[Hooves]

Originally Posted by Kaze

Woah, where did you see this?
Got a link somewhere?

Looking forward to see the AI get improved.

Empire and Napoleon total war was total war alright, especially if EVERY god damn AI in the GAME declares war on you for NO reason

I mean, I was playing as the Knights of St. John (Malta) and even INDIA and the friggin' NATIVES in Canada were declaring war on me.

I think I can explain the AI diplomacy in Rome, Medieval 2, Empire, and Napoleon, but not quite sure if I can explain on Medieval, and Shogun. But here goes

Spoiler for Rome + Medieval 2:

I'm not quite sure on Rome Total War, but I think it's similar to Medieval Total War 2 without the chivalry rating of being "Reliable" or "Trustworthy" and such.

Medieval Total War 2's AI Diplomacy has serious issues honestly, when you are beating on a country with only leaving them with one settlement and barely no army. When they request a ceasefire, they demand you give back the settlements that you took from them.. Honestly that is something that your average country would not do against a superior power. There is also the thing about when the AI is at war with you and you are getting beaten, you can find absolutely no way to persuade the AI to stop their war against you unless you pay some "major heavy" debt... Of course this might be reasonable for hostile AIs that are set to have ambition goals, but countries that just want to live peacefully are out of the question.

There is also the difficulty of the campaign that can really set off diplomacy.
Easy = AI will think less of the player and fight other AIs
Normal = AI will take player and other AIs as an equal
Hard = AI will take somewhat-high priority over the player then other AIs
Very Hard = AI will do whatever it takes to hate the player then other AIs

So in terms of Very Hard campaign difficulty, your relations with a country like Egypt who you have almost no conflict with will turn from "reasonable" to "very poor" in a matter of 15 turns into the game. Honestly I find Hard more challenging then Very Hard end-game. The AI is more set on military then their economy in Very Hard that's why they are very hostile early and have huge armies early on, but if you look at their cities they are somewhat poor. On Hard, the AI atleast has some dignity in economy terms and tries to balance them out.. But the "reasonable" to "very poor" atleast takes 23 turns instead of 15 turns. So if you can survive the mass army that the AI produces in Very Hard, then you are basically invincible with superior technology and cities then they are.

Having trade with other countries can set something off as well, for example if Hungary is at war with the Holy Roman Empire, and you are trading with both, then either one of the sides will eventually attack you after a certain amount of time and relation points that have deteriorated, but canceling the trade agreement will make your standing in the game from "Mixed" to "Dubious" possibly, but I don't mind this and just go with trading with everyone that offers... Nothing to really consider, besides if you refuse to trade with one country then they will go to war with you eventually.

Your standing in the game is also crucial, if you are "Trustworthy" then you will not see that much trouble, but the AI will still consider you a target. But if you are "Dubious" then you are basically going to war with everyone in the game to be honest..

If you want better AI diplomacy, then you will have to download a mod in order to do that. A good mod in mind would be Stainless Steel, but that is just a recommendation if you hate the diplomacy in Medieval 2.

Spoiler for Empire + Napoleon:

Empire Total War atleast fixed some issues, but the campaign difficulty is still sorta prioritized and highly-considered now instead of deteriorating over time. For example, you are slowly expanding your Empire and take 5-6 settlements in a set of turns, "all" the other factions will slowly have a -negative relation with you with each settlement you conquer. They will think of you as an ambition overlord that is trying to dominate the world, and can clearly see this on how fast you expand. But the campaign difficulty takes into effect.

Easy = AI will not really care about what you do
Normal = AI will think of you as an equal
Hard = AI will take "some" priority over your conquests, and your current relation with them.
Very Hard = AI will look for all possible chances to have a negative relation with you.

So in Very Hard, the more settlements you take, the faster the -territorial expansion negative influence increases. You can be completely neutral with Great Britain, but then when you take 5 settlements and you have no business with them. They will instantly turn "hostile" towards you with atleast -50 relation from territorial expansion alone. It may not be that fast, it probably is like -5 for each settlement but you can understand my point yes?

So Kaze, were you in a powerful state when those native countries went to war against you? If so then other countries who were like the natives will also do the same and eventually gang up on you because of how fast you expanded. Of course waiting for the negative relation to go down is just pretty impossible, I caught onto this and was able to maintain 8 alliances with France, Spain, Great Britain, Venice, Bavaria, Wurttemburg, Rhineland, and Poland-Lithuania as Austria for 38 turns and expanding on the Prussians and Ottomans. How stubborn is the AI difference between Medieval and Empire? None! They are still completely stubborn about stopping a war, I was giving Prussia some serious damages by taking all their major cities (then they moved against Poland) and when I took all the big cities from them and demanded peace, they refused. So they actually want to die that badly and stick to war with you for a very long time unless you just keep sending gifts which don't really help.

Napoleon Total War is pretty good... Of course not as expansionist as Empire Total War, but atleast you wont get backstabbed easily, and you can make protectorates who will follow you till the end. But have to pay them some heavy fines to actually get them to go to war with your current enemies.

Atleast they fixed the slow deterioration from trading, and the AI doesn't mind if you trade with their enemies.

Sadly there are no AI diplomacy changing mods like in Medieval 2, so you will have to live with it.

So all we can hope for is if they can fix the stubborn AI from Medieval 2 and Empire... But everything else is pretty set.