War and offering of peace

[Skarfdawg]

Hi, will the AI only accept an offer of Peace if your power level is higher than them?
I have killed/sunk many enemy armies that try to reach my shores but the AI will not accept my offer for Peace?
thank you for any replies or suggestions

[xyzapip]

Yes, only if their power score drops enough. It can also happen that someone else declares war on the AI, then they may want to opt out too.

You can truce out, if you like. But that’s not worthwhile if they started the war.

[chaney]

Originally posted by xyzapip:

You can truce out, if you like. But that’s not worthwhile if they started the war.

Curious why you think so. I don't think you are wrong in general though, but I'd like to know what mechanics lead you to the point.

I beat back a "defensive" war for many many turns, then punished the aggressor by razing to support my economy and training up troops they generated. They were effectively put out of the game, but I was hoping to flip their nearest cities to neutral with rebels. The cities sat at level 6 unrest (or whatever the correct term is) for ages, no rebels appeared. I beelined age of revolutions. Still no rebels that I saw, and I had pretty good vision on their cities. I can see punishing the country that declared war with the chaos they are supposed to get, but I didn't really see any effect of it, so I wonder if I missed something. This was with the release version of the game, no update.

On the OP, I don't think Power Score is the only factor, but it does seem to dominate their attitude.

[xyzapip]

Originally posted by chaney:

Originally posted by xyzapip:

You can truce out, if you like. But that’s not worthwhile if they started the war.

Curious why you think so. I don't think you are wrong in general though, but I'd like to know what mechanics lead you to the point.

If the player started that war unrest will ramp up, so using truce maybe the only way to not loose the game. A peace established by that truce is also more likely to not end up in another war declaration.

If, on the other hand, the AI declared that war it’s much more likely that it will declare war again after the truce took place.

Also, why invest a culture event in a truce, if you can keep this war at no cost for yourself. It’s free warefare xp every now and then.

I don’t know how punishing unrest is on AI. Also based on my observations AI seems to play with different rules here. But for sure they will not become stronger if you keep them in war state.

[chaney]

Ok thanks!

[Gorael]

In my experience diplomacy is purely random in this game. I’ve seen the AI refuse a pact of open border and offer me the very same pact on the same turn. I’ve seen nations way weaker refuse to end a war despite having conquered most of it. I’ve seen stronger nations accept my religious conversion despite having a strong religion themselves… The « diplomatic score » never felt like it was relevant, having nations who loved me refusing pacts and nations that hate me accepting them.

At the very start of the game I though that the « ignore » button to close diplomatic inquiries had a strange wording. But after some play through this is exactly what I do: ignore every single diplomatic event.

[jonimcfly]

I think the AI decides on war based on the power scores.

The power score is as follows:
10 points per Region Population
10 points per Vassal Population
0.25 points per controlled Tile
10 points per Town; Region Capitals count as Towns for this purpose.
24 points per Age Unlocked (not counting the Age of Stone)
12 points per Tech Unlocked (regardless of Age)
4 points per Unit Age (Warband from Age 1 is 4 pts, Spear from Age 2 is 8 pts, etc.)

As you can see, it does not solely reflect military strength but encompasses various factors such as vassals, thus representing a general score. I believe there should be a distinction between a general score and a military score. A military score should place more emphasis on units and advancements. The AI should decide war and peace based on the military score.

[chaney]

Run through some numbers, Power Score will generally be dominated by the Population and Units portion based on what I've seen.

Making up some plausible mid-game numbers, magnitude estimates not precise I'm sure you can go out of these ranges:

10/pop 300-3000
0.25/tile 50-400
10/town 100-400
24/age 96-192
12/tech 200-500
4/unit_age 500-3000

Later it is likely the Units portion will go up a lot and become the standout term.
I would not object to more detailed information with separate military and civil? power scores but you can look at the map and get a good idea of what the civil part will be.