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

Nerfix · #1 September 28th, 2003, 03:07 PM

Rigth then, what does it add to gameplay?

[ September 28, 2003, 14:07: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

PDF · #2 September 28th, 2003, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nerfix:
Rigth then, what does it add to gameplay?

The subject is twofold, IMO it's different in SP and MP :
SP : add variety to the game, as the player woul dhave to manage his relations with the others, say keeping peace with a nation while warring another etc ... But the AI diplomacy has to be good else the player will be able to easily abuse it.
In MP it's simpler : it'll allow players to give passage or join forces in war, without changing much the diplomatic aspects that are anyway handled by Messages and agreements.

I'd be glad to see some simple "diplomatic features" be available in MP, but suppose it'll be too difficult to implement properly in SP until Dominions 3 : Alliance of the Gods

!

st.patrik · #3 September 28th, 2003, 04:09 PM

At first when this subject was raised I was thinking that diplomacy just wasn't what Dominions was about, and to add it would mess with something that works just fine�

�but I think I'm beginning to agree that it would be cool if there was diplomacy for single player games at least. Here's why - how many times have you been about to attack one of your neighbours when another suddenly decides to attack your flank with 200 summer lions (for example)? Pretty soon you're fighting a 2 front war against 2 powerful opponents. Now if that were to happen in the real world the first thing I'd be doing would be to try to negotiate some kind of truce with one of my neighbours so that I could fight my battles one at a time. I would gladly pay up magical items (nothing too powerful) and gems for a reprieve. Dominions already has the capability to trade items, gems and money between players.

I guess at the most basic level you could have an indicator of how nations are feeling toward you (through spies, scouts) which could be manipulated up by gifts etc. and down by you attacking them/getting too close. Plus which different AIs could be more or less aggressive. Even as thin a diplomacy as this I think would be a nice feature for single player - and to be honest I think I wouldn't even want much more of a full-blown diplomacy.

What do the developers think? Does this sound reasonable? Desirable? Possible?

Nerfix · #4 September 28th, 2003, 04:14 PM

I already can see how one negotiates with all the AI's and kills them with Dominion...

Mortifer · #5 September 28th, 2003, 04:20 PM

Nerfix, you can NOT abuse a well scripted diplo AI. Do not think about civ3. As I said the diplo system is good there, but the diplo AI is far from good, that is why you can abuse it!
A good diplo AI will 'think' just like the battle AI. AI and AI will sign treaties as well, do not forget about that. I remember when I played with RotK, sometimes I had a huge 4 allied AI team on me, and on my allies. There were lot of options to please the AI, like giving gold, marriage, etc. but lot stuff decreased the value of your relations, example: You attacked an AI A, and AI A was peaceful with the AI B. Than AI B begin to hate you, and you cannot make him friendly just by gold and items, you were forced to stop the war etc.
As I said, it CAN be awesome, and raise the value of the gameplay greatly, if its scripted properly! We all know that the Illwinter team can script very well, so...

[ September 28, 2003, 15:22: Message edited by: Mortifer ]

MStavros · #6 September 28th, 2003, 04:43 PM

I would like to see a nice diplomacy system + AI. If it is possible....if no...oh well.

[ September 28, 2003, 15:43: Message edited by: MStavros ]

apoger · #7 October 15th, 2003, 04:59 AM

I hate chiming in late, but this is a major issue for me as well. I really hope that Illwinter will put some diplomatic functionality into the game eventually.

It is my understanding that in Dom II that gateway and other movement spells now only work between labs. This means that in multi-play you will have to attack the person next to you even if that is a bad idea. In Dom I if there was a clear leader, the smaller nations could negotiate some level of cooperation to further their interests. In Dom II if there is no way to cross anoter nations area, and the movement spells are gone, it will reduce diplomatic options even lower than Dom I.

Even if "there can be only one" it still stands to reason that nations will cooperate when it's in their best interests. By affording no diplomatic options IW is limiting player interaction, and player interaction is half the fun of multi-player.

I like seeing more options, not less. A good diplomatic system would do nothing but enhance the game. Players could always turn it off if they didn't like it.