My diplomats can't get alliances

**Naja** · December 21, 2011, 06:08 PM

Which file has the property that makes the AI automatically hate you more every turn when you're on hard or very hard difficulty?

EDIT: Found the answer. Thanks!

However, I discovered another problem. For some reason the option to offer any other faction an alliance is not available to my diplomats.

I have a "reliable" global reputation and try to bribe my way to "amiable" or "very good" reputation with the faction I'm trying to ally with. And yet I still don't see an option to ally. Is this a bug, or another game issue?

I am using the most recent version of Ultimate AI.

**CavalryCmdr** · December 21, 2011, 11:26 PM

descr_faction_standing.txt

;------------------------------------------
Trigger 0094_Update_Hard_Difficulty
WhenToTest FactionTurnStart
Condition CampaignDifficulty = hard
FactionStanding exclude_factions { } normalise -0.5 50
;------------------------------------------

What this means is your standing with all factions (none excluded) at the start of every turn, is set 1/50 th of the way from your current standing to -0.5. so if you have a current faction standing of 0.5 it will drop 1/50 of a point or 0.02. If your current standing is 0.0 it will drop 1/50 of a half point, or 0.01, so it will drop less the less they like you.

Note that faction standing ranges from 1.0(max like) to -1.0(max hate) 0.0 being completely neutral.

edit: Just saw you were asking about Very hard, not hard

Next trigger down, same thing only it's
FactionStanding exclude_factions { } normalise -1.0 40
wich is much more severe of a drop, if your standing is 0.5 it will drop 1/40 of 1.5 points, or 0.0375, so your new faction standing will be 0.4625 and 0.4259375 the following turn etc. Same meaning, different numbers.

The settings for Global Reputation are the next few triggers immediately after this, but they are not affected by dificulty directly.

**Naja** · December 23, 2011, 01:32 AM

Thanks.

I'm also having an issue getting alliances. For some reason the option to offer any other faction an alliance is not available to my diplomats.

I have a "reliable" global reputation and try to bribe my way to "amiable" or "very good" reputation with the faction I'm trying to ally with. And yet I still don't see an option to ally. Is this a bug, or another game issue?

I am using the most recent version of Ultimate AI.

**irishron** · December 23, 2011, 07:26 AM

Could be a mod issue as I have no problem with it in my mod but I have not tried Ultimate AI either.

**Naja** · December 23, 2011, 11:37 AM

What's odd is that I was able to get alliances just fine in the beginning (for the first couple hundred turns). Now it's never available.

Could it be because of global reputation? I noticed in the faction_standing.txt that there are a few entries that make the AI hate you as you become more powerful. I've become the biggest, richest and more powerful empire as the game progresses. Could that be the reason? If so, then why am I still encountering the difficulty if my global reputation rating is "reliable"?

**irishron** · December 23, 2011, 11:43 AM

Could it also be how many factions left alive especially in your culture?

**Naja** · December 23, 2011, 11:52 AM

Well, I'm playing as the Byzantines so I'm the only "Greek" culture. I was getting alliances with northern-european and southern-european cultures pretty easily in the beginning of the game.

**irishron** · December 23, 2011, 12:30 PM

At war with any of them?

**valvegas1** · December 23, 2011, 04:00 PM

could be cause you at war with an ally of the person your are contacting with your diplomat...if thats the case then you won't have the option of allying with them....i'm not sure if this is directly related to UltimateAI but I've noticed this to be the case whenever i have used UltimateAI...

**Naja** · December 23, 2011, 03:54 PM

Not all of them. Some are neutral, and I still can't offer an alliance.

**Naja** · December 23, 2011, 04:08 PM

Does having a vassal give you the same reputation bonus as having an ally?

**irishron** · December 23, 2011, 05:33 PM

I think I read in Medieval2, vassal is actually broken acts as an alliance. Anyone knows better, jump in.

**valvegas1** · December 23, 2011, 06:20 PM

I think CA's idea for vassals was to make the vassal contribute a percentage of there income the their "overlord" when in reality it only happens in the first turn after it's established....after that they are pretty much the same as an ally with military access...as far as being able to give them orders and rule them as you should be able to, this is the part that is broken...the best workaround i have found is to script it so that when a faction accepts the vassalage the overlord takes possession of all there land and armies...

**Naja** · December 24, 2011, 04:32 AM

I found this entry in my descr_faction_standing.txt. This is for Ultimate AI, and it basically makes the AI hate you the more powerful you become:

Trigger 0086_Update_Tall_Poppy1
WhenToTest FactionTurnStart

Condition FactionHasRank
and FactionScorePercent overall > 90
and FactionScoreRank overall <= 1

FactionStanding exclude_factions { } normalise -1.0 120

Is there a way to make this only apply to AI factions (and not the human player)? Would I add under the conditions section, "and IsFactionAIControlled" ? Or is there another script I need to use?

**valvegas1** · December 24, 2011, 02:15 PM

just changing this will work i think

Trigger 0086_Update_Tall_Poppy1
WhenToTest FactionTurnStart

Condition FactionHasRank
and FactionScorePercent overall > 90
and FactionScoreRank overall <= 1

FactionStanding exclude_factions { insertyourfactionnamehere } normalise -1.0 120