How to make friends and influence people

[MikeH]

I'm having trouble getting the AI to show me some love.

What techniques do people use?

Spreading your religion seems to help. I don't want to be a total pushover and give them freebies when they ask for them just to keep them sweet.

If I'm expanding my borders and trying to flip their cities that seems to really piss them of. I've had something like +6 green comments and -3 from "our close borders cause tensions" and they'll always attack sooner or later.

Note this is mainly to keep one AI happy whilst I finish another one off. One war at a time.

[Cort Haus]

Re: How to make friends and influence people

Originally posted by MikeH
I'm having trouble getting the AI to show me some love.

What techniques do people use?

Spreading your religion seems to help. I don't want to be a total pushover and give them freebies when they ask for them just to keep them sweet.

If I'm expanding my borders and trying to flip their cities that seems to really piss them of. I've had something like +6 green comments and -3 from "our close borders cause tensions" and they'll always attack sooner or later.

Note this is mainly to keep one AI happy whilst I finish another one off. One war at a time.

Agreeing to help or tribute is one of the best ways to make friends. Every "gimme" demand is actually a 'two-pointer' (and I can make a football analogy here ) as you get a permenant +1 if you agree, and -1 if you refuse. Accepting can jolt the attitude up to pleased, which in turn can opens up more options - tech trading, resource trading, open borders which can earn more green diplo points.

Apart from not taking up an early religion (good for relations), not signing open borders until you've met everyone in the neighbourhood is a good way of avoiding those "you have traded with our worst enemy" penalties - and even worse "you refused to stop trading" which I think NEVER goes away. Unlike 'gimme' demands which you can gain from, "stop trading" demands are lose-lose, and I try to make sure that I don't get these demands by not trading with my friends' enemies.

Pick friends & enemies by studying the relations between the AIs and try to let all your green points fall with your friends, and all the red points to your enemies.

Being allys in war is a great way to make game-long friendships, especially with more bellicose civs, it seems.

There's not much that can be done about border tensions, so it's hard to be pals when there's a cultural struggle going on, but maintaining alliances with more distant civs is easier.

[MikeH]

That is excellent stuff thanks.

[MightyTiny]

Also, an easy, low cost way to get some plusses is to occasionally give small amounts of gold as gifts to civs you want to get on the good side of. Certainly worth it, I think.

You get a very nice bonus in relations if you agree to join a war against someone. Also, if there's a situation where there are two opposing "factions" of nations that look more or less equal, chose one to get friends with, and in chosing the side, think about which side has nations that are going to like the way you play better - for example, if you intend to go for the "liberty-path", then leaders like Washington or Gandhi are likely to make better future allies than, say, Ghengis Khan and Togunawa. And vice versa, if police state tyranny type of a game is in your mind, then join the "bad guys".

[The keeper]

Gift them a resourse or luxury.

I like to give stone after all the stone wonders are built. Or iron/copper after I have progressed from needing those for the military.

[Crossfire]

I actually find it helpful to try to be buddies with my nearest and biggest neighbors. They shield me from everyone else and when I agree to help them in a war, that war never comes to my borders and takes little or no effort on my part to prosecute. If I can get lucky and get the civs on either side of me to be buddies too then I am golden the whole game. In my last game I had Ghengis Khan as my best buddy and neighbor and we had friendly relations the whole game. I gifted him techs and helped him kill his enemies. This left me free to grow and I launched in 1843 playing on Prince. I would bribe him to attack anyone else that was doing well and then make sure he stayed current by supplying him the necessary techs that he didn't have the resources to research. It worked great. I like having best buddies!

[MikeH]

Great tips guys.

It's really helped in my latest game. I feel I'm starting to know what I'm doing.

[TomVeil]

I have occasionally given the AI gifts without prompting, but I don't recall it ever affecting the overall calculus. Maybe it does in a way that's not obvious from reading the scroll-over box.

Who the foreign leader is seems to affect the amount of goodwill that a common religion (and illwill that a different religion) produces. The duration of your commonality or difference DEFINITELY has an effect. So I definitely advocate trading for a promise to convert early in the game.

Finally: bring in multiple war allies. Your enemy will be seething, but your allies will remember your alliance fondly in future dealings.

[Solomwi]

Question for eris or anyone else who's used proxy wars: in order to bribe Civ A to attack Civ B, do you have to be at war with Civ B? I know it worked that way in previous civ games, but it would be a really useful tool if they removed that constraint.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by TomVeil
I have occasionally given the AI gifts without prompting, but I don't recall it ever affecting the overall calculus. Maybe it does in a way that's not obvious from reading the scroll-over box.

Gives you a +1 the same as a prompted gift every time as far as I can see.

Having no state religion is great for not annoying people.

[Meisterkrieger]

Originally posted by Solomwi
Question for eris or anyone else who's used proxy wars: in order to bribe Civ A to attack Civ B, do you have to be at war with Civ B? I know it worked that way in previous civ games, but it would be a really useful tool if they removed that constraint.

No you don't. They just have to like you ("Friendly" attitude helps) better than the target, and it seems that the AI also evaluates how likely it is that it gains something from the proposed war.

[eris]

I was surprised at this. I talked Civ A into attacking Civ B for the price of a tech. I expected that to put me into war with Civ B and it didn't! The times I have done this, I was going to war anyway. So I declared. The question comes up in my mind: Is there any diplomatic with Civ A if you don't join the war you started? So far, I haven't seen the AI civs shirking in the wars they declare, like I have once or twice when coaxed into joining. Is there any way one's participation is measured?

[The keeper]

Ill put names instead of Civ A,B, and C.

I am Russia. I am at war with the Mongols, but at peace with Greece and England. This peace is starting to put a pinch on my tech lead - but both are my friends. I find out that England and Greece aren't exactly friends with each other.

I give a gift to Greece to declare war on England. Now, I am at war with Mongolia. Greece and England are at war.

I have a -4 with the mongols because we are at war.
I have a -1 with England for bringing in a war ally.
I have -0 with Greece because I haven't done anything to them.


A -1 is a small price to pay to have 2 civs on opposite sides of the world from each other go to war so they dont focus on tech so much.

[alva]

Originally posted by MikeH
Great tips guys.

It's really helped in my latest game. I feel I'm starting to know what I'm doing.

# It's the end of the world as we know it... #



Also, it's very ( as in more ) difficult to be friends with your neighbours.

[Crossfire]

I often bribe one civ into war with another. I try to make sure that they can get at each other and I try to make the top couple of civs go to war to slow them both down. If one starts losing too badly, I may even help in order to maintain parity. If I can get a couple of these going, then everyone is at war except me and I can run away to a win every time. I generally am not at war with anyone when I can manage this sort of strategy.