Are borders Worthless?

[LordRiker]

is this a bug? for example i played as Japan, and im at peace with all the nations but i have NO rite of passages signed or alliances signed meanwhile everyone comes into my country and fights with each other on my damn soil! sure they arent really bothering me per se its just annoying, i even ask them all to remove there units and they said they will but never do. Seems like Borders are completely worthless to me, rite of passage or not anyone can move through anyones territory. Even in civ 1 or 2 or even SMAC you werent allowed to walk thru another nations territory unless your at war or something, this is something they should fix in civ 3. Its my country, i dont want bozos fighting in it.

[Azaka]

This was exactly why I couldn't play CTP2 after playing SMAC. I got too frigging annoyed with the enemy walking through my entire country just to place a city on the other side of it. In SMAC borders are absolute and if you are at peace then the enemy respects them and that's how I want it to be. If this is as annoying in CIV3 as in CTP2 then I'll probably stick with SMAC. I was really hoping CIV 3 would be SMAC-on-earth-only-even-better but maybe it's not? Ah well, it's still not out here in europe so I have time to decide.

[FeathersMcGraw]

On the other hand, when other civilizations decide to set up shop right on the other side of your territory, they usually wind up getting assimilated within 50 years or so.

I do note that it's very difficult to maintain closed borders though, since unless you're willing to build fortresses along the entirety of your borders, it's very easy for rival units to walk right by your fortified sentries and right up to your cities. And if you demand that they get the heck out of your territory, they usually wind up declaring war anyway.

[Mahdimael]

I think this is one of those strategy shift things. Because units aren't supported by cities and don't generate unhappiness when they're not in cities, it helps to have them posted near/along the border. It's worked so far for me, and if the computer does cross my borders, then a few units are there to meet them and the computer withdraws the units