That seems to work in preventing most bribes. Cities without diplomats/spies seem to succumb to bribery rather quickly. Spies cost too many movement points. I only build assassins as needed, not sure if they would slow the army down or not.

[Razor1952]

it happens way to often and its ticking me off. Im so sick of having a huge general with like +100% to bribery cost and losse him. I just wiped out all the greek cities but one and the a***** bribe 3 cities back.

wtf its more trouble than its worth and i just want to turn it off. (oh the 2 citities were taken in back to back turns)

???? Minikiller -do you really want to make the game easier?. I suggest you try a little bribery yourself, you will find that its almost laughably easy to decimate the oppostion ai as it insists on placing very easily bribed captains in charge of most of its armies.

I must admit I sigh with relief when the ai does something that gets past my defenses--> like bribing a city I forgot to defend with a spy. The ai has a tough anough time already with suiciding generals and armies which like to hover under enemy towers.

[therother]

Well, I suppose this is as good a place as any to dump some preliminary research on bribery. (Ode for a research forum! )

(All the numbers here are for Very Hard, but the numbers don't seem affected by difficulty.)

So, I have 10 units of peasants. Bribe cost: 1000 Denarii, which is their recruitment cost. Now I add various level of spies, diplomats, and assassins to see what effect they might have on the bribe cost.

I was, for the most part, using a valour 2 diplomat to do the bribing. I ranked him up to valour 6 for some tests, but influence seems to have no influence!

Anyhow basically what I've found is that, surprisingly enough, all the agents add to the bribing cost. This was, of course, not unexpected. What is a little surprising (at least to me) is that is seems that all they add is their own bribe price. They don't seem to imbue the army with any sort of extra bribe protection.

For instance, a valour 9 diplomat costs 3700 Denarii to bribe. If the army you're bribed would cost 1000 Denarii on its own, then the entire deal will be 4700 Denarii.

It seems that an agent costs 2000 Denarii to bribe with 0 valour. It costs 300 Denarii per valour. So a 10-valour spy should add 5000 Denarii to the deal; similarly a 5-valour assassin should cost 3500 Denarii.

(Things get a little more complex when there are multiple agents – still trying to figure that out.)

Another odd thing is that you do not seem to get the agents if the bribe is successful. Perhaps you might if army is joining your faction, but I have yet to try that.

I reiterate that this is only preliminary data, in that I haven't checked all this thoroughly, but I thought it was interesting enough to post at this stage.

Edit: There might be a Culture effect as well, i.e. it appears to be cheaper bribing someone from the same Culture to join your faction.

[therother]

Spies cost too many movement points.

As far as I can see, spies have the same movement points as diplomats. But there does seem to be crucial differences between the protections afforded by the two agents.

It seems that a high influence diplomat is impossible to bribe by a diplomat with 4 less negotiation skill. But if the bribing diplomat has the required skill, he just seems to add his cost to the deal. Which should act as a deterrent, I suppose. A diplomat, however, offers no protection from subterfuge i.e. assassination or infiltration.

The spy, OTOH, gives subterfuge protection commensurate with his ability, and also adds his cost to the overall bribe package, making bribing more costly. I haven't yet found a circumstance where the spy affords complete protection from bribing.

So, a spy/diplomat combo seems the best way to go, as it gives bribe/subterfuge protection, although such protection comes at a cost - 150 Denarii per turn.

[bmolsson]

Never had any real problems with bribes. It seems like "captain" armies are the most sensitive to cash incentives, so try to marry them with a bitch in your clan....

[irishron2004]

Just to see if it could happen, I decided to attack Athens. I had a Diplomat there and Athens was in rebel hands. I had a spy in the city. I had my Diplomat bribe the Captains outside the city. All of a sudden, I had a lot less army to fight. I would rather spend the money and save the men if possible.