Negotiation stinks

[Prince]

Originally posted by Jaybe
Prince, regarding reluctance to trade world maps that might also apply to me if I was in their position. I have acquired territory/world maps just before declaring war on occasion.

True, but without giving any other examples, the AI still tries trades sometimes that really don't make sense for me.

[Purple]

Originally posted by miccofl
A "Calculate bottom line" option would be nice.

I've often wished for such an option, but there can be more than one possible "best" deal, depending on the combination of items you are seeking or offering.

I do agree that the whole process is a little annoying, especially when you need to shop around with a number of civs.

It would help enormously if you could adjust the gold offer/request directly rather than deleting gold from the table, then adding it and entering a new figure on the popup.

[hexagonian]

Simple...

Resist the urge to haggle - The first time that you get acceptance from the AI, take it without a second thought.

I bet nobody does that though.

[JohnM2433]

Well, sometimes you're in a position where you need to pinch pennies...

But often you're not. And since offering better deals to the AI improves their attitudes toward you, they will probably offer you better deals in the future if you do not try to wring every gold coin they have out of them. So haggling might not be as effective a long-term strategy as one might think. It might even be a bad idea, depending on how important it is to your strategy for other civs to like you. If you're going for a diplomatic victory, you may actually want to give gifts to other civs.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by hexagonian
Simple...

Resist the urge to haggle - The first time that you get acceptance from the AI, take it without a second thought.

I bet nobody does that though.

Hexagonian,
I am so disappointed that you did not add a smiley...
Of Course, I often take what is offered without haggling (unless it is a total reject).

Sometimes I try to get more, sometimes I GIVE more or have them pay less. It depends on the situation, naturally: Friends, foes, competitors I want to bleed dry, civs across the sea with almost NO luxuries while I have a substantial surplus.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by hexagonian
Simple...

Resist the urge to haggle - The first time that you get acceptance from the AI, take it without a second thought.

I bet nobody does that though.

I do.

[Cidifer]

As for giving them a good deal to ijmprove their attitude toward you this doesn't really work well most of the time in my games ( could be my play style or difficulty level) before I have practically financed an entire war trying to keep a couple civs alive so that the other wouldn't catch up to me. At one point I gave 1,000 gold at once to one of them (after giving them a couple techs the turn before) and they were still annoyed with me (same as they were the turn before), other times I've given a world map for free and they've gone up a level (or maybe I should say down) for exmaple from annoyed to cautious or whatever the previous one is.

[Jaybe]

Cidifer,
It is hard to tell how civs will react to your charity. If you are the substantially dominant civ then everyone else may be at least "jealous" of you. I generally consider aid to civs as a long-term project. You do not know how it would have been different without your generosity.

One very effective, though temporary method of improving relations is to get them into a war with you against someone else, either through an Alliance or MPP. After the affair is completed, their attitude will generally revert to where it was before the war.

I play at Regent.

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by hexagonian
Simple...

Resist the urge to haggle - The first time that you get acceptance from the AI, take it without a second thought.

I bet nobody does that though.

I do it with my allies and Civs I am getting along with and want to continue to get along with much of the time. Sometimes even my allies seem to be trying to take advantage so I often check to see what they are willing to pay and then either go back to what they offered or pick something in between.

For civs I am annoyed with or intend to go to war with then I go for all the traffic will bear. They aren't going to be happy with me anyway so I might as well get what I can.

[Purple]

Originally posted by JohnM2433
If you're going for a diplomatic victory, you may actually want to give gifts to other civs.

I often do this, either to bolster an important ally who's fighting a proxy war for me or to curry favor with a neighbor who is trying to pick a fight with me before I'm ready to engage.

[DanaLea]

Originally posted by Purple
It would help enormously if you could adjust the gold offer/request directly rather than deleting gold from the table, then adding it and entering a new figure on the popup.

You can do this. If you left click on the gold amount it removes it from the table, you knew this. But if you right click it, it gives you the pop-up to change the amount. HTH

-Dana

[Raion]

Oh, I just got done with a war with the Germans. He did start the war, and after making a deal. I fought him and defeated him on my territory, so finally peace was mentioned. He wanted too much, so I kept adding things to his side of the board, like all his gold, and tech and territory map, since he asked for mine.

He left, with saying something like : "I spit in your face, and will destroy your civilization, blah, blah, blah.

Later, he was more resonable, since I got right of passage through the seas of the Aztecs, if I wanted to take away a few cities too many he had. Now the Zulus and Bismark - Germans are at war.

Heck with him!

[Purple]

Originally posted by DanaLea


You can do this. If you left click on the gold amount it removes it from the table, you knew this. But if you right click it, it gives you the pop-up to change the amount. HTH

-Dana

Thanks for this! I'll try it!

[Keeper of Hell]

The theory that the person who needs luxuries more should be willing to pay more is nice conceptually, but due to the surpassing stupidity of the AI it rarely works in a human player's favor. I've had civs two or three times my size claiming that three of my luxuries are worth one of theirs. And of course, it's impossible to tell the AI that they need to make a reasonable offer or you'll let them rot with a rioting population- all you can do is reject the offer, since they're incapable of understanding that no one in their right mind would take it. That's the thing that annoys me most about the AI- the unreasonable demands (I'm not talking about the "Give us this or we'll kill you" stuff, I'm talking about the bad deals it refuses to back down from).

[Theseus]

I know what I do when an AI civ makes me mad...