Making peace

[mkorin]

What does it mean when a civilization you are at war with wants to make peace and offers to cede a city you have already conquered?

[Proteus_MST]

Hypothetically, that it abandons all claims on the city (and cannot use the liberation fo the city as casus belli against you)

Practically however, in my first war with the chinese I conquered 2 cities ... Beijing and the former City state Seoul (which I liberated, meaning that I took care, that its former government was restored and it was a city state again) ... a short while thereafter the chinese asked for peace, offerering, among others, that they cede Beijing to me and I accepted ... nevertheless since then they love to denounce me because I keep one of their cities occupied ... so I guess, that the cede city feature is a little bit incomplete (as I would think that denouncing someone for owning a city you ceded "voluntarily" also shouldn't be possible anymore)
(although, hypothetically, it may be that he denounces me for Seoul ... i.e. that the Civ VI engine, for the purpose of denouncing, doesn't take into account liberations of ty state ... and that therefore the AI still "assumes" that I am in possession of Seoul)

[N35t0r]

No. If you capture a city in a war, it's only occupied by you. You won't gain control of it until the peace treaty (and any occupied cities you don't bargain for in the peace treaty go back to its owner)

[Proteus_MST]

Ah ... no surprise I didn't encounter this (giving back cities) ... as all of my wars either had the AI cede all of the conbquered cities, or ended with the extermination of the other civ

[mkorin]

I've ended many wars without getting cedes. As long as you don't offer to return a city it doesn't take them back