Olleus
Deity
I have to say I love the envoy system, it's a much more captivating way of dealing with city states than Civ5s gold is everything approach. There is however one fairly big problem with it IMO; getting envoys is too unconnected with the rest of the game. They come at a steady rate through out the game, being only marginally affected by policies. Civics do unlock some, as does quests, but both of those are mostly rewarding you for doing things that you would do anyway. Sure, it might shift my priorities a little, but it's never giving me a choice between more envoys and something else. I would make for an interesting game decision to be in a situation "Use ABC to get either an envoy or something else".
The purpose of this thread is to collect and discuss possible such mechanisms. A few of my personal ideas are:
Spies. Simple idea from Civ5, use spies to gain influence with CS. Would simply be a mission that, after a certain amount of time with an average possibility of success, results in 1 envoy from the current suzerain swapping sides and becoming your envoy.
War support. When a CS is at war with a major power, you should get some benefit for going to war on behalf of the CS. So if you DoW on someone the CS is at war with you get +1 envoy with them (+2 if the CS has no current Suzerain as it wants the protection more.)
Gold. A little boring, but you could simply have units 'Diplomats' that can be bought with gold. Very expensive and the cost grows very rapidly as you buy more. Simply move them to the desired CS and get an extra envoy.
Exchange GP points. This suggestion is a little bit more out there. GP points are another thing I love in Civ6, but they are as disconnected from the rest of the game as envoys. The idea here is that you should be able to buy an envoy for a CS using GP points of the same time (ie, great scientist points for scientific CS). Cost would scale per era.
Administrative District. This is a fan favourite I believe. A new district that would have two mutually exclusive buildings (or set of buildings). One set would give extra envoy points, while the other would give domestic benefits (ie: cheaper civilian units, extra range for regional districts or extra GP points).
The purpose of this thread is to collect and discuss possible such mechanisms. A few of my personal ideas are:
Spies. Simple idea from Civ5, use spies to gain influence with CS. Would simply be a mission that, after a certain amount of time with an average possibility of success, results in 1 envoy from the current suzerain swapping sides and becoming your envoy.
War support. When a CS is at war with a major power, you should get some benefit for going to war on behalf of the CS. So if you DoW on someone the CS is at war with you get +1 envoy with them (+2 if the CS has no current Suzerain as it wants the protection more.)
Gold. A little boring, but you could simply have units 'Diplomats' that can be bought with gold. Very expensive and the cost grows very rapidly as you buy more. Simply move them to the desired CS and get an extra envoy.
Exchange GP points. This suggestion is a little bit more out there. GP points are another thing I love in Civ6, but they are as disconnected from the rest of the game as envoys. The idea here is that you should be able to buy an envoy for a CS using GP points of the same time (ie, great scientist points for scientific CS). Cost would scale per era.
Administrative District. This is a fan favourite I believe. A new district that would have two mutually exclusive buildings (or set of buildings). One set would give extra envoy points, while the other would give domestic benefits (ie: cheaper civilian units, extra range for regional districts or extra GP points).