And what, if anything, can the player do to influence whether an AI lists him as an enemy?
Is enemy status between countries predetermined?
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Do you mean rivalry? If so, no, but there's always a limited number of options and the AI tends to choose rather sensibly (for instance, I don't ever recall not seeing England and France not as rivals from the get-go).
Pretty sure Enemies and Rivals are two different things. I've seen states swap their rivals in and out and I can change mine at will. As far as I know the list of possible rivals has to do with relative power, as in you can't pick a country that is far stronger or weaker than yourself.
But I don't seem to have any direct control over my enemy list and I haven't noticed any AI changing theirs.
I'm new to this game and there's a ton of stuff I haven't figured out yet.
But I don't seem to have any direct control over my enemy list and I haven't noticed any AI changing theirs.
I'm new to this game and there's a ton of stuff I haven't figured out yet.
If I have you correct, you're referring to the "Enemies" list that appears above the "Rivals" list in your diplomacy tab. That is the list of nations that have declared you as a rival.
So, rivals: yes, the list of possible states to select as a rival is determined by your relative strength. This means a small state won't suddenly have one of the big states on its border as an implacable enemy (a rather nice feature). At game start, the AI will semi-randomly pick from its list of valid rivals, and update that as old rivals become unavailable, just like you can.
However, because that "relative strength" is determined by a number of factors, among them the number of military units under your control, it is very possible for you to rival someone who drops just below your threshold of power due to their poor performance in a war (or vice versa). Sometimes that's a temporary dip, and by the time you get around to declaring your new rival they will be back in the list, but other times the growth or decline of one will mean they aren't a valid rival for good. Over time, though, this means the list of rivals is going to change, and as you become more powerful you are eventually going to attract the ire of others.
So, rivals: yes, the list of possible states to select as a rival is determined by your relative strength. This means a small state won't suddenly have one of the big states on its border as an implacable enemy (a rather nice feature). At game start, the AI will semi-randomly pick from its list of valid rivals, and update that as old rivals become unavailable, just like you can.
However, because that "relative strength" is determined by a number of factors, among them the number of military units under your control, it is very possible for you to rival someone who drops just below your threshold of power due to their poor performance in a war (or vice versa). Sometimes that's a temporary dip, and by the time you get around to declaring your new rival they will be back in the list, but other times the growth or decline of one will mean they aren't a valid rival for good. Over time, though, this means the list of rivals is going to change, and as you become more powerful you are eventually going to attract the ire of others.
If you are referring to the historical enemies/historical friends modifiers, those are pre-determined at the game start, I think you can find a list on the wiki. Historical enemies can't go away no matter what you do in-game, historical friends can be lost if you go to war with your supposed historical friend. An example for the former is France and Austria, the modifier will always be there, no matter if one or the other declines and becomes irrelevant (or ends up a subject of the other), while an example for the latter is Austria and Hungary, which can go away if those two states turn against each other and end up in a war.
Ah, that's what I was missing.
So can I assume that an enemy on my list will remain my enemy until I am no longer a valid rival for him, due to relative strength etc? And that none of this is affected by our opinions of each other?
No I pretty much understood that mechanic.
Gotta say, there are a *lot* of systems to get your head around in this game, but it's a ton of fun to figure out
I don't pretend to be a comprehensive expert (I've enough hours in to explain core concepts, but don't have the thousands of hours of experience some here have), but in my time I've never seen the AI switch rivals until they are no longer valid.
They do sometimes. Under the right conditions you can improve relations very high and they’ll remove you as a rival. I assume it happens between AIs too. But it is definitely pretty rare.
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They will also obviously need a valid other rival to select. I'd assume that if you lose land they want but are strong enough to remain rivals they might swap to someone with more land that they desire
I had a Provence game where at the game start Austria was rivaling me (which is weird in itself given the power disparity, but maybe the Lorraine PU props Provence up), and in the first couple of years (by the time I used France to take a couple of English provinces in Normandy), he switched me out naturally for Savoy. Neither of us gained/lost dev, took tech or gotten any more subjects/land to make us no longer eligible for each other, and I didn't improve with him either, he just simply switched me out. At first I taught it was because possible rivals update in December and maybe it was just a game start fluke that I was a possible rival, but he switched to Savoy only towards the end of 1446/early 1447.
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The real bees knees is having England rival you as Savoy, and them supporting genevan independence
To add on to this, an event also exists where you can remove a nation as a rival, and they will get a corresponding event to do the same. It also gives an opinion boost. I'm not sure what (if any) trigger conditions it has, but I've had it happen a few times.