...There will be peace in our time!

[evizaer]

Has anyone else noticed how easy it is to be a peaceful and prosperous civ in Civ4? I've played one game through from 4000B.C. to Space Race victory and i'm half way through a second, and i haven't fought a single war. (both of these on prince difficulty)

Well... i've been AT war with civs before, but i've only once captured a city or even engaged in open combat. Usually a nearby friend would go to war and ask for my help and i'd oblige them.

Do i actually have to go out and pick a fight?

[Falconer999]

Almost done with my 1st game now (Space victory in about 6 more turns) and I had tried to be peaceful with everyone - that didn't quite work out and tends to get other Civs upset with you. Ie: On my continent there's Me, Elizabeth, Ghengis Khan and Hateshput (sp?). Ghengis Kahn was my first contact and we got along pretty well. Then I entered open borders/trade with Elizabeth and Hateshput, both of whom Ghengis Khan did not like. I got like -4 relation points with him for "trading with his enemies". One time he asked me to go to war with Elizabeth, whom I had quite a but of trade going with and I said no. He turned around and declared war on me.

I was pretty far ahead on tech than him and repelled his invasion, then turned around and took 1 of his cities. He was quick to ask for peace after that.

I have several Civs now that are "Cautious" towards me because of trading with their enemies, and I'm waiting for one of them ask me to help in a war and get ticked off when I say no.

In other words, I don't think you have to actively look for war, but if you try and play nice and treat everyone equally, you'll upset some Civ!

[Reader81]

If your army is strong then there will be pace but if your army weaker then more likely there will be war.

[Wolfgang76]

Ive played several games where no war at all seemed to be declared and all nations were bent on getting thier ships off the ground asap. It seems that as soon as the option for the space ship comes along the AI turns its development to that and pulls back from being agressive toward other civs.

[kimmygibler]

Originally posted by Wolfgang76
Ive played several games where no war at all seemed to be declared and all nations were bent on getting thier ships off the ground asap. It seems that as soon as the option for the space ship comes along the AI turns its development to that and pulls back from being agressive toward other civs.

It's better that they actually try to win. I was surprised at how much focus the ai put on the space race. In my first game I lost the space race on the second hardest level. Does the ai start trying to attack your capital if they know you are close to winning?

[dconner]

Originally posted by kimmygibler


It's better that they actually try to win. I was surprised at how much focus the ai put on the space race. In my first game I lost the space race on the second hardest level. Does the ai start trying to attack your capital if they know you are close to winning?

In my first full game, I had a clear lead in the space race over the #2 power (who clearly had an uphill battle to research all the later space techs, but was cranking out the SS parts he *did* have access to.)

Around this time, the #3 power, who didn't have an Apollo program yet but was otherwise fairly powerful, started down what I thought was the path of "let's gang up on this here Space Boy and bring him down to Earth" by cancelling our trade deals and Open Borders agreement. I figured this was a prelude to war, but oddly, the opposite happened 10-odd turns down the road, as we basically went back to the old status quo of Open Borders and lots of trade.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Short version: The AI doesn't pick foolish fights anymore. If it goes for you, there's either a great deal of provocation (by you or it), a significant military imbalance (in the AI's favor), or a dire circumstance (you going nuclear or threatening space victory.)

The days of the AI randomly picking a fight with any kid on the block are over.

[evizaer]

I have a really small army in my current game and i'm not getting threatened at all by other powers around me. I also am a huge trading partner of my friends, though, so maybe that is why they don't try to pick a fight with me.

Ghandi is the only neighbor (i have 3) who i have done anything negative to (cancelled trade agreements because my Japanese friends were angry with him), but he'll never go to war.

Religion is making the game very interesting, too. There are now only two religions that any civ follows: Buddhism and Hinduism. It's making diplomacy particularly interesting.

[jdchambe]

Originally posted by kimmygibler


It's better that they actually try to win. I was surprised at how much focus the ai put on the space race. In my first game I lost the space race on the second hardest level. Does the ai start trying to attack your capital if they know you are close to winning?

From what I've seen, an AI controlled opponent who knows you've got it beat on the space race front (either because you will finish it first, or because it knows it can't finish it in time) will turn to war if it thinks it has got a chance of slowing you down that way. But if the AI thinks it's got you beat in the race to space, it avoids war.

In one game I played, everyone progressed a little slowly because of the layout of the map. We were nearing the end game, and people were only just breaking into the modern technologies. It was clear, no one was going to achieve a space victory. The wars at end of that one were brutal...

[Brutus66]

Originally posted by Fried-Psitalon
The days of the AI randomly picking a fight with any kid on the block are over.

Well, they can, on occasion, be capricious.
In my last game, the Aztecs really got an attitude with me because of my religion and who I was doing business with.
I was the tech leader and my military was far more powerful than his, but he declared war on me anyway, out of the blue...surprise!
Judging by the speed at which my panzers rolled over his nation, he was not exactly pursuing a policy that had his best interests at heart.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Right, but they didn't just randomly pick a fight - they attacked you because you were a heathen bastage who supplied another nation they despised. It may not have been an intelligent tactical decision, but the motivation was far from random.

[Sartaq]

I'm seeing that it's not actually possible to be greeat pals with everyone at once. The AIs always have atleast one civ they are annoyed with and as soon as you trade with that civ and/or help them you open yourself to the possibility of attack. It also seems that the amount of wars and aggresion depends on the type of land, the level of tech, and the situation faced by each individual. Which is how it should be. It's more dynamic and more based on what is actually hapening and long-term goals rather than arbitrary dice rolls. I think the AI is aggresive enough but they aren't lethal enough, as in they should make you pay even more for your mistakes and they don't press wars as hard as they should when they are winning.