Sturok wrote:

Does the AI always demand gold in order to trade with them??  In my 2 games so far every single time I said let's trade they always demanded hundreds of gold.  It's really annoying.  They benefit just as much or even more than me most the time!  why would they not care about trade and demand me to pay for both of us to trade when we are friendly with each other with non-aggression pacts and open borders.

and if I refuse their bogus demand, the next price gets higher??  is this always the case?!

I need to know if I have to just accept the demands or not.

I'm not in love with the crazy high buy prices of everything either. 

thanks for any feedback 

(sorry for rant, I'm better now :P  I accept that the game needs to challenge the player, not the AI)

No, it is not always, there is quite a few factors, the persona, their behavior, what he/she feels about you etc.

ah ok thank you.  

What about refusing them.. can it be beneficial or is it almost always better to accede the cost?

Sturok wrote:

ah ok thank you.  

What about refusing them.. can it be beneficial or is it almost always better to accede the cost?

I guess depends on your economy / moment on the game. Personally when they ask for money I tend to refuse hahaha

They tend to demand some money for the trade agreement when you have nothing or little to trade, they see the situation as making you a favour.
Get some luxuries on your side and suddenly many will be ready to trade for free.

One reason to demand money is that if they outright refuse, you get a grievance. So demanding money is a bit safer for them.

When you want to provoke a war, the more grievances, the better (at least 1 more than they have), so demanding something they will refuse is a good way to get an extra one.

So if they demand money, it means they don't want war - and that's a good sign. Not friendly, but at least neutral.

Dayvit78 wrote:

One reason to demand money is that if they outright refuse, you get a grievance. So demanding money is a bit safer for them.

When you want to provoke a war, the more grievances, the better (at least 1 more than they have), so demanding something they will refuse is a good way to get an extra one.

So if they demand money, it means they don't want war - and that's a good sign. Not friendly, but at least neutral.

makes sense, thanks

Cure_off wrote:

They tend to demand some money for the trade agreement when you have nothing or little to trade, they see the situation as making you a favour.
Get some luxuries on your side and suddenly many will be ready to trade for free.

This is what I had figured too, except it didn't prove to be true in any of my cases.  all but 2 cultures have a lot less resources than me.  I have 3 Str and 5 Lux, and these guys with 0 Str and 3 or less Lux are still demanding gold.  One even had just a single Lux no str and still demanded.    It's fine I guess, I understand it's mostly necessary now, even though at first I was annoyed because gold was an issue for me.   Hopefully in the next era I can get my gold production a lot higher. 

Another aspect that may or may not affect trade agreements is the fact that trade increases foreign influence in the territories of the trade route. So depending on the difference between the empires, accepting a trade treaty can start a timer to start suffering osmosis and claims over territories. In several games, I saw at least one AI choose an isolationist policy to manage to remain a competing power, as those who interacted ended up becoming dependent on maintaining relations, otherwise I could launch several claims for territories under my influence. Remembering that having territories under foreign influence generates constant loss of war support, which makes it even more difficult to take an offensive stance.

good to know.

thank for the replies