Ilios Wrote:Well, we haven't told them anything yet as well! They took one look at our message, and saw that it consisted of nothing new. I can't blame them for answering in the same way.
i don't agree with this. if you go back and read our message to them, it contained several things
1) we established a concrete agreement - we'd exchange info on meeting other civs
2) we gave them a good deal on the info exchange and made it clear this was designed to improve relations
3) we gave them info, telling them we hadn't met anyone
4) we not only told them an NAP was "something we're willing to start working towards" but also told them what we needed to make it happen
5) we repeatedly indicated a strong desire for peaceful relationships, even using the word ally
6) last but not least, remember i had specifically decided not to put any questions/ask any info in our message to see how forthcoming they'd be.
our 2 messages to each other were worlds apart. their tone is non-committal while ours is friendly. we give info, establish concrete agreements, and say what we need for future agreements to happen - their reply is light on information and again totally non-committal. we signed ours off asking if they were doing ok and making friendly overtures, they ended theirs with a (misquoted) conan line.
i'm not going to read too much into it at this stage, early diplo is delicate, but i don't agree their reply is a natural consequence of our message.