Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: bvanevery on January 14, 2017, 07:31:43 pm

Title: do you ever bribe other factions in diplomacy?
Post by: bvanevery on January 14, 2017, 07:31:43 pm

Like to make a Treaty, instead of telling them "Why, my goodwill and friendship", you offer them money or tech.  I never, ever do that.  Totally rubs me the wrong way.  So, I have no idea if there's something effective or valuable about such actions.  I doubt there is, because the AIs aren't all that bright militarily.  An AI faction needs to be giving me something to be of benefit to me, not the other way around.

I have paid off AI factions, to get the warmongers to leave me alone when I'm weak at the beginning, but that's different.  Especially with Morgan, if they don't ask for too much money, it makes good business sense to just hand them a pittance.  A corollary to that, is not to keep large cash reserves around, so that they can't ask for large amounts of cash to pay them off.

Title: Re: do you ever bribe other factions in diplomacy?
Post by: gwillybj on January 14, 2017, 07:59:04 pm

I do it frequently, as long as the result is beneficial to me, of course.
There are many ways to go about it. Some might cause you some kind of deficit immediately, but in the long run it was an excellent move.

Title: Re: do you ever bribe other factions in diplomacy?
Post by: bvanevery on January 14, 2017, 09:20:56 pm

Well what kind of specific great stuff did you get from your bribe?

Lately I'm playing on these 256x128 maps.  We're all sufficiently isolated, that frankly any faction could do anything and it wouldn't matter.  On a standard size map I might be more concerned.  Actually I wonder how my current "skills and attitudes" hold up on standard size maps now.  Previously I found that dealing with the Caretakers and Usurpers could be a real bear.  But with my forest and minerals based early game economies now, maybe they can't do so much to me.

I prefer the factions to bribe me.  Deirdre gave me a hell of a good one to attack Cha Dawn, in the current game I'm playing.  First off, an alliance when otherwise she was the most powerful faction in the game and wouldn't have remotely considered it.  Also, 275 credits and Doctrine:Loyalty.  The Command Nexus wasn't done yet.  I didn't get it, I let Yang complete it, so eventually I'll own it when I trash him.  But he's benefited an awfully long time from it.  Anyways that long term alliance with Deirdre has been very useful tech-wise and wouldn't have happened ordinarily.

Title: Re: do you ever bribe other factions in diplomacy?
Post by: Bearu on January 19, 2017, 02:48:12 am

Quote from: bvanevery on January 14, 2017, 07:31:43 pm

Like to make a Treaty, instead of telling them "Why, my goodwill and friendship", you offer them money or tech.  I never, ever do that.  Totally rubs me the wrong way.  So, I have no idea if there's something effective or valuable about such actions.  I doubt there is, because the AIs aren't all that bright militarily.  An AI faction needs to be giving me something to be of benefit to me, not the other way around.

I have paid off AI factions, to get the warmongers to leave me alone when I'm weak at the beginning, but that's different.  Especially with Morgan, if they don't ask for too much money, it makes good business sense to just hand them a pittance.  A corollary to that, is not to keep large cash reserves around, so that they can't ask for large amounts of cash to pay them off.

The ability to bribe the factions depends on the faction, but the general reason remains the gifts improve temporarily the mood of the faction towards the briber.

Title: Re: do you ever bribe other factions in diplomacy?
Post by: bvanevery on January 19, 2017, 06:04:19 am

Why should I care about improving anyone's mood?

I mean seriously, thousands of games played.  I never improve anyone's mood.  Why bother?

Title: Re: do you ever bribe other factions in diplomacy?
Post by: Yitzi on January 20, 2017, 03:54:47 am

Generally not in AI, although I could see it being a good strategy in MP.

Title: Re: do you ever bribe other factions in diplomacy?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 20, 2017, 04:17:41 am

-Definitely good, IRL...