MERLOT Dipolmacy Discussion

[Trystero]

It has been a while. Any response to our initial greeting?

 

[Irgy]

Nothing on the email yet.

I wonder what they think their diplomatic situation is that they don't feel they need to talk to us at all? I'd presume they think they're getting along well with someone.

 

[grant2004]

I thought the Amazons had said that they, or the Quatronians had found Merlot to be surprisingly aloof in diplomatic discussions. I looked back trying to find a reference for that, but didn't find it. Maybe I'm imagining it. Even if they had found someone early and had a strong alliance, I doubt they'd just ignore us. It's better to play the same way we are, by talking to them and acting friendly.

The only explination I can think of is that they are having issues on their team getting people to step up. They mentioned earlier in the team forum that they have a small set group of turn players who needed to let the timer run to the full 48 hours in order for another one of them to be back in time to complete the next turn. I took that as a sign that they might be having early participation problems.

 

[Irgy]

Well, either way, they've finally sent us something:

Spoiler :

Greetings Grant2004, and the entire nation of the Sirian people, from Emperor Indiansmoke I and the people of Merlot!

His Majesty sends his warmest regards to your nation, and wants you to know that the people of Merlot feels honoured to greet your people in friendship!

We are very much looking forward to entering diplomatic negotiations with your nation now that initial contact has been made, and your diplomats will always be welcome to Merlot Island!

To start off with some informational sharing, we would like to divulge the information that our nation is currently located on Merlot Island - a beautiful island where the people of Merlot are currently living happily under the rule of His Majesty. Our ocean explorers have discovered a continent that looks like it has peninsulas and fjords. May we ask what your explorers have found so far?

Also, we have so far found Gems, Wine and Corn on Merlot Island - so these are the resources we will be able to trade when the time is right. What resources have your people found?

We are very much looking forward to the next letter from your people - and we may always be contacted at the EMail this missive has been sent from - merlotdip@gmail.com just to make certain.

Sir Caledorn
Imperial Diplomat of Merlot
on behalf of Emperor Indiansmoke I

 

[Lord Parkin]

So the only new piece of information from all of that is that they have Gems, Wine and Corn. Everything else is filler or stuff we already know. Still, nice of them to volunteer the information about their resources to us. No reason why we can't do the same back in return, I guess.

 

[Irgy]

One gold, one silver, one gems so far. I'm starting to think our GDP lead is the library not the gold then. I wonder what the other teams have for commerce resources? Maybe there is two sets of each forge resource?

 

[AlphaShard]

Well Gold does give us more Commerce then Gems and Silver, it could also be that they are not working their Silver and Gems the way we are working our Gold.

What does that mean for the remaining three teams? Do they have a combo of these Gem/Gold/Silver or do they not even have that?

This seems clear to me that if we want to trade for these resources later one we are going to need to plantation our Silk. Something tells me not sharing the monopoly of resources is paiting a target sign on us.

 

[grant2004]

Ok, that's interesting. I'm willing to bet that the other three teams also have gold/silver/gems. If they have something else I'd have trouble believing it would be balanced.

I don't see any reason why we shouldn't respond with a list of our resources as well. Here are my thoughts for the next message to them:

The Sirian people are pleased to hear about Merlot Island. It sounds like a beautiful place. Our explorers would love to visit it, as soon as our ships find a passage across the turbulent waters separating you from the mainland. The Sirians live on a similar island, also separated from the rest of the world by a patch of turbulent waters, which our sailors, through years of practice, and cultural knowledge, have learned to navigate.

Our explorers have discovered that there is not a single mainland, but many. These larger islands are arranged in an orderly pattern, and appear to have thin waterways cutting deep into the center of our maps, joining all the world’s oceans. Our maps show a surprising level of symmetry, indicating that a truly wise and powerful creator has shaped the world we live in, although this creator has not yet revealed himself to our people.

Our homeland is similarly abounding in resources; we have discovered sources of fish, gold, and silk. We look forward to the days when our ships will grow large enough to transport these goods across the world. Our people would love to sample your exotic goods, and share the abundance of our island.

We have discovered that opening our borders to other nations does not allow for trade, because of the nature of the strange waters separating each of our homelands. However we do believe that such agreements will become useful when nations begin to send citizens abroad to these large uninhabited islands. Looking forward to that time, the Sirians would like to propose that our two nations make an agreement to open our borders to each other, for our mutual economic benefit.

-Grant2004, on behalf of team Sirius

I’m not sure if we want to open borders with them, I’ve included such a statement as a way of bringing out a discussion about it. If we don’t want to that paragraph can easily be removed from the message. I don’t see any harm in doing so, but that’s certainly something the team should discuss before I send this out. So I’ll be holding back on this message for quite a while longer than the last one. I don’t think we’re in a rush.

