Negotiations with MIA

[Robi D]

who can we give them philo without them having writing???

And if i read correctly, they want philo and CoL for WC and wheel, surely they are joking, maybe I should send them the tech values 101 sheet back to them, because they have lost there minds if they think we can accept that deal. Still i will write out a response shortly

 

[Robi D]

I have sent this reply to MIA. Frankly i believe we have mucked around long enough with this deal, and if they don't like it then we can do our own research.

To the MIA government,

You have put forward an interesting trade offer however there are a couple of things I would like to point out.

Firstly, how are we suppose to give you philosophy this turn when you do not have writing, are you expecting to complete your research of writing this turn?

Secondly, I refer you to a very hand tech values chart you sent us a little while back, since I believe with the trade you are proposing you must have lost your copy.


Ancient Ages
Pottery - 2, Ceremonial Burial - 2, Bronze Working - 3, WarriorCode - 3,
Masonry - 4, Mysticism - 4, The Wheel - 4, Alphabet - 5, Horseback Riding - 5
Iron Working - 6, Philosophy - 6, Mathematics - 8 Writing - 8, Code of Laws -
10, Literature - 10*, Map Making - 12, Polytheism - 12, Currency - 16,
Construction - 20, Monarchy - 24*, Republic - 28*.


Warrior Code + wheel FOR Philosophy + Code of Laws is 7 to 16, and is out of the question.

Our trade offer is this;
Warrior Code + wheel + Iron Working FOR Philosophy + Code of Laws.
You will send us WC + wheel this turn, then when you have writing you send us IW and we send you philosophy and CoL. This trade still balances out 13 to 16 in your favor.

And If you are correct and hoards of immorals are at our doorstep, and you don't except this deal, they you wont be getting either of these technologies and have two very aggressive neighbours at your doorstep.

If you are willing to except this deal, then we can take our trade one step further and enter a full technological partnership. In which case after this trade is conclude you would research masonry, while we do Horseback riding, which we would then swap, then you could research mysticism while we do mathematics and swap maths for ceremonial burial and mysticism and continue so forth until we have covered all the ancient age techs.

We need a reply by the end of this turn for this trade to take place.
Thank you

Robi D

Foreign Affairs Consul, Team Doughnut

 

[DaveShack]

OK, this seems a suitable response.

 

[Nobody]

I think think they were trying to be nice to us.

 

[Robi D]

I think think they were trying to be nice to us.

They are, in the same way a used car salesman trys to be nice to you while trying to sell you a $5000 car for $8000.

 

[zyxy]

They are not being nice.
Even the trades proposed from our side in Robi D's last letter are skewed in their favor. Math for Myst is a rather bad deal, as is HBR for Masonry. Anyway, they'll probably not accept anyway, they seem to favor a hardliner approach.

 

[Robi D]

Had a talk with MIA's ambassador kentharu, which just incidently was at the same time as KISS, basically they arn't going to move until their poll is finished, which is split atm according to ketharu.

