Diplomacy and Settling/Purchasing "Near"

[Jesse R]

Does any one know if there is a tile range that AI players consider "near" when they ask you not to settle or purchase land near them?

As near as my Google searches can tell me, the answer to this is "no," which pretty well breaks diplomacy early on because you can never effectively keep a promise to not settle or purchase land near an AI player. I recently played on a map where Egypt had only 2 cities, both at the very top of the map. I had promised not to buy land near them, but purchased a tile almost at the bottom of the map. Naturally the next turn I get an Egyptian nasty-gram. :D

For now I'm just refusing any requests to not settle or purchase land near AI players. While it's still a hit to diplomacy, it's not as bad apparently as breaking a promise.

If any one has a solution or better work-around to this, I'd love to hear it.

[dd790]

I thought "17 tiles" when I read this but I have no idea why and that seems a huge distance, specially on small maps.

Hopefully someone can either confirm or correct that number but that is how far I think it is.

[Bandit]

well I have effectively kept my promise it is possible depending on map size. But takes awhile. And slows your expansion.

[Jesse R]

I've managed to keep the promise too, but apparently it's a crap shoot. Even if you deliberately stay away from territory near the AI, some of them consider large chunks of the map to be "near" them making it impossible to expand without risking a break of promise. If the AI at the top of a Huge map thinks territory near the bottom of it is "near" him, then how can you ever tell what's safe to settle/purchase and what's not?

[A Bat From Wuhan]

In my experience, I have learned that "Near" refers to everybit of territory across the entire planet worth settling, or controlling. That field between us, Mine! That desert across the ocean, Mine! That hill you've owned for the past 6000 years, you bet your a** thats mine!

[Ninthshadow]

My biggest problem in this field has acutally been 'buying tiles', because it seems outright bugged. I might not purchase a tile with gold at all since my promise, but the AI will still throw a fit over my border expansion.

I can only fathom that the culture expansion was what proc'ed it. I have no idea if (or how I could) turn that off. It's a straight up impossible demand more or less.

[Ancientciv]

Originally posted by Ninthshadow:

My biggest problem in this field has acutally been 'buying tiles', because it seems outright bugged. I might not purchase a tile with gold at all since my promise, but the AI will still throw a fit over my border expansion.

I can only fathom that the culture expansion was what proc'ed it. I have no idea if (or how I could) turn that off. It's a straight up impossible demand more or less.

They get annoyed seperately at "settling" and "expanding". It a good idea when buying tiles to buy a lot of them in a single turn so you can appoligize an leave expansion in a particular region alone for a bit.

[Ace73]

Are you guys playing on BNR or what? I played vanilla for a couple months, currently trying G&K and while I've certainly run into issues with civs ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about settling too near them or buying tiles near them, I've never experienced this across the map like you guys are describing. I'm curious, are you referring to the "covet lands you currently own" red flag? Did something change in BNR? Maybe it's related to tourism?

thinking out loud here, I've often wondered the same thing about short distances and found that its best to just save before settling... kinda cheating but hey what other option is there, not like you can always scout the surrounding area for every single city you settle

[sagevallant]

Yes, if you get that message you probably picked a spot where they wanted to settle. If its good property, they want it. If it's not, why are you settling there? It's just the AI. I once had China whining at me for having my troops near her borders... because she settled in the location I WAS ABOUT TO SETTLE, AND HAD RINGED WITH MY TROOPS. She's lucky I was promptly invaded by someone else, otherwise.....