[Fal]

As for thematic problem, the aim of a warfare is usually achieved through combined political and military means, a cunning diplomat can be more deadly than ten thousand swords. The Romance of Three Kingdoms (classic Chinese literature), Hannibal's conquest of Rome, Medieval European Warfare, or even Lord of Rings are all excellent examples why diplomacy is crucial to warfare - even when the scenario is 'there can only be one' (Romance of three kingdoms for exaple). The fact is, in war, short-term alliances are often forged to achieve a common goal before two nations turn against each other, that's what is making war such a thrilling topic. I fear as a war game, Dom is only a battle simulator if diplomacy has been left out.

I would like to point out that I appreciate the coding difficulty, however this is not a valid excuse not to add new features to the game. True the AI diplomacy will be easily abusable, however this can be easily tackled by adding a 'Disable Diplomacy/Trading' option in the option menu. The MP game provides a diplomacy that is quite flexible, but nonetheless there are thing players can't do/ too freely to do and is therefore improvable. Hence, an extremely simple diplomatic system should work wonders in a complex game like Dom.

D3 is an excellent game, it is massively improved compared to D2, but it often stike me as a giant patch for the previouse game. It's a shame a good game like this is often regarded 'indie' title. Many players would love to see a new game with new features, I believe diplomacy will not a 'misfeature' of this game, on the contrary, I believe adding such basic features would win a broader audience for the game.