What did I missed from Dom I.? -> DIPLOMACY!

[Mortifer]

Well guess what! I seen the best AI in old KOEI games like the Romance of the 3 kingdoms VI. It had some awesome diplo AI. There was a table what showed you, that the AI players like you or not. [there were more attributes, so for example if you sent lot of gold they liked you more, but if you attacked a country, and the AI liked that country, your reputation was decreased as well...sorta like in civ3...but it worked better in that game...and tons of more stuff in that game..like a joint attack with the AI on a province etc! It was fantastic.

[Zerger]

Dominions 2. + diplomacy = That's what we need!

[Aristoteles]

Interesting idea. Diplomacy can be very good and fun, IF the diplomacy AI is good enough. If it's crap, it can be exploited.

[Bard of Prey]

I'm going to have to chime in on the 'forget diplomcy' side... partly because I've seen more strategy games ruined by poor diplomacy than I've seen improved by it, but also because I don't think it suits this game very well.

One huge problem with allowing you to move through your allies' territory in Dominions is this... what's to stop you from moving your Prophet and your Pretender all over your so-called ally's territory in order to subvert their dominion (or just sitting on their capitol for that matter)?

You could conceivably destroy a nation you supposedly had an alliance with this way... and while a human player would recognize what you were doing and break the alliance, how would a computer player tell the difference between this exploit and 'accidental' interference you might cause from just being nearby?

[licker]

That's a good point BoP, an excellent reason for why only one nation should be allowed per province (seiges and sneakers non withstanding).

However, it would be nice to have some basic options or information on relations. It would be nice to be able to declare (from your side) intentions vs. another empire. Non aggression, hostilities, holy war. This setting could influance your population along the boarder with the nation to increase production (while decreasing income) or other effects. It would also be nice to be able to offer bribes or swap territories (only where you have more dominion I'd imagine), things of that nature.

I agree though, that unless the devs have the time and resuorces to approach diplomacy correctly it's best to be left alone or for the MP games

[Vodalian]

I think there should be an option to pre-assign your forces to not attack enemy forces, and if both sides had this activated, no combat would ensue. However, if only one side had this activated, there would be a battle as usual.
I think diplomacy on larger scale should not be implemented. It is actually very intriguing to not know what your neighbouring nations think of you, allowing you the freedom to discover their schemes through espionage and your clever thinking alone.

[Aristoteles]

A good diplomacy system would raise the quality of the gameplay.