[0.51] The war that makes no sense

Yup. The relationship status is basically still not doing anything. AI's just randomly declare war all game long, even at green face with all the treaties, often asking for peace a dozen or two turns later after never sending a unit at you, because they are on the other side of the map and have no way of even getting to you.

This one I haven't had happen to me yet actually. At least not in the typical random sense, as in there being no reason behind it other than they just happen to be chaotic neutral.. In my current game, which is set to epic pace, normal production, challenging AI, hard monsters, many random events, etc.. There was this one event called Blood Moon or something? It caused every faction to declare war on every other faction that they had met. Well, that was the first time any had declared war on me and I was basically on the bottom of the power rating chart. I had a crappy starting location, but went with it...

This all happened somewhere between 120-180 turns, but none of the AI actually sent any troops my way, as they had to deal with each other before they could reach me it seemed, as the top three powers kept passing each other every other turn in rating. Now if it matters, I was paying Gilden a "protection fee" I believe they called it.. So maybe that is why no one had declared war on me up to the point of the random event.

I'm on turn 300+ currently, and everyone has ceased hostilities with my faction, and even in some cases are now trying to pay me "tribute" they call it.. But every time I accept their tribute, I get a little message on my next turn informing me that my demand tribute with whichever faction has just offered it has expired. Kinda strange.

Yeah, tributes can be cancelled at any time, which may actually be necessary of the AI isn't producing enough gildar to supply the tribute.  At least you get a fee up front so it's not a complete waste.

Concerning the Blood Moon event, has anyone seen the AI make peace with each other afterwards? I've gotten peace with all AIs within a dozen or so turns of the event, yet a hundred or more turns later, the AI factions are all still at war with each other, and going nowhere fast.

Come to think of it. I don't remember AI making peace with another AI player at all. Even in FA. Can't be sure, maybe it's just rare or don't receive message when they make peace. Or I just don't pay enough attention.  

Warlord Varga in my latest game like to often declare war on me, even if his power rating was 1/3 of mine. On the same turn, I offer peace and make him pay to the last penny for it. He's a stubborn fellow indeed.

Both in FE and LH beta I've never seen AI factions making peace with each other.

Actually, no. I didn't set anything up. They offered it, then cancelled it instantly. I checked their season income, one of them was .7, the other was 2 or 3 per turn. Considering I was paying tribute early on back when I only had 3 gold coming in per season, they should have been able to afford it as well. And this isn't even an issue of wanting/needing their tribute, it is an issue of the AI seeming to have some sort of problem that needs resolution. I think. Maybe one of the folks at Stardock can replicate this issue and have Frogboy judo-chop the problem? Other than that, still no real issues so far.

(Edit)

The blood moon event.. Now that you mention it, I can't actually say. Because I do not know with whom they were familiar with at the time of the event. Like I met a faction after the event, and well because we didn't know each other during it, we were at peace. But I am fairly certain that most of the factions are at war with each other currently. They keep asking me for aid.. Gilden always seems to dominate in my games. Tarth was at the top for a long time, then Gilden overtook them and crushed them down to bottom-level.

I had the same experience with Blood Moon.  AI is not making peace with each other.

I think the AI declaring war on the player has a lot to do with bribery.  If you're playing at the harder levels of difficulty, the AI's economic advantages basically make it a no-brainer to constantly pay each other off to start wars.  I believe that's also why the AIs tend to declare war in series.  One AI declares war on you, the next turn he pays another AI to declare war on you, the next turn the second AI uses the proceeds of the bribe to pay a third AI to declare war on you, and so on until everyone is at war with you.

One thing I have never seen is the AI trying to bribe me into declaring war on someone.

This happens to me everygame   I call it the lunar orbit. Basically in a rotational pattern the AIs in my game meet me, setup treaties, randomly declare war, never actually fight me, sue for peace, accept peace, make treaties with me, then start declaring war on me again one by one, without me doing anything to even remotely instigate this, and it just keeps going round and round like the moon orbiting the earth until the game ends. Oh and throw in an occaisional blood moon to really spice things up. Putting up with this AI behavior all game long everygame leads to a lot of pent up aggression at the AI, I use the bloodmoon to release this aggression with reckless abandon. Smashing AI kingdoms to smoldering ruin, and when they plead for peace I tell them only their complete destruction will satisfy me ....maybe just maybe they shouldn't have declared war on me so many times?

+1 for less Flip-Floppy AI, and AI with more gumption (if your gonna declare war on somebody, you should at least try to fight them)

+1 for AI making peace with other AIs

+1 for AIs making alliances with each other(so we can have some large scale wars say Gilden, Pariden, Capitar vs Umber, Yithril, and Magnar, and so that we can see an AI attempt at a Diplomatic victory)

I was told the nonsensical warmongering AI had been fixed in LH.  sigh!!

Frogboy says that he is going to work on having the AI ready to invade the moment it declares war.  That should help a lot.

I hope for an AI that plans attacks in advance and makes peace when war isn't "beneficial". When it loses 7 armies, it should think about throwing in the towel unless it has a reason to think it can win based on the units it can build, its ability to build them and what it just got beaten by.

AI doesn't have to be intelligent, it only needs to look intelligent to the player.  In FE/LH the AI seems to me to be a brainless thug, it's only purpose being, to grief the player at every opportunity. 

I always though this was the AI all scrambling to dominate the world, a 'its you or me' kinda thing as you would expect on-line.

I like it.

Just so you know, I haven't had to fight a single AI faction yet in my current game.  Been at war, yes, seen their units crawl into my territory looking for a scrap, no.  Pariden and Tarth were stomped by Gilden.  I've just been doing my Monster Hunter routine and slowly claiming rather distant tracts of land than the AI couldn't make any headway in.