Yeh peace are usually how I roll, but I still think the system would work better if the both us and the ai could walk accross each others land and then we had an option to tell an ai if we wanted them out of our borders or else.... The ai do this by letting us walk accross their lands freely except under the following conditions
1) If the players diplomatic level with the ai faction is below neutral they will tell you to get out of their lands.
2) If you send an army of above a certain power level accross their lands again they will tell you to back off or it will be war. The size of the army your allowed could be linked again to your diplomatic standing with that faction. If you have a peace treaty or alliance then you can have as large an army as you want. Might also be usefull if heros and sovs were exempt from this army calculation (would make questing easier).
What do you guys think? If the borders worked this way it make diplomacy more interesting and would stop the influence border acting as impassable borders which block us in.