As for the rest of the message, does that sound good? I reveal that we don’t have a religion, in an offhand sort of way. I imagine that’s something they have figured out already. I’ve fallen into the habit of using the RP style talk we’ve been using with the Amazons; it works well with Merlot because it allows me to use a lot of words without saying very much.

 

[Irgy]

I’m not sure if we want to open borders with them

I don't see any harm in doing so. It doesn't have much effect on anything at the moment, but it's a good gesture.

As for the rest of the message, does that sound good?

It looks good to me.

I reveal that we don’t have a religion, in an offhand sort of way.

I had to re-read it to see where you did that, I didn't read it that way the first time. It doesn't matter either way though.

I’ve fallen into the habit of using the RP style talk we’ve been using with the Amazons; it works well with Merlot because it allows me to use a lot of words without saying very much.

I think that's the main thing it's good for actually.

 

[Trystero]

This looks good to me as well, Grant. We have just discovered all the islands are connected at the center, but that isn't an important detail.

I think opening borders is a good idea.

 

[Alltriia]

Grant, if you still haven't sent it, might be better to change it to reflect the new info we have about the world. Or don't even mention it. Might be worth to sit and think on it a bit, tho:

And I think that turning Voyager around it's better instead of exploring jungle and desert tiles. We might want to ponder this before doing so because Merlot will start to think why did we turn around.

 

[grant2004]

Ok having been up for 24 hours without major objection I sent the message out. I made minor changes to reflect the discovery that all of the spokes are joined at a hub. The full message is below for reference, but no major changes have been made from the last version.

Spoiler :

The Sirian people are pleased to hear about Merlot Island. It sounds like a beautiful place. Our explorers would love to visit it, as soon as our ships find a passage across the turbulent waters separating you from the mainland. The Sirians live on a similar island, also separated from the rest of the world by a patch of turbulent waters, which our sailors, through years of practice, and cultural knowledge, have learned to navigate.

Our explorers have discovered that there is a single mainland, comprised of many spokes connected at a central hub. These spokes are arranged in an orderly pattern, and appear to have thin waterways cutting deep into the center of our maps, nearly joining all the world’s oceans. Our maps show a surprising level of symmetry, indicating that a truly wise and powerful creator has shaped the world we live in, although this creator has not yet revealed himself to our people.

Our homeland is similarly abounding in resources; we have discovered sources of fish, gold, and silk. We look forward to the days when our ships will grow large enough to transport these goods across the world. Our people would love to sample your exotic goods, and share the abundance of our island.

We have discovered that opening our borders to other nations does not allow for trade, because of the nature of the strange waters separating each of our homelands. However we do believe that such agreements will become useful when nations begin to send citizens abroad to these large uninhabited spokes. Looking forward to that time, the Sirians would like to propose that our two nations make an agreement to open our borders to each other, for our mutual economic benefit.

-Grant2004, on behalf of team Sirius

 

[Alltriia]

"Our explorers have discovered that there is a single mainland, comprised of many spokes connected at a central hub."

In my opinion, giving that type of crucial information to a team that we don't have any agreement with is a mistake. Even more when we know that they disembarked on both spokes and with one unit near The Nexus.

 

[Irgy]

They'll work it out for themselves sooner or later anyway, we might as well get the credit for being the ones to tell them.

 

[Alltriia]

With this type of information, I think it's better for us to have them know later than sooner because that could give them an advantage as they right now know that they can explore other spokes without having the galleys occupied and use them to explore more, for example.

 

[AlphaShard]

I'd rather not wave the "were your enemy" flag just yet especially if they saw us go in the canal. It won't give them that much advantage and can give us an advantage of making it seem like were on thier side.

 

[Alltriia]

I'm not saying to misstreat them. What I'm saying is that might be better not disclose info that might give them an edge.

If after they see us leaving the channel so sudently and ask us why, then we could say it. That's all.

 

[Irgy]

I can see your argument, but at the end of the day it's a judgement call. Personally I think the information has more diplomatic value when given away than it has practical value when held back.

 

[azzaman333]

If we're turning the workboat (?) around then we might as well tell them, because they'll figure it out anyway.

 

[Alltriia]

Irgy: It can hurry them to The Nexus. I don't like them there before we do(Sirius or ASP). We still don't really know if it's only desert or not. The team that clamps in there will be very dificult to take them out of there.

Azzaman: That's why I sugested to think on it for a bit before sending the correspondence, so that our actions and messages would have been better thought through.