[Darkstone]

Thank you all for your responses. I'm glad that NAP's are taken pretty seriously. That is quite reassuring.

I am in my first two MP games, and I'm certainly using NAP's and utilize heavy diplomacy. I also enjoy diplomacy as much (if not more than) as any other aspect of the game.

As I understood it, NAP's reduce the chaos of the game, reduce border you have to defend, allowing you to increase force concentrations on your opponent. Furthermore, since the total is greater than the sum of the parts, there is also a force multiplier effect. (1 army with 100 troops and 9 mages is more than 3 times stronger than 3 armies with 33 troops and 3 mages). (Or at least allow you to divide your force into as large chunks as you feel is necessary). If you are proactive in diplomacy, they also let you pick an opponent you would likely do better against (one who has few counters against whatever strategy you employ at that point in the game).

I also agree about the part where listening to people's responses, or lack thereof, is extremely helpful in determining their attitude, philosophy, goals in the near future, etc.

I was just concerned that a betray heavy environment tends to negate the effect and purpose of NAP's, and also favors the betraying players.