Hi! You may recognize me as a developer of few mods and overhauls, who has started on playing some games recently. One of the things I think should be improved are Pledges of Protection.
In my opinion Pledges of Protection have little to no impact on the gameplay. How it looks like now? Player who wants to secure a bit his Friendship or Alliance with a
City-State, can Pledge a Protection over this City-State. This action will lower the 
Influence decay, thus makes the Frienship or Alliance last longer. But as I could see in my games, this is the only thing that mattered and you can simply spam PoP over the whole map, even if City-State is out of the range of the player. I have few ideas how to make PoP meaty and more intersting from the diplo perspective:
When one of the situations are met in game two things happen:
1. If action is performed by human player, then he gets a notification that his action may end up with a war. All Protectors are listed, so he could know the risk. He may accept the (potential) consequences or withdraw, changing his mind. If he accepted, then:
City-State or not:
Such a behaviour can lead to few new gameplay and diplo situations:
- players must pledge protections more carefully and only to City-States they can really protect and that matter to them the most;
- players must assess how many civilizations currently protect a City-State, so the more of them, then the less is the risk of attacking it by another player (because that could end up in a joint defensive war);
- players cannot spam PoPs, because they may end up in the situation when they have to refuse to protect a City-State, because of Wars they are currently at, and not to fight on all fronts;
- players can break their pacts by attacking the protected City-State (not without the consequences, but it is the new way of bertraying the players);
- players might think of attacking a City-State when it is not protected, or it is protected by a player involved in many Wars;
A. Notification for the attacker could look like this:
You are about to attack the XXX City-state, which is protected by: YYY, ZZZ and AAA. These civilizations may declare War on you if you continue. Are you sure you want to proceed?
I changed my mind, withdraw......I understand, proceed
B. And for the defender it would be similar:
XXX City-State was attacked by BBB. This City-State is /also protected by ZZZ and AAA/not protected by anyone else. It is matter of honor to defend its independency. What is your decision?
Protect!......They should stand for themselves...
Amendment 1:
Complex Proposal: DLL + UI + Database Changes
In my opinion Pledges of Protection have little to no impact on the gameplay. How it looks like now? Player who wants to secure a bit his Friendship or Alliance with a
City-State, can Pledge a Protection over this City-State. This action will lower the Influence decay, thus makes the Frienship or Alliance last longer. But as I could see in my games, this is the only thing that mattered and you can simply spam PoP over the whole map, even if City-State is out of the range of the player. I have few ideas how to make PoP meaty and more intersting from the diplo perspective:- protection can be pledged only in the specific range from the city/empire (I would set it to 20 tiles from the closest city, so if a City-State is farther than 20 tiles, you just cannot pledge);
- this change will be overriden in case (6-03a) proposal by @azum4roll passess (it changes the prerequisites for PoP, which is not the main focus of this proposal);
- Pledge of Protection guarantee a reaction from the protector when certain actions are performed towards protected City-State. These actions are:
- (A) someone Demands Tribute from that City-State (any);
- (B-1) someone declares War to that City-State;
- (B-2) Merchant of Venice is trying to do a buyout action;
- (A) someone Demands Tribute from that
When one of the situations are met in game two things happen:
1. If action is performed by human player, then he gets a notification that his action may end up with a war. All Protectors are listed, so he could know the risk. He may accept the (potential) consequences or withdraw, changing his mind. If he accepted, then:
- if the attacker has a Defensive Pact with someone, this Defensive Pact is not in charge here (player defending the City-State is not treated as the attacker, so Defensive War has no place here);
- if the defender has a Defensive Pact with someone, this Defensive Pact is not in charge here;
City-State or not:- (this action is only available for the "A" situation and only if defender has not denounced the attacker before) defender may decide to denounce attacker;
- defender may decide to fullfil his promise and defend the city state declaring war on the attacker:
- he's drawn into war with the attacker;
- if this would mean breaking the Declaration of Friendship or Defensive Pact with the attacker, defender breaks it without any consequences;
- player gets additional +30 Influence and +10 Resting Influence with this City-State and +10 Influence with the other protected City-States;
- other civilizations's (also protecting that City-State) opinions about the defender are increased (+30 for 30 turns; internal value of 150); they are pleased wirh your recent actions
- defender's opinion about the attacker drops drastically (-20; -40 if with DoF; -60 if with DP; all for 30 turns, stacking);
- Vassals and Allied City-States of both sides are drawn into War;
- defender may change his mind and refuse to defend the City-State:
- defender's Influence with mentioned City-State is nullified to the resting point;
- Pledge of Protection is cancelled;
- defender gets penalty (-10 Influence) and increased decay (additional -1 Influence/Turn/10 Turns) with all currently protected City-States (so total of -20 Influence);
- other civilizations's (also protecting that City-State) opinions about the defender are decreased (-30 for 30 turns; internal value of -150, they are disappointed with your recent actions), but only if they decided to defend the City-State (otherwise, nothing happens);
- Vassals and Allied City-States of the attacker are drawn into War;
- defender's
Such a behaviour can lead to few new gameplay and diplo situations:
- players must pledge protections more carefully and only to
City-States they can really protect and that matter to them the most;- players must assess how many civilizations currently protect a
City-State, so the more of them, then the less is the risk of attacking it by another player (because that could end up in a joint defensive war);- players cannot spam PoPs, because they may end up in the situation when they have to refuse to protect a
City-State, because of Wars they are currently at, and not to fight on all fronts;- players can break their pacts by attacking the protected
City-State (not without the consequences, but it is the new way of bertraying the players);- players might think of attacking a
City-State when it is not protected, or it is protected by a player involved in many Wars;A. Notification for the attacker could look like this:
You are about to attack the XXX City-state, which is protected by: YYY, ZZZ and AAA. These civilizations may declare War on you if you continue. Are you sure you want to proceed?
I changed my mind, withdraw......I understand, proceed
B. And for the defender it would be similar:
XXX City-State was attacked by BBB. This City-State is /also protected by ZZZ and AAA/not protected by anyone else. It is matter of honor to defend its independency. What is your decision?
Protect!......They should stand for themselves...
Amendment 1:
- PoP allows City-State units to benefit from protector's Great General's or Great Admiral's buffs;
- added detailed behaviour after Demanding Tribute action;
- added case for 6-03a proposal;
Complex Proposal: DLL + UI + Database Changes
Last edited:
