Ambassador Unit

[Afforess]

Im not sure what you mean here. As when i declare war against civ (A), i get a -3 which hangs around after peace is declared and i usually get a -1 from any friends of civ (A).

Now i may have declared peace simply to rearm my army, and once ready again i go to war again. This then jumps up Civ (A) to a -6 against me which hangs around after peace is declared again, after i have achieved my objective, might have been to take a city that i considered to be on land i was going to settle in but they may have beat me to it.

I never actually intended in wiping them from the earth, just wanted land i had planned on getting.

Now i have a -6 from Civ(A) and a -2 from any of Civ(A)'s friends.

I now would like to actually be friends and perhaps later form a nice relationship with them. So if it removed 1 red point every 50 turns,as long as i maintain peace with them i would know that it will take 300 turns to get back to a neutral standing with them, as long as i maintain peace with them. Then once time has healed the wounds of past conflicts i could begin constructing a friendship with Civ(A) through agreements ,trade etc.

There have been times in really big long games that i have Civs with -30 attitude. Having a 1 in 76 chance they will forget 1 negative point is kind of useless, but if i had an idea of how long it would take for them to get over it, i could play my cards right and let time heal these wounds aswell.

If i had an ambassador unit, i could put time and money into holding talks with Civ(A) to try and help with the situation. It would be a slow process but one that would have a beneficial outcome for all the time and money spent. This way the diplomacy could still stay on a percentile chance, but with enough effort, you could use the Ambassador Unit to Help move things along.

I'm afraid your example only further emphasizes my point here. If diplomacy was perdictable, with a set in stone formula for X number of turns, your example would invariably be the outcome. However, that isn't the way diplomacy works in the real world. You can't just wait another few more years and expect Iran to forget our past deeds. It doesn't happen in any predictable fashion, which is why the game designers chose a random number generator. It's the closest thing to reality.

I guess the morale of the story here is that: "Actions have consequences."

Personally, if I were you, I would adopt a more Machiavellian view of wars.

 

[crossclayton]

I'm afraid your example only further emphasizes my point here. If diplomacy was perdictable, with a set in stone formula for X number of turns, your example would invariably be the outcome. However, that isn't the way diplomacy works in the real world. You can't just wait another few more years and expect Iran to forget our past deeds. It doesn't happen in any predictable fashion, which is why the game designers chose a random number generator. It's the closest thing to reality.

Yes, i would have to agree, you have a valid point, although 300 turns would represent a couple of centuries, pretty sure a nation would forget about a past war if peace has been maintained for a few centuries

But it does bring me back to the point of my ambassador unit.

Holding talks shows your trying to heal relations and has a chance of easing negative attitudes with out having to wait for the enemy nation to "decide" it is ready to ease negative relations. That is happening now, with USA and Iran for the first time in a long time, they are at the same table talking instead of relying on middle men.

I think that my proposed Ambassador Unit, in conjunction with a revised version of the Realistic Diplomacy mod-mod, would work great together in giving RoM a more realistic and engrossing play involving diplomacy.

 

[Afforess]

Yes, i would have to agree, you have a valid point, although 300 turns would represent a couple of centuries, pretty sure a nation would forget about a past war if peace has been maintained for a few centuries

But it does bring me back to the point of my ambassador unit.

Holding talks shows your trying to heal relations and has a chance of easing negative attitudes with out having to wait for the enemy nation to "decide" it is ready to ease negative relations. That is happening now, with USA and Iran for the first time in a long time, they are at the same table talking instead of relying on middle men.

Perhaps I could make it so ambassadors cut the denominator in half. If you have your ambassador in the enemy capital, the memory decay value is half of normal, so a 1/76 chance turns into a 1/38 per turn chance of forgetting.

Then, in 100 turns, with an ambassador, you would have a 93% chance of having them forget at least one minus point for declaring war, compared to a 73% chance of the same thing without an ambassador.

 

[crossclayton]

Perhaps I could make it so ambassadors cut the denominator in half. If you have your ambassador in the enemy capital, the memory decay value is half of normal, so a 1/76 chance turns into a 1/38 per turn chance of forgetting.

Then, in 100 turns, with an ambassador, you would have a 93% chance of having them forget at least one minus point for declaring war, compared to a 73% chance of the same thing without an ambassador.

Hmmm, yes that would actually be really cool. I did not know you could do this. The unit could then have quite a high maintenance cost when outside of your border. Kind of like simulating the expenses of holding the talks, travel costs, accommodation, food. Then perhaps the national unit limit could be higher than just one, maybe three, so you could be trying to hold diplomatic talks with multiple nations. This of course would sky rocket the maintenance cost to have 3 ambassadors in three seperate nations at the same time. This keeps the unpredictability but helps simulate your efforts in mending relations.

Perhaps also the earlier era Ambassador Units only increase the chance of them forgetting a red point by a little but as you progress through the tech tree you are able to create better skilled Diplomats that increase the chance by more. For eg. when radio, tv, internet, education, printing press etc, you are able to build better skilled diplomats. Kind of like how scouts become explorers, settlers become colonists.

Another idea could be to add an action button "establish embassy". This could give you a permanent +3 to relations with the nation you established the embassy in. This could be a technique used by a mid to late game ambassador unit. When ever it is in history that embassy's were first built. (i have no idea when that may be) Of course the embassies are disposed of if borders are closed. Construction of an embassy would require a lump sum payment from your treasury and maintenance would of course be added depending on the distance from your capital and size of the capital the embassy is being established in. Having an embassy could also give you % espionage point bonus towards that nation, and the presence of the embassy increases the chance of a spy succeeding in a mission.

 

[os79]

morale

Actually, it is moral .

Just being a playfully nitpicker .

 

[Afforess]

Actually, it is moral .

Just being a playfully nitpicker .

Get off my back, you grammar nazi.

Another idea could be to add an action button "establish embassy". This could give you a permanent +3 to relations with the nation you established the embassy in. This could be a technique used by a mid to late game ambassador unit. When ever it is in history that embassy's were first built. (i have no idea when that may be) Of course the embassies are disposed of if borders are closed. Construction of an embassy would require a lump sum payment from your treasury and maintenance would of course be added depending on the distance from your capital and size of the capital the embassy is being established in. Having an embassy could also give you % espionage point bonus towards that nation, and the presence of the embassy increases the chance of a spy succeeding in a mission.

I had the same idea too. I know Dom Pedro's mod adds embassy's. I may just have to rip them out of that mod.