In Total War games, the diplomacy system has always been unbalanced. However, it really is a keystone system for the game and if it doesn't work correctly then the rest of the game is unbalanced. There are a couple of fundamental flaws with the vanilla system and I aim to correct these issues. So, that Diplomacy can once again be fun and dynamic and attempt to simulate relationships in a dynamic way again.
The first issue is the point value at which you become very friendly or hostile towards another player. I can live with the friendly and unfriendly attitudes only being at the 25 point mark. The biggest problem with diplomacy is the hostile and the very friendly values are only at 50 points, which is only a 25 point spread.
The another issue is the extremely long term memory and the very high point values of the events or political actions. It would be fine if the faction did not care about what you do to others, but it does. So when you get a Faction that cares about 4 or five factions then you get some extremely high additive effects.
The last and most relevant point. Not all of the levels of friendship and unfriendliness are utilized or implemented in the diplomacy. By making these other levels relevant, I can hopefully create different stages of negotiation.
Because of these issues, you get an extremely unbalanced diplomacy and this is why you get relations ratings in the hundreds. The problem with this is that all relationships need to gravitate towards neutral. In vanilla they never do, they get at such high levels and stay there, that basically locks factions into always being at war or peace for the duration of the game.
In life, actions always speak louder than words
In the diplomacy system, I have four simple goals, that will take a lot of work to achieve.
1) Diplomacy must naturally over time head towards zero. In its current state, it can't.
2) Values of diplomatic actions and prejudices must have values that are reasonable and that fall within the set ranges of diplomacy.
3) The memory of those actions also has to be reasonable, so that #1 can be achieved.
4) Your actions will always count for the most points and linger the longest in a factions "memory"
Incorporating these ideas into the new diplomacy rules I am writing, is the first step. The second step is throwing out what you are used to with diplomacy in TW games.
In order to accomplish this, I have to have a separate diplomacy module so not to disturb players that like the Vanilla system..hey there could be ??? I also need to extend out the Hostile and the Very Friendly points from 50 points to 75. Sounds easy right!? wrong!! because the rules in diplomacy are not written that way. Fortunately, not all diplomacy rules take that into account.
The diplomacy action and treachery tables have to be balanced even more if I am to ever achieve my #1 goal. Fall off times of diplomatic actions have to be much shorter and realistic, and also have smaller values. This is due to the secondary relationships with other factions. Remember the goal is to be able to return to a zero by not allowing the cumulative effect of values to get out of control. I will use the cultural and religious biases as a permanent shift as they are permanent parts of attitudes. These will be used to keep you from achieving good or bad relations with a faction. However, in their current state, their values are too high and prevent dynamic relationships.
You as a player, have to forget all the years of abuse and it may even require some heavy duty counseling and forum support. You will also need to have patience because this will take a lot of time investment on our parts. I need you here to test and report your findings because there is no way I can have time to thoroughly test and mod.
So what will this achieve?
1) It will achieve dynamic relationships with factions that change way more dramatically over time.
2) You will have factions that start wars and then end them for political reasons as well.
3) Your friendships and enemies will change more often.
4) It will create a more meaningful bond with player to AI relationships
5) It may even help the AI play a better game.
What is the best I can achieve?
Hopefully, all of this work will create a dynamic system that both the AI and the player can benefit from. It is a tall order, but I feel it is achievable.
Remember my motto, and it will help you become a better modder, that is why it is in my sig and so I can remember it every time I am here.
So, how do you feel about this?
Hey guys if you have diplomacy questions or feedback feel free to post here.