formers and treaties

[Dictatress]

In my last game I landed in a dry, fungusy area. I got rid of fungus pretty quickly, and decided to increase the rainfall. Having built the Weather Paradigm, I could raise terrain. Across a strait from me was Deidre's faction. I decided to raise the terrain on the strait to bring me more rainfall and give her a drier climate. Looking back, I realize it didn't make that much difference, but anyway... I raised the terrain over 1000 meters. Then I decided to raise it again, but I got a message asking me whether I wanted to break my treaty with Deidre. That tile I was raising was on MY territory. Can't I do what I want with it? How does raising it betray our treaty?

[Wiglaf]

I don't believe you can modify an ally's territory at all, regardless of where the specific square is. IIRC anything that has an effect across the border isn't allowed.

[Mr. President]

I've encountered similar problems while trying to lower terrain between myself and enemies to create a water barrier. For some reason that's considered a hostile act. It once asked me if I wanted to abrogate a treaty with someone with whom I had almost unblemished relations.

[Bob Morane]

Yes, I got the same trouble several times. I think raising mountains is considered an hostile act as you will dry out your neighbor's land, but I'm not sure.
I even got something stranger, I was playing Sven and had a Pact with Roze, together, we wiped out Marr, and then I decided to sink my conquered bases as I was better in the ocean, but despite all the lands that would have been flooded by the operation were in my territory, I was not allowed to do this without canceling my Pact first , obviously, AC does not manage territory very well.
But, I finally managed to do what I wanted without breaking my pact, I made a few very industrial bases, star polluting, and then let the sea rise (ah, I was planetary gov, so I vetoed the solar shade )

[Earwicker]

Since raising/ lowering terrain can affect the elevation (not simply raininess) of tiles a couple of squares away, the AI can get antsy about your messing with their land. Makes sense. What puzzles me is this: how do I even know if the AI has altered my land by raising adjacent squares? Not that they spend a lot of time doing such major land terraforming, but still. Curious. I don't expect to see a pop-up that says: "Chairman Yang's terraformers have raised the terrain near Assassin's Redoubt. Declare Vendetta yes/ no?"

The strange aspect of terraforming is the notice of altering weather patterns. I raise the seabed near my seabase and get the message "Our formers have altered the weather patterns near New Jerusalem." Dozens of squares away. This probably pisses the AI off incrementally, but there's no message of "You have starved my bases for the last time, Vendetta on you!"

Similarly, there's no option for me to say: "Knock it off, Santiago!" in response to the message "Spartan formers have altered the rainfall near High Castle." Such information is more like something else to annoy you . . .

I've never gone to war with an AI for this offense and don't expect to (they usually provide me better reasons, given time). I just wonder whether they're attacking me has anything to do with this. Not that I care, of course.