the (AI) message "Nation X has declared war on your unholy nation"

[PvK]

Well, consider the classic boardgame Diplomacy, which can be likened to Dominions with near-zero complexity. The goal is to conquer a certain portion of the valuable parts of the map, and there can only be one winner. Without cooperation, it can be very difficult to make progress. So, players must cooperate to gain advantage, via trading agreements to act cooperatively, and backstabbing only at the right moment. It's a great game, and a fine demonstration of the place of diplomacy even in a Last-man-standing competition.

Which is not to say that it'd be easy to add AI diplomacy without making it easy to abuse the AI after human players figure out how the diplo AI works - it would be difficult (see Space Empires IV).

PvK

P.S. As for the original question, the AI declarations of war have seemed meaningful to me in my games. AI's seem to usually not attack my own provinces, until I attack them, or they declare war, and once war is declared, they do seem to attack, if they have a land route. I have seen them sometimes make a surprise attack without a declaration or previous hostility. Sometimes they don't seem to have a land route, though, which is peculiar when that happens.

[ January 31, 2004, 01:17: Message edited by: PvK ]