Yeah I noticed this when I was playing the demo and discovered the rat guy about 20 turns in, I had purposely put him off so I wouldn't have to deal with him, so for fun I decided to give peace a try and went to the diplomacy options, 600 gold, and 200 magic pretty much everything I own for non-aggression pact, and while scouting a tad bit more I discovered he had only two cities, to my 6, so??? shouldn't he be paying me? Oh and I tried demanding something from him he had 35 gold total, and 13 magic, so yeah quite the powerhouse. I'm not saying make the ai accept stupid offers, but come on I would say that 90 gold would have been fairer, because I steamrolled them at turn 33, after they declared war on me at turn 22 possibly another little issue.