Developing a new Foreign Policy

[Shaitan]

I am developing a new overall Foreign Policy that will affect the turn instruction proposals I design and serve as a rule set during the chat turn. Comments, suggestions and critique are very welcome!

The key is to categorize the other nations and apply different rules to each, according to how high they rate with Phoenatics. The recent polls asking our citizens what they felt about each civ are what we'll use to figure this rating system. The polls scored each civ from 5 (best) to 1 (worst). These votes were tabulated and run through a simplifying formula to come up with the following ratings. (Formula: Each vote at level five earns 3 points. Vote levels for 4 and less get 2, 1, 0, and -1 respectively.)

These numbers will be repolled when world events warrant it (someone declares war on us, attempts extorsion, etc).


CIV RANK
India 37
Iroquois 32
Greece 27
Rome 27
Zululand 11
Aztecs 3
Babylon -2
China -4

RANK TITLE
30+ Most Favored Nation (MFN)
20-29 Able Partner (AP)
10-19 Common Neighbor (CN)
0-9 Suspect Nation (SN)
<0 Rogue Nation (RN)

Most Favored Nations
India
Iroquois

Able Partners
Greece
Rome

Common Neighbors
Zululand

Suspect Nations
Aztecs

Rogue Nations
Babylon
China

These ranks are then applied to each aspect of our Foreign Policy.

EXCHANGE RATE - These generalizations will be used to help figure out whether a proposed deal amount is acceptable or not.

MFN - Fair trade
AP - Small Gain
CN - Medium gain
SN - Large gain
RN - Extortionate gain

CREDIT RATING - Deals for gold/turn get more income but also create the possibility that the AI civ will bankrupt and declare war to break the deals and save their economy. This table shows how we will try to structure deals.

MFN - Straight payment first, then g/t
AP - Straight payment first, then g/t
CN - Even mix
SN - G/t first, then straight payment
RN - G/t first, then straight payment

ALLIANCES - When requested by a foreign nation, consult the civs rank. An alliance can be granted if the target nation is a rank below the requesting nation. When we seek alliances, requests may be made to nations equal to or above the target nation's status.

RIGHT OF PASSAGE - Rank will determine whether we always want an ROP, never want an ROP or will use opportunistic ROPs (when we intend to move through that civ's territory).

MFN - Always
AP - Always
CN - Opportunistic
SN - Opportunistic
RN - Never

PEACE TREATY RENEGOTIATION - Rank will determine whether we will seek peace treaty renegotitations.

MFN - Always
AP - Always
CN - Always
SN - Opportunistic
RN - Never

EXTORSION - Rank will determine if we will extort the civ at all, only when they have something we want, or if we will do it constantly.

MFN - Never
AP - Never
CN - Never
SN - Opportunistic
RN - Every 20 turns or less

 

[Shaitan]

Questions & Comments are welcome. This plan follows the rank system in the opening post.

Status
Aztecs have Music Theory and Astronomy and 2 gold
China has nothing
Babylon has furs, Music Theory and Astronomy, and 52 gold
Zululand has 15 gold

Aztecs (ROP 4, Peace 14)
Babylon (ROP 4, Peace 14)
Zululand (ROP 5, Peace 14)
India (ROP 5, Peace 14)
China (ROP 4, Peace 14)
Iroquois (ROP 5, Peace 14)
Greece (ROP 4, Peace 14)
Rome (ROP 4, Peace 14)

Iroquois - 5 turns left on 2 g/t gift

Proposal
Turn 0
Extort from Aztecs. Try Astronomy first. If they don't go for Astronomy, go for Music Theory.
Extort from Babylon. Get 52 gold. (Since we got a tech from them 6 turns ago we'll give them a break and just demand cash this time.)
Turn 4
Sign ROPs with Greece and Rome. Get as much straight cash as possible, then go with gold/turn.
Turn 5
Sign ROPs with India and Iroquois. Get as much straight cash as possible, then go for gold/turn.
Turn 14
If the game goes this long the Peace Renegotiations will come up. Do not renegotiate with China or Babylon. Renegotiate with the Aztecs only if they have something we want and try to get that as their payment. Negotiate with Greece, Rome, India and Iroquois the by getting as much straight payment on the table first, then add in gold/turn if possible. For Zululand, take half their treasury then negotiate g/t for the balance.

Cultural Assault
The Foreign Affairs budget is being made available to the Culture Department for rushing cultural advances in the new city in Province 5.

 

[Civanator]

i like the proposal

 

[Shaitan]

The polls for citizen opinion on the other civs have closed and the plan has been adjusted accordingly. Scoring the civs was simplified.

The proposal was changed in one spot - the Aztec peace will be renegotiated as they are now a suspect nation instead of a rogue nation.

 

[eyrei]

Oops. Comment withdrawn due to a revelation.

 

[chiefpaco]

Excellent work! I'm unsure of the last couple proposals, the Extortion & Peace Treaties, perhaps you can clarify.

Perhaps the Peace Treaty renog could have an "opportunistic" or "if they will bow to our demands" approach for the rogue states. I think there might be times when we wish to end war, for our own sake & well-being. Also, for suspect nations, perhaps not "always", but better than "opportunistic" might be slightly better.

For extortion, I'm unsure if we should have a 20 turn cap on our extortion rate. Would this be still a judgement? I wonder what the long term effects would be of constant extortion over the long term.

Overall, I love this idea & the ability to discuss our policy. It makes our decisions clearer when we have goals. Setting a foreign policy is also very important to our nation, in identifying our friends & foes.

Maybe an appropriate repoll of opinion might be every 3 or 4 weeks, our time. Perhaps, once a term?

 

[Shaitan]

Originally posted by chiefpaco
Excellent work! I'm unsure of the last couple proposals, the Extortion & Peace Treaties, perhaps you can clarify.

Perhaps the Peace Treaty renog could have an "opportunistic" or "if they will bow to our demands" approach for the rogue states. I think there might be times when we wish to end war, for our own sake & well-being. Also, for suspect nations, perhaps not "always", but better than "opportunistic" might be slightly better.

Peace treaty renegotiation doesn't affect treaties to end wars, just when we've got an active peace treaty and want to extend it. Good call on the Suspect Nations. I'll change that.

For extortion, I'm unsure if we should have a 20 turn cap on our extortion rate. Would this be still a judgement? I wonder what the long term effects would be of constant extortion over the long term.

It's still a judgement call. If there's nothing to extort then we won't go for just a handful of gold. I haven't noticed any problems when you have successful extorsions. The problem is when you have unsuccessful extorsions. If we have a couple unsuccessful in a row we would hold off on that civ for a while.

Overall, I love this idea & the ability to discuss our policy. It makes our decisions clearer when we have goals. Setting a foreign policy is also very important to our nation, in identifying our friends & foes.

Maybe an appropriate repoll of opinion might be every 3 or 4 weeks, our time. Perhaps, once a term? [/B]

I think we should repoll for all civs each term and repoll for a specific civ if they do something that has a decent chance of affecting public opinion of them (accepting an alliance with us and kicking our oponent's butt or declaring war on us, for examples).