AI attitude revealed

[Dominae]

The more I think about Arrian's example, the more I believe Privateers are implemented all wrong. If Spain is convinced that England is using Privateers, then you can bet other countries would learn about it pretty quickly (I'm no history buff, but this seems reasonable). These other countries may or may not care about what England is doing, which would be modeled in Civ3 with no change in Attitude. But clearly England's reputation would suffer, since all the other countries know that it is not above supporting "pirates" to unoficially do the dirty work. Reputation involves a lot more than keeping your word.


Dominae

[TheArsenal]

I also agree implementation could be better, but for different reasons. Another civ should have a way of "knowing" the Privateer belongs to you before you take an attitude hit. Otherwise, you do not. Using the example of Spain and England above, a Spanish vessel would have to be positioned to "see" a Privateer emerge from one of England's cities. Or if (as Jaybe alluded to) Spain sunk an English Privateer, they would be able to determine nationality definitively from any survivors they would fish out the water (to interrogate, turn into galley slaves, kill at their leisure, or whatever).

What (humor me, I am dreaming here) would be extremely cool is if you could hire foreign pirates to man (at some sort of very high cost, of course) your Privateers, and then throw in a random variable as to whether the pirates' nation of origin would take the attitude hit or even risk war, or the owner (your civ) of the Privateer would.

[Konquest02]

It could be a nice idea, but look at what the Privateers add to your attitude balance (+1 or +3 if you attack). This is almost meaningless compared to some other things you can do to improve the AI's attitude towards you...

--Kon--