Diplomacy Screen

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Reverend Zombie:

quote:

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Originally posted by littlemute:
It's like when I go and talk to a smoking bird at a rave and say "What's your name?" what it really means is "let's get it on."

I have never found smokers attractive.

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Smoking as in so hot she's smouldering I believe.

[Taqwus]

Ah, the allure of Abysian ladies. *g*

On a more serious note, regarding SP diplomacy the AI has enough of a problem handling double-edged gifts (Lycantropos amulets, Rods of the Leper King, Bane Venom Charms, Eyes of Aiming, that sort of thing) and not reacting when getting anonymously mauled via magic, or reacting to the presence of assassins/spies that adding more options might be just cruel.

[littlemute]

Originally posted by Reverend Zombie:

quote:

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Originally posted by littlemute:
It's like when I go and talk to a smoking bird at a rave and say "What's your name?" what it really means is "let's get it on."

I have never found smokers attractive.

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I agree, it's a terrible thing to see a saucy bint pull out a faggot from her purse and puff away in filth. I do like the hotties in the old tyme movies that smoke a lot. Bergman, Kelly, that lot, but it doesn't translate well in real life, sort of like the walking and smoking thing. Sure James Dean did it, but it's still effeminant for a man in real life.

[Cainehill]

One thing that would really help to keep track of the diplomacy in MP games would be if the Messages sent / received were exported and saved to a text file.

That way, you could at least look at the text file and see who you'd made agreements with, see whether you've been backstabbed, and know if you were supposed to stay out of certain provinces, etc.

In particular, with a lot of MP games going on at once, it can be -very- difficult to keep track of these diplomatic issues, even with copious notebooks / text files.

Saving the Messages /events automatically would be trivial to implement, if not fun, and would save a -lot- of players a lot of time and effort.

[Gandalf Parker]

OK Im going to bring this thread back from the dead so we can discuss this subject again instead of hijacking the praise-this-game thread.

Hmmm I should add the "search for sites in allies territory" to the list.

[Gandalf Parker]

OK part of this thread seems borked by the import to the new forum software so I will repost the part that made me bring it forward.....

There are work-arounds in multiplayer games for
1) alliances and peace treaties
2) sharing map info
3) trading to get spells cast (you cant trade spells)
4) trading commanders and troops
5) combining attacks
6) move thru an allys territory
7) offer a losing ally "sanctuary"
8) (probably more, feel free to ask)

For SoloPlay with the AI's, diplomacy is much more limited.
A) You can send gold, slaves, equip which can be helpful and strategic. It doesnt make them like you but it can help nation A beat nation B. Handy if nation B is one that you have problems with, and nation A will be no problem for you later.
B) You can ally with AI's but only by setting it up at the beginning of the game, and it only sets up a "no attack each other" arrangment.
C) Of course, like most diplomacy arrangments you can abuse the diplomact options that already are in the game (messaging stuff to them) by sending things to an AI that the stupid AI would be better off refusing.
D) With alittle bit of strategic planning you can arrange for 2 AI neighbors to go to war with each other (another common diplomatic tactic).

The developers have said they were interested in increasing the SP Diplo options but other things have to be higher on the wishlist

[Ironhawk]

I'm all about adding diplomacy. Since we are all doing it anyway (unless its explicitly forbidden by house rules of that game), it would be nice to have in-game support for it.

But to include many of the above proposals would require a substantial amount of work on the part of the devs. Combined attacks in particular could be a pain. Sharing map info and moving through "friendly" provinces could also be a pain, depending on how they are implemented.

Personally, I'd be happy with just a proper list of diplomatic Messages that you've sent that turn (possibly with an exported history, as Cainehill suggested). And a list of who you are at war with/way to formally declare war/peace would be really helpful. Neither of those should pose too big a problem, technically.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ironhawk said:
But to include many of the above proposals would require a substantial amount of work on the part of the devs. Combined attacks in particular could be a pain. Sharing map info and moving through "friendly" provinces could also be a pain, depending on how they are implemented.

Sharing map info is easier done by screen capture and email than it is by adding it to the game.

Multiple attacks arent all that far off except that you have to attack taking turns. Thats not so unusual since I have trouble picturing many of these nations being willing to share a battle field or spoils of combat.

There are already a number of ways to move thru an allies territory. The easiest are some of the prime abilitys of certain nations (sneaking armies of Man, Ulm black-forest, Vanheim, Pangaea) which provides them with bonuses in an alliance.

There are other methods such as mass-transport spells. In some games we maintained a corridor which we did not pay for defense on since both of us would "take" the provinces back and forth as we moved thru them.

But for alot of traffic and high defense consider using a castle at a major crossroad. My army enters the province "taking" it but simply pushing your army inside the castle. I move on and you take retake the province. Its like a nice drawbridge effect.

[Cheezeninja]

how exactly does one go about trading troops? Are you talking about setting up staged battles and use of charm/hellblind heart/enslave ? Because all those require significant preparation for a good chance of success.

I find the inability to trade troops thematic. You cant simply tell a believer to suddenly believe in another god. Thats not the way belief works.

[Cainehill]

That'd be handy especially for remote, spell-based searching - the classic Arco-Ulm alliance, with Arco casting Akashics for Ulm. And less tricky than recoding the game to allow actually "friendly" movement by allies.