Here is the chat log

Kentharu says:
yo
Robi D says:
hi kentharu
Kentharu says:
ok, are you guys at war with TNT?
Kentharu says:
no need to answer it if you dont want to
Robi D says:
we are
Kentharu says:
then you need military techs
Kentharu says:
right?
Robi D says:
yes we do, but at the same time we are look for a equitable swap
Kentharu says:
as are we
Kentharu says:
but, if you were in our position what would you do?
Kentharu says:
would you truely be looking for an equal swap?
Robi D says:
i understand that, and what we have offered in return isn't exactly equal, it still favours MIA by some margin
Kentharu says:
i know, but if pressed we could make a better deal in our fear, you understand?
Kentharu says:
and i really dont like this formal crap
Robi D says:
no i understand your position, and i know your trying to press for the best deal, but at the moment the deal your proposing isn't going to work from our side
Kentharu says:
my team is almost split in this, i personally would say yes to it but i am not my entire team
Kentharu says:
fortunately we might be able to conclude this soon
Robi D says:
thats ok, i mean everyone wants the best deal, i put up a poll for the deal you guys put up and its running against taking it
Robi D says:
sorry if i'm taking a while to respond im at work
Kentharu says:
same here, only it's homework lol
Robi D says:
lol, i have homework when i finsh work
Kentharu says:
you in high school?
Robi D says:
uni
Kentharu says:
oh
Kentharu says:
me 10th grade
Robi D says:
work and uni it tough but im nearly finish uni
Kentharu says:
must be, but i still can't wait till i get in college
Robi D says:
sorry for the wait, as far as your offer goes we are not going to take it as it is, because while i know you guys want the best deal, its a bit extreem
Kentharu says:
we think your replied deal is good
Kentharu says:
but the poll isn't closed yet
Kentharu says:
so officially no, got to cut through all that red tape
Robi D says:
thats ok, our poll hasn't finished yet, and there is still a lot of debate going on
Robi D says:
also we cant give you guys philo before you have writing
Kentharu says:
we will get it soon i supose
Robi D says:
fair enough, im in the same position, but as far as the proposal for a tech partnership, those techs were an example and arn't set in stone, if we agree we can then work out how to do the reearch path
Robi D says:
i need to get back to work, but we can talk to each other soon after the polls end, and see if we can take to from there

This is all irrelavent if everyones happy with the KISS deal but its interesting that there seems to be a major split on the issue on their side.

 

[DaveShack]

Should we maybe hint of another possible source for the techs we need? We might be the only ones with all contacts now...

If we can give both of them just CoL for half the techs each, then we keep the Philo monopoly and we don't let either one beat us to Republic.

 

[DaveShack]

Now we have the option of ignoring MIA, or of letting them know their trade goods are now worthless. Any thoughts?

 

[zyxy]

I think we should send them a friendly letter saying we are no longer interested in the deals proposed by either side, but would be interested in future deals on an equal basis. There's no good reason to just ignore them, if KISS and MIA don't get along well we should try to profit from both sides.

 

[vikingruler]

If KISS and MIA are on the same continent trading with KISS might piss off MIA. Knowing the trades we want to make, they may get scared of KISS and destroy them. This might be unavoidable. We should just gratefully decline and say we wan't to trade in the future but they will have to compete with KISS.

 

[Gerikes]

Now we have the option of ignoring MIA, or of letting them know their trade goods are now worthless. Any thoughts?

Well, I believe something must be said. Simply ignoring them will only result in a negative response towards us, moreso than a nice rejection letter. Love them or hate them, I can't see how it would hurt to keep up contact if all we're losing is the piece of parchment we send it on. We don't have to tell them what we're doing instead, just that we're simply not interested.

 

[DaveShack]

I'm fine with just a "sorry your offer no longer interests us, maybe another time" type message.

 

[Nobody]

Just reply that because of recent events we no longer need your technology, but we are happy to here any more of your proposals. As far as they know we hit a hut

 

[Robi D]

I think Nobody has pretty much hit the nail on the head. We can quite simply say due to the length of time taken to come to a deal, it is no longer releavent as we have researched wheel ourselves, but that we look forward to coming to other deals in the future. There is no need to tell them we have found KISS, they can work that out for themselves.

 

[zyxy]

We don't have wheel yet. Perhaps better not to tell lies they can check .

 

[Robi D]

I mean to say nearly researched wheel. I agree we shouldn't lie, as that causes distrust, but we don't have to tell them what happened either.

 

[zyxy]

of course not .

 

[vikingruler]

I agree with zyxy we should say we have like 5 or 6 turns before we discover wheel and we already have WC. they think we got a hut and start making quicker trades. That should benefit us in the future especially in future situations like our current one with TNT.

 

[Robi D]

This is a short message to MIA saying their trade offer is not useful anymore

Greetings Emp.Napoleon and the MIA government,

I regret to inform you that due to our trade talks taking so long we have researched Wheel ourselves so the current trade offer is no longer of use to us. However we hope we can continue our positive relationship and be able to agree on trade deals in the near future.

Thank you

Robi D, Foreign Affairs Consul of Doughnutia