WAY before having three-masted ship, an AI from another continent (and no way to reach me via hopping from one island to another) kept declaring war on me. I eventually built a few cogs and went searching for some silly embarked armies near their coast, just to get a few units killed and finish the war faster. It was very easy since this leader had no navy whatsoever.

SIMPLE SUGGESTION TO SOLVE THIS ABSURD BEHAVIOUR:

The AI shouldn't declare war on anyone they can't reach via shallow water until they reach three-masted ships (with a programmed exception for Norsemen and MAYBE Swahilli).

Also, the AI should be less likely to declare war on you the further they are, at least for the first half of the game.

DrCron wrote:

WAY before having three-masted ship, an AI from another continent (and no way to reach me via hopping from one island to another) kept declaring war on me. I eventually built a few cogs and went searching for some silly embarked armies near their coast, just to get a few units killed and finish the war faster. It was very easy since this leader had no navy whatsoever.

SIMPLE SUGGESTION TO SOLVE THIS ABSURD BEHAVIOUR:

The AI shouldn't declare war on anyone they can't reach via shallow water until they reach three-masted ships (with a programmed exception for Norsemen and MAYBE Swahilli).

Also, the AI should be less likely to declare war on you the further they are, at least for the first half of the game.

Hola!
There could be quite a few factor involved there. Would you mind to share a save file before/after that war declaration so we can take a look at it? 

I don't have them anymore as I played a new game and changed the auto-saves. Here's one save from after the war, so you can see the map. Hanseong and the other territories I have next to the Inca I took with the war end agreement, I only had my continent and the islands north and south of it when the war was declared.

The Inca attacked me during the medieval era, when they were the Mongols and had no cogs whatsoever (I had only met the other continent because I got a free cog from a curiosity). You can see they can't get their units to my continent without three-masted ship, and indeed they didn't even try. Also, why are the Mongols attacking from another continent? C'mon, it's the Mongols! There was literally NOTHING happening during the war, until I got bored and built a small cog army to reach their coast and kill a few embarked Mongolian horse archers (sic) so I could lower their war support enough to end the whole thing.

Anyway, you can see in this save that eventually Semiranis also declared war on me, although she's not moving any troops towards my continent. Of course this means I can no longer play, since I don't have enough luxuries in my land and I can't trade with anyone. Semiranis was trading with me so I have no idea why she declared war to gain literally nothing.

Is the AI now programmed to attacked the human player no matter what? Even if the human player isn't on the lead and they have no realistic way to get any troops next to the human player's territory?

None of this made any sense, and it ruined what could have otherwise been a fun game.

Joseon Turn 139.ctr

Hi DrCron,

From what I can see in your save file, the empires that attacked you were pretty much alone on their continent. Once you've met them, you became the only war target they could consider. In general, the AI handles human players the same way it handles other AIs (except a few things in lower difficulty levels that always benefits the human player). 

You're right, we should check if the AI can actually reach one of an opponent city before considering war against them. It rarely happens so we missed that issue.

Thank you letting us know,

Alex.

ZanAlex wrote:

Hi DrCron,

From what I can see in your save file, the empires that attacked you were pretty much alone on their continent. Once you've met them, you became the only war target they could consider. In general, the AI handles human players the same way it handles other AIs (except a few things in lower difficulty levels that always benefits the human player). 

You're right, we should check if the AI can actually reach one of an opponent city before considering war against them. It rarely happens so we missed that issue.

Thank you letting us know,

Alex.

Hi Alex,

Why are those two AIs not fighting each other? They are way more likely to conquer land by fighting their neighbor. One of them already vassalized one of their neighbors, why not just go for the other one?

Also, the 2nd AI attacked me later so technically they did have three-masted ships at that point. They just didn't bring their troops to my border for a bunch of turns because... well, I don't really know why, but my guess is the AI wasn't "planning" on attacking me at all. Something triggered the war declaration without much real context for it. Even if I'm the only possible target, I think the AI should consider at some point just not declaring war on anyone if it doesn't suit them. Even if it's HK difficulty.

In the save you provided, the only AI with Three-Masted Ship is the Red empire (Poles). I've tested, as soon as the Purple (Mughals) empire unlocks the technology, it starts sending troops to your cities.

I see you refused their demands, that's what pushed them to declare war (and they shouldn't have, since they can't reach your cities just yet). I'm not sure why did Purple (Mughals) not declare war on Redish-Purple (Incas). There's a crisis going on between the two but it has not escalated to war just yet and I can't see their past relation for some reason...

ZanAlex wrote:

In the save you provided, the only AI with Three-Masted Ship is the Red empire (Poles). I've tested, as soon as the Purple (Mughals) empire unlocks the technology, it starts sending troops to your cities.

I see you refused their demands, that's what pushed them to declare war (and they shouldn't have, since they can't reach your cities just yet). I'm not sure why did Purple (Mughals) not declare war on Redish-Purple (Incas). There's a crisis going on between the two but it has not escalated to war just yet and I can't see their past relation for some reason...

Ok, thanks for the explanation.