me: hey!
realmsbeyondscooter: hey! ok, I have feedback for you
me: great
realmsbeyondscooter: we're largely in agreement with you. i wanted to clarify 2 things first
1) I'm assuming that accepting this and guaranteeing you the stone no later than T106 means you would not settle that location that is very close to our cities, correct?
me: yes
if you provide us with the stone there is no reason why we should settle on that suboptimal location to get it ourselves
realmsbeyondscooter: ok great! thought so, I just thought I would be extra sure
me: that's understandable
realmsbeyondscooter: 2) when we say NAP, can we safely assume this means nothing aggressive at all, rather than simply no war? By that I mean - harmful spy missions or something like a border culture bomb by either of us would be an issue if we understand the NAP correctly
just clarifying that we're both assuming things like that would be off the table
me: we would actually like to follow up on discussing the details of the nap with you to make sure that we are on the same page with the NAP
my team has been looking at making a more formal treaty agreement that we can both agree to in that regards, so both our teams can feel that our interests are safe from one another
to answer your question though, yes - we would like the NAP to mean the same
realmsbeyondscooter: great. yeah, we don't want to be a pain, but I know a lot of people have different interpretations of what would constitute a "NAP Violation"
me: yeah, we feel the same way about that, so we thought having something formal to refer to would be in both our interests to avoid any tensions at all
realmsbeyondscooter: ok that's good! yeah, we would consider harmful spy stuff, cultlure bombs, gifting military to an enemy, etc. stuff like that would not be right for either of us to do
ok cool. are you guys drafting up something more formal along that line or should we do that?
me: this is not binding in any way, and may not be in our suggestion for such a treaty, and I have no idea what you guys think about it .. but how would you feel about exchanging wonder plans as well as those things mentioned too, to avoid tensions with wonder building?
realmsbeyondscooter: that might be a good idea actually. of course I can't commit to that now, but it's something I can bring to my team as an idea
me: great
we're already working on a draft, so I will have it ready for you as soon as we're done working on it
realmsbeyondscooter: I can't promise how they'll feel either way, but I think it's definitely worth considering
ok great
ok, so I do have one more proposal for you guys to consider
and obviously I don't expect you to have an answer right away
me: for now any of the mentioned things you have said like no espionage etc can be considered binding (for both of us) until we have agreed to a formal treaty - does that sound okay with you and can you bind your team to that?
realmsbeyondscooter: yes, agreed. we can definitely consider that portion locked in, and we can take our time on some of the finer points. sounds like we want the same thing.
me: great
realmsbeyondscooter: so, on the stone gift. T106 is of course a given. T105 will be pretty painful if we give it up then and we would generally prefer not to do it. however, we would be willing to guarantee it on T105 if we can get two things: 1) have the NAP run through T200 rather than T175, just to notch up the commitment length and 2) if you'll settle your border city SE of the rice, which would be a very reasonable border city in our opinion.
also, no pressure whatsoever on this. like I said, we are pretty happy with the terms of your last message. this is just a proposal we thought would be worth considering. and I'm guessing you'll have to take it to your team to talk about
me: I definitely have to talk to the team about 1)
2) I need to check what the settling location is, as it may be that spot we have in mind
if it is, then no problem .. if it isn't then I have to take it to the team obviously
will you be around in 10-15 minutes? I need a cup of coffee before looking at the screens if that's okay?
realmsbeyondscooter: we were guessing you would either settle 1S of the rice or 1SE, as those are probably the best two spots. this is kind of a way to indicate our preference for SE. but if you do choose to settle 1S of the rice, we can work with that.
understood. I'm actually about to leave work. I figure I will be back on in about 45 minutes or so if that works?
me: that works wonderfully
talk to you later then
realmsbeyondscooter: ok!
realmsbeyondscooter: Ok I'm back
me: great
it looks as if the spot we intend to settle is 1S of the rice
I hope that's not going to be a big problem. it's clearly within our hemisphere
realmsbeyondscooter: Ok - to be honest, it's a spot we can live with and we won't complain if you choose to settle it as it's very within your right. However, if we're going to adjust our plans and make a couple sacrifices to get the stone to you on T105 instead of T106, we would definitely ask for you guys to flex it back to SE of the rice.
so if you want to discuss that option with your team that's great. and if it's just not an option, we'll understand.
and we would of course still be good with all other facets of the agreement
me: great
I will mention it to the team and we will discuss it of course
realmsbeyondscooter: fair enough, and thanks!
me: I'll get back to you within a day I expect on this
it shouldn't be a long discussion
we need to get that city settled soon, and it will be either 1S or 1SE of the rice, as those were our preferred locations
realmsbeyondscooter: ok, sounds great
