Mad Scientists Diplomacy

I think the issue is that SANCTA (and Cav too actually) have an overly large proportion of the experienced demogame players in their ranks. On the other hand, the other teams have relatively few - thus it's probably easy for some of them to fall apart a bit. You really need a certain critical mass of experienced and active demogame players to make the less experienced players feel comfortable about posting their points of view. When you're new to a demogame, it's easier to get involved when you're one voice amongst many, rather than when you're one of the few people posting each turn. It's a confidence thing, I think. :)
 
From MS... AT LAST!!! :lol:

Dear Team Saturn,

Please accept our apology for our slow reply. In typical scientist fashion, we each concentrated on our
various projects (in-game and RL) and failed to notice that the others had not replied. Our absent mindedness
has even extended to a lack of a clear decision regarding the points raised in your previous letter. It is
clear however that we generally desire friendship with all peoples to the greatest extent possible.

Let me share my personal thoughts on future relations between our nations. I do not expect discord among
my scientific brethren but must be honest in saying that these are merely possibilities that must be approved
by the applicable committees.

Yes, we are painfully aware that the learned ones of this world rate us very poorly in contrast to some of
the other nations of the world. It would be beneficial to both our nations to find a way to cooperate that does
not arouse the suspicions or provoke our (temporarily) stronger neighbors. Coordinating the development
and trade of new technologies would be one such way. To that end, one of us must first acquire the Alphabet
so that technologies may be traded. Do your research plans involve learning this skill? If so, would you be
willing to reveal how long it may take and what other technologies you have and the ones you may be interested
in acquiring via trade?

Since we have a coastal trade route, we could also consider trade of surplus resources, especially luxuries.
It is even possible that, if your people lack a religion and desire one, we may be able to send missionaries,
though we will understand if that is not interesting to you.

I hope that Saturn and the Mad Scientists can put this unfortunate lapse in communication behind us and
move forward together.

Best regards,
DaveShack of the Mad Scientists
 
Right, so it seems they realise that one of us needs Alphabet. I wonder if we'd be able to obtain that from Kaz (or SANCTA/Cav if we meet them)? Might be unlikely, but we could give it a shot. Maybe we could also suggest that MS research Alphabet instead of us? It depends how fast their research rate is, of course.

All the rest of it seems to be fairly vague. Resource trades could be interesting, but I don't think any are available at the moment. I doubt a missionary will be able to be sent to us anytime soon, and in any event we'd probably get an automatic spread before that point in time.

Here's an outline of a possible response - let me know what you think.

Greetings Mad Scientists,

It is good to hear from you after so much time! :)

Yes, indeed we are very far behind the other nations of the world. Just recently we met Kazakhstan (as you also did), and noticed that there is not a single tech we have that they do not, yet they have seven technologies that we do not have. Clearly, they have been trading liberally with SANCTA and/or Cavaleiros, and unfortunately it looks like it will be difficult or impossible for us to catch up at any stage soon. However, it certainly brings to attention the dire state of our tech situation, and the fact that to have any chance of surviving this game, Saturn and the Mad Scientists must work together. Perhaps we should also consider consulting each other before agreeing to any trades with Kazakhstan or the other advanced nations, so as to not push them even further ahead of us by accidentally doubling up in our trades with them?

We have most techs up to and including Code of Laws, Writing, and Bronze Working, and we will soon have Monarchy. Can you let us know what techs you presently have? Presently we do not have plans to research Alphabet in the near future, as other technologies are more urgent on our priority list. However, if there are technologies of value that we could offer one another, then certainly one of our two nations should obtain Alphabet as soon as possible. It would take us around 10 turns to research Alphabet, including the time to finish Monarchy. How long would it take you to research Alphabet?

With regards to resource trading, we would be more than happy to negotiate with you there. In particular, happiness resources would be very useful to our civilization if you happen to have any sources you can spare us. We would also be happy to accept any missionaries that you may choose to send our way in the near future.

We look forward to your timely response. Hopefully, working together, our nations will be able to stand a chance against the dangerously advanced opposition.

