AI Diplomacy

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

This isn't so much a huge suggestion or anything monumental, but simply speaking, it's been a while since I've played 0 A.D.  (I used to play multiplayer on a regular basis and was pretty decent; nothing more), but I decided, with the new alpha out, to give 0 A.D. a couple more goes to see how development has been, and given the fact that I've not followed the meta or developed a proper build, I decided to stick with single-player.  Simply speaking, I was pleasantly surprised by the diplomatic options available to me.  While before it was simply a matter of turtling enough to kill off the AI's army while exploiting home-turf advantages, the diplomatic options made the formerly static interactions much more intriguing.  Beyond my expectations for the AI, I began to have an emotional connexion with those which I played with/against.  With those whom I had formed a stalwart alliance, I felt glad when I saw them actively participating in my border conflicts after requesting their assistance, and those who had refused my offers of friendship or even went as far as to declare war against me became actual rivals.  All to say, awesome job!  

Given the fact that this has been a wonderful addition for me, I was wondering if you could clarify some of the mechanisms dictating their interactions.  Specifically why they like/don't like players.  What are the future plans in this direction?

Edited August 1, 2017 by Thorfinn the Shallow Minded

[Lion.Kanzen]

@Sandarac

[Sandarac]

AI diplomacy is simple right now, and it relies on the illusion that the AI knows what it's doing. If a bot realizes it has a lot of enemies, it may try to request an alliance with a player who also has a lot of enemies. If you try to change your stance with a bot in a positive direction, it will be more likely to accept if its population is low.

In many cases, if you are the same civilization as a bot, it will be more likely to become allied/neutral with you (I'm not sure if I should have added that quirk, although mimo was fine with it). But also in many cases, the decisions it makes (when it comes to diplomacy) are random.

In terms of future plans, it would be nice to get rid of most of the randomness, and use some heuristic algorithms instead.

[jonbaer]

+1 for more AI diplomacy.

To me this has been the most enjoyable thing to watch.  Playing a random map w/ 4 players and myself all set to 1 team and after a while having the alliances and enemies formed.  I wish there were more ways to develop/program this outside of the larger game, so far from what I gather the AI asks for the alliance too late - it's unsure what the game state is to make a judgement for when this happens.  I do predict a day will come though when the AI will be able to completely auto balance everything from alliances/military/trade/spies/navy - then we are doomed :-)

[Servo]

I don't see any Diplomacy game options in any settings...is it just setting to no teams or alliance then you can make diplomacy there after? Or setting the game to allies but tick the option not to lock teams?

Does breaking alliance, declaring war cost a player resources? Is there an option to demand tribute if someone wants alliance with anyone?

[elexis]

Teams are only setup the initial alliances. If teams are not locked in the match setup, the alliances can change after the game has started (and only the alliances are taken into consideration currently).