Diplomacy and Declaring War

from Elemental Forums


Good Morning

At the moment in LH, it is entirely abusive to market yourself out to other factions and see who is willing to pay the most for you to declare a war against another faction. As I said...abusive.

I don't mind it at all that another faction approaches me with an offer to declare war on a third party...and is willing to share an incentive to do so. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Just that in the diplomacy screens, you should NEVER be able to net profit from wanting to declare war on another faction.

6,983 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I think there needs to be more incentive for all of the diplomatic options.  War included.  I am not sure how exactly to accomplish it, though.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

To me diplomacy and trading seems like a total scam towards AI O:)

Somehow AI doesn't seem to be very good at mining resources, or maybe AI just looses units much more often than I and consequently is often short of resources.

If AI has a lot of crystal/iron you will get no value for it in the trading window, but if AI is short you can easily trade your crystal/iron for  all the tech/gold computer has to offer.

I do have solutions for this problem and the one above where you can scam AI for the war you would have declared anyway:

1) AI should trade each other more aggressively (I am not sure if they do at all now) so there are less benefits for the human player to reap

2) If AI isn't on the good terms with you, it should perceive your offer at a lesser value just because you aren't likable

3) AI should attempt to "scam" the player out of gold by offering to declare war on someone just like a human player can, and then if human refuses to pay actually declare war on the human once in a while.

 

In general, diplomacy and your behavior should have more long lasting consequences as in Civ series.  I know it must be tough to be constantly compared against the Civ and I feel bad for devs who came up with a pretty good game, but if you are going into the 4X field you gotta match the standards set before (and hopefully exceed them).  This is what makes a difference whether I will play the game for 30 or 300 hours.

 

Anyway.  One particular suggestion regarding diplomacy is that AI's priorities should be set not on just winning, but also on preventing you from winning if you are close.  As in the underdogs should gang up on the top dog.  I remember in Civ on harder difficulties god forbid you somehow manage to get ahead too early, everyone and their neighbor will be knocking on your door.  Here the stronger you get the more cowardly the AI becomes.

 

 

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top
Quoting darkiemond, reply 2

Here the stronger you get the more cowardly the AI becomes. 
 

End of darkiemond's quote

Indeed. It does feel quite backwards. You get ahead and you are able to steamroll as a result.

At the very least, the remaining factions of the opposing alignment (kingdom/empire) should consider working together to bring you down.

 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting GFireflyE, reply 3
Indeed. It does feel quite backwards. You get ahead and you are able to steamroll as a result.

At the very least, the remaining factions of the opposing alignment (kingdom/empire) should consider working together to bring you down.
End of GFireflyE's quote

Excellent suggestion, they should have a strong bias towards dropping any internal wars (unless one AI has almost finished off another in which case it might decide to finish the job) and ganging up the player.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting GFireflyE, reply 3


Quoting darkiemond, reply 2

Here the stronger you get the more cowardly the AI becomes. 
 



Indeed. It does feel quite backwards. You get ahead and you are able to steamroll as a result.

At the very least, the remaining factions of the opposing alignment (kingdom/empire) should consider working together to bring you down.

 
End of GFireflyE's quote

Backwards? It seems like common sense to me. You don't start a war unless you feel you can win it.

Anyway, you already get a penalty of -2 if you are winning a war. Opponents of the same faction as the one you are defeating get an additional -3 dislike of you. You might get two +1's if you are strongest, but that's it, as far as I know.