Kind regards,
Lord Parkin of Saturn
I've included everything in this message for the draft version, though I'm not sure how much we want to reveal to MS about our tech situation. I'm thinking we should just be completely open and see what happens, though - they'll know most of what we tell them once they get Alphabet anyway. And if they betray us with the information we give them, then hey, they're just screwing their own chances in this game too. ;)
 
Again excellent job Lord Parkin.

I don't see a reason to keep our tech situation hidden. There isn't much to betray, if they just know what Kazs already know.

Not here, but maybe on next message assuming this gets positive response we could tell what techs we would like to prioritize.
 
Okay, thanks for your input. I'll send this to MS in about 16 hours if no-one finds any problems with what I've written. :)
 
what about our offer from kaz? i think we should tell them, as we said:

Perhaps we should also consider consulting each other before agreeing to any trades with Kazakhstan or the other advanced nations, so as to not push them even further ahead of us by accidentally doubling up in our trades with them?

edit: and to tell them how bad our (and possibly their) situation really is
 
Yeah, we should probably do that. Although they haven't replied to us about the "letting each other know about things" stuff yet, so we don't know for sure that they're willing to do this. Maybe we should take the first step and open up though, since it might be a good look for future relations.
 
Diplomacy seems to be very time consuming. No wonder other teams are pausing the game.

Mads should decide if they want to trade with us and what they want to trade. It is probable that their next answer isn't totally acceptable to us so we need yet another email and then we need their answer again. It seems highly likely we're next ones pausing the game to wait answer from Mads before we can decide what we want to research after Monarchy.
 
Well, it's time consuming with MS at least. :lol:

Three days now... how many more to go? :undecide:

Should we send another message telling them about our proposed deals with Kaz and whether they'll be able to research and trade Alphabet for HBR or Maths? Problem is that we don't even know if they're interested/willing to tech trade though, let alone research Alphabet for us, because they haven't replied to our previous mail yet. :rolleyes: So we can't really send off a new message until they reply to the last one, because we don't know what their status is (and we don't want to swamp them with details since that'll delay their response to our first message even further).

Argh, frustrating... if only they communicated more frequently, this would be a whole lot easier. If we had any other reasonable choice of tech ally in this game, I'd dump MS right away in preference of a team that was prompt in responding to diplomacy. Unfortunately, we don't have much choice here. ;)
 
Oh, bugger... just realised I forgot to send the message. Hence no "sent" post in this thread. :cringe:

Sent now. Hope I don't do this again. (Guys, please catch me up if you don't see a "sent" post!)

Penned a note at the end:

P.S. Please accept my sincere apologies for the lateness of this message. Our team had it ready 3 days ago, then somehow I thought I'd already sent it! :(
 
Ouch :D never mind atleast we know why others might be so slow too :)
 
I know we haven't got a reply yet (surprise, surprise) but should we let them know of our current research plans, archery and metal casting, and tell them that we are eager to trade, suggesting they might obtain alphabet to do so.
 
Yes, good idea. Proposed message:

Greetings Mad Scientists,

We have not recieved your response to our previous message yet, but given the urgency of the present situation for both of our teams, we thought we would take the initiative in informing you of our proposed tech plan. We are of course working under the assumption that you are actually agreeable to a tech alliance with us, but I hope you will see that if our two teams do not unite now, there is no chance for either of us to survive in this game.

Our plan is to research Archery and Metal Casting, which we will trade with Kazakhstan for Sailing, Mathematics and Iron Working (assuming they are agreeable to this). We would like to suggest that in turn you research Alphabet, and then our teams trade technologies and coordinate a tech research plan for the future. Only in this way will we have a fighting chance of catching up to the three ridiculously advanced tech leaders in this game.

Please let us know what you think, as promptly as possible. :)

Kind regards,
Lord Parkin of Saturn
Suggestions, thoughts, etc are welcome. :)
 
like the bold part ;)
 
Sent message as above to Mad Scientists.
 
It seems like a protracted serioes of negotiations at the moment.

Also just posting to be updated on diplomacy.
 
You can actually subscribe to threads without posting by going to the "Thread Tools" menu near the top right of each page (just under the page number). Took me a while to figure that out. :)
 
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