What does "City, cede" mean?

[AlienRenders]

I thought it was the AI offering to give up a claim to the city, but instead, it gives the city back to the AI. If "City, cede" gives the city back, then what does "City, return" mean on my side? I now refuse any deals with that in it and just conquer them.

[Panda]

When you sieze cities through war, you control it but you don't really "own" it yet. When negotiating for peace, the original owner of the city can cede the city to the new civ that occupies it or as the civ that captured the city, you can return it back to the civ you took it from.

The result is essentially the same but the word used depends on the positions. If you are the original owner of the city that was captured, "cede" means giving up the city to them. If you are the aggressor who took the city from the original owner, "return" means giving it back to the original owner.

[Battler]

Cede also means your long term 'ownership'. If they cede the city to you they also give up their right of claiming it as theirs as a 'casue for war' in the future.

[AlienRenders]

Ummm... that's not how it works in my game. I captured two cities from the Japanese. They offered peace along with ceding two cities. I agreed and the two cities I captured were now owned by the Japanese again.

[SuperKush]

Originally posted by Vorlath:

Ummm... that's not how it works in my game. I captured two cities from the Japanese. They offered peace along with ceding two cities. I agreed and the two cities I captured were now owned by the Japanese again.

I captured Medina in a war with Saladin, he ceded it to me in the peace treaty and I owned it until victory.

[AlienRenders]

Gotta be a bug then.

[kpgavemaria]

Yeah, I had a city ceded to me after they were building an army on my border, and i pulled a "Han shot first" manuever. Later the same nation was "mad" because I held the cities they "ceded to me"! WTH!?
P.S. Everyone called me a warmonger too! :(

[SilverAura]

I too can confirm that upon trying to return a city back to someone I declared war on, I kept it after peace negotiations and there's no sign of being able to return it back to them short of giving it back as a gift.

The whole reason I took it was because they were getting too aggressive and I just wanted to knock them back. They refused to negotiate peace though, so I figured if I took it and returned it to them, I would've knocked them back and got the negotiations I wanted.

Now I'm wondering if the game still thinks I had every intent on keeping the city and if so, whether or not gifting the city will counter any of the effects of taking it in the first place. If not, there's no reason to give it up.

For the record, I'm only in the Classical Era, so the warmongering penalty wasn't too large. I'm just wondering what the long-term effects might be if I keep it. Clearly from what I've been reading, the game remembers original ownership of cities and civs seem inclined to hold it against you.

[Destructor Critter]

what if you just make peace without anyone ceding or returning a city? what would happen to a captured city?

[Manic]

Originally posted by Destructor Critter:

what if you just make peace without anyone ceding or returning a city? what would happen to a captured city?

You capture it you keep it, but the original owner will denounce you forever because you are occupying one of their cities.

[Coold5]

Originally posted by Destructor Critter:

what if you just make peace without anyone ceding or returning a city? what would happen to a captured city?

If the city isn't ceded to you, it will NEVER grow.

[AlienRenders]

Originally posted by mljones88:

Originally posted by Destructor Critter:

what if you just make peace without anyone ceding or returning a city? what would happen to a captured city?

If the city isn't ceded to you, it will NEVER grow.

That's not true. After a certain number of years, the city is fully yours and it will grow.

[Excrucian]

Yeah I also encountered the issue where acaptured city was ceded to me but the owner kept denouncing me for hundreds of years because I am "occupiying one of their cities"...

[StangDennis]

That's funny, I captured several cities and they start growing the very instant I decide to keep them.

Some hovering tools tips explaining stuff would have been nice in the negotiation screen, like in the rest of the game. The UI is really bad, not in looks but, in terms of anything explaining.

I have captured cities, then offered peace and the offer of city, cede, was on my side of things. Same with return. I tried both, no difference. ????

Apart from that they denounce me forever as said before for occupying their city. Even if they both returned and ceded it to me.

[SilverAura]

So I was able to successfully "Return" a city to a civilization last night.

It turns out Ceding and Returning are in fact two separate negotiations, just as the interface would imply. However when negotiating (asking what they would take), the game seems to respond "Return" with "Cede" on their part, leading to the city either getting stuck in limbo or being kept.

I'll have to play around with it more but this wouldn't be the first bit of unusual behavior I've seen from trade negotiations acting up when asking the other civilization what they'd be willing to trade.

[Renovartio]

Arabia and Spain ceded two cities to me but every few turns they denounce me for having those cities