Refusing gifts?

[Christantine The Great]

They probably think it'll switch back to you.

[Blake]

Basically it isn't polite to attack someone straight after they give you a gift. So if the civ in question intends to attack you in the near future, they may refuse the gift to avoid getting a reputation of first taking your lunch money, then beating you up anyway.

The other reason, is say a civ gives you an offer you cant refuse (i dunno, several luxuries, some gpt) but you really want to attack them. By accepting the gift you are then inclined to wait out the 20 turns before attacking, when the decision to attack would have been made much easier by not accepting the gift.

A third reason is refusing a gift out of pity or kindness. Basically "keep your money, you need it more than me.".

Ofcourse the AI also refuses gifts for no rational reason at all. (for example, when you sweeten a deal they would have accepted, then they refuse, or your offloading things you have no use for, but they do)

[Iskandar Reza]

Originally posted by Blake
Basically it isn't polite to attack someone straight after they give you a gift. So if the civ in question intends to attack you in the near future, they may refuse the gift to avoid getting a reputation of first taking your lunch money, then beating you up anyway.

This is a very real possibilty. Egypt has slowly rised to become the next superpower after me. I slowed down my military buildup after my conquest of the continent I'm on.

[Alex]

Cool. Then my dialogue above is right on the mark.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Try to "buy" one of their gold for 20 of yours. The AI warms to favorable deals.

[Keeper of Hell]

Originally posted by Blake
Basically it isn't polite to attack someone straight after they give you a gift. So if the civ in question intends to attack you in the near future, they may refuse the gift to avoid getting a reputation of first taking your lunch money, then beating you up anyway.

No, the AI has too rudimentary an understanding of the reputations system for this to be a plausible reason, as evidenced by its frequent betrayals in terms of military alliances and RoP treaties. And beyond that, there's no evidence that I've ever heard that accepting a gift from a civ and then attacking them puts a black mark on your rep. AFAIK, it doesn't, so the AI would have absolutely no reason to turn down the deal, unless you take into account the fact that it's insane. On the main subject of the thread, I have indeed seen the AI go from "Close to a deal" to "Insulted by" when I add on something, usually an isolated city. It makes very little sense, except that perhaps the AI thinks that whenever a human offers a city, they're going to be able to culture flip it back.

[N. Machiavelli]

The Civ3 development team re-worked the diplomacy a few patches ago in an effort to put an end to certain exploits.
One, is the request for gold per turn. In the earliest iterations of the game, you could demand that the computer give some ungodly sum of gold per turn and they'd mysteriously pay it. Firaxis 'fixed' this by not allowing the AI or yourself promise more gold than you could afford at the moment. In all of this somehow, the AI took a negative stance at giving gpt in exchange for something. If you're vastly superior to an enemy and you attempt to propose to give a resource for even 1 gpt, the AI will be ''insulted". If you *demand* that same money, the AI will fold like a houseof cards. The AI will often propose a gpt deal, but will almost never accept one proposed by you.

Another such instance is the 'selling' of a city. Prior to a couple patches ago, an exploit existed wherein you could build a useless city in barren tundra, sell it to an AI for an ungodly price, retake it, and repeat the process. Again, Firaxis 'fixed' the problem, by prohibiting you from selling even a poor, fringe city. You can *give* it away, but they won't ever buy it for even 1 gold.

[Alex]

Mach: thanks for the info, it is certainly useful.

[johncmcleod]

Angry Zulu citizen: "My credit card bills were OUTRAGEOUS! But then I called Ameridebt and they got my monthly payments cut almost in half!"

Sorry, I couldn't resist

[Moonsinger]

Re: Refusing gifts?

Reputation means everything. Just like in the real world, you probably refuse to accept blood money paying in installment from a drug dealer or a bank robber.

[Iskandar Reza]

Originally posted by N. Machiavelli
The AI will often propose a gpt deal, but will almost never accept one proposed by you.

I give 20 gpt to everyone else on the map (got too much money, +1200 per turn) as an "aid package" more or less to make them dependant on me and therefore think twice before declaring war.

Everyone accepts it except for stubborn Cleo.

[N. Machiavelli]

Oh, they'll always accept gifts. But now try offering that for their world map.