Suggestion for making diplomacy more 'favorable'

(at least for me!)

from Elemental Forums

As I'm thinking about my mod there is a mechanic I was hoping for that I think the entire game would benefit from.

That is doing things for "favor" or indebting one nation to another (Yes, real life examples abound). Throughout history it has been a common story that 4x games have yet to capture. Nations become indebted to another for a gift of money, support in war, a gift of technical prowess or whatever.

So the mechanic is meant to represent this. As a ruler I might give you something not to improve our relations or in tribute not to be hostile to my civilization but rather because I want you to be indebted to me and mine later.

It could work very similar to how the diplomacy mechanic works right now. What I'm proposing is another diplomatic stat line between each of the countries. If you do something diplomatically as a "favor" you get points in this stat line as a "diplomacy" bonus when you need to ask for something in return another time. Then the favor points go away when they're used to get the debtor to do what you ask. To avoid abuse, going hostile to someone whom you owe favor would cause a diplomatic penalty with all nations equal to the amount of favor you owe them.

(This would have been really nice in Galciv when I was giving stuff to allies all the time to beaf them up and then having them reject my requests later for things I wanted them to do.)

elemental
5,117 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree with you - if this could be implemented right, that would be awesome! I think a problem is that in a "game" the temptation is high to stiff the beneficiary...if there was some kind of mechanic that tracked your "indebtedness" and then if you did stiff the AI (or if it stiffed you) that it would have serious diplomatic effects with ALL other factions - something like "I saw how you treated player X after they supported you in the last war, and we prefer not to deal with you at this time." Very good idea.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery) had a system a bit like the one that you are suggesting. There was an "honor" resource, that you got for completing quests for other players, and could spend to get unique items or unlock trade commodities.

The part that I think you'd be interested in is that on the diplomacy screen you could send players money in order to buy honor, use some honor to get money, or spend honor to summon a fleet from an ally.

In Elemental, maybe this could be linked to your prestige? Prestige could go up for doing quests, being charitable, or just being really big, and go down if you're begging for resources or favors from other players.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I have to concur about having a IOY system for the diplomacy. An allied AI should be really angry if you don't help it when it is attacked after it gave you a bunch of free troops, but should only be mildly annoyed if you have been helping in its last 10 big wars and you simply cannot do it this time.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes good idea, we need some fresh options on diplomacy

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

in King of Dragon Pass, you could either owe a favor or be owed a favor from another clan and those who are owed favors could call them in at any time.