Some digging into Diplomacy Transitions

[Big J Money]

First, the XML values

Spoiler <DiplomaticStateTransitions> :

<Row BaseState="DIPLO_STATE_FRIENDLY" TransitionState="DIPLO_STATE_NEUTRAL" RequireTransitionMin="0" AllowTransitionMax="10"/>
<Row BaseState="DIPLO_STATE_NEUTRAL" TransitionState="DIPLO_STATE_FRIENDLY" RequireTransitionMax="15" AllowTransitionMin="0"/>
<Row BaseState="DIPLO_STATE_NEUTRAL" TransitionState="DIPLO_STATE_UNFRIENDLY" RequireTransitionMin="-5" AllowTransitionMax="5"/>
<Row BaseState="DIPLO_STATE_UNFRIENDLY" TransitionState="DIPLO_STATE_NEUTRAL" RequireTransitionMax="10" AllowTransitionMin="-5"/>
<Row BaseState="DIPLO_STATE_UNFRIENDLY" TransitionState="DIPLO_STATE_DENOUNCED" AllowTransitionCheck="CanDenounce" RequireTransitionMin="-15" AllowTransitionMax="0" OnTransitionAction="OnDenouncePlayer"/>
<Row BaseState="DIPLO_STATE_DENOUNCED" TransitionState="DIPLO_STATE_WAR" AllowTransitionCheck="CanGoToWar" RequireTransitionMin="-25" OnTransitionAction="GoToWar"/>

The best hypothesis I've seen so far is that there is an invisible Relationship Value that accrues, based on the net value we can see on the Diplomacy screen (which is actually a rate value). So I spent some time testing this.

Here are the facts I gleaned from playing and taking notes

Pretending that there is an invisible "Relationship Accrual", I was unable to make Pedro go from Neutral to Friendly after accruing over 100 relationship over 31 turns. I had triggered no Agendas either way, but this was a "steady drip" of +3 Relations from a delegation.

Yet, Cleopatra quickly transition over a small handful of turns after I suddenly triggered both of her Agendas within 2 turns. I wasn't expecting to track this, but I know it happened in under 100 relationship accrual.

In a couple cases, I was able to easily drop from Neutral to Unfriendly without triggering any Agendas just through bad first impressions and having military close to borders. This would happen somewhere between -10 to -15 relationship accrual and 3-4 turns.

Yet, with Gorgo I was able to go from neutral to unfriendly with only -8 accrual and in a single turn when I failed to meet her primary Agenda (she played the animation as well).

Here are the conclusions I draw from this

• I'm not convinced the actual Relationship Value itself accrues into an invisible value. Or at least that this is enough to explain everything. Thresholds requirements and/or some randomness also seem to apply.
• The XML seems to indicate both.
• At least one of these random elements seems to be tied to whether Agendas have been satisfied or failed. This is still super anecdotal of course, and if it's hard-coded we won't find it in any XMLs.

And here are some miscellaneous facts I gathered

• You always have a chance to generate positive, negative or no first impressions, regardless of what you do when you meet someone (ignore them, turn down their hospitality or accept it)
• You can still get negative impressions from accepting hospitality (happened with me and Gandhi)
• You can still get positive impressions from rejecting hospitality (happened with me and Pedro)
• First impressions move toward 0 at 1/10 turns
• The penalty for trespassing near borders was forgiven after 5 turns both times (there is no decay)
• 4/4 times I acquired the penalty when coming within 3 hexes of borders around a capital, but 1 time I walked inside the borders of a non-capital city and received no penalty until the next turn. I don't know what to make of that yet.
• I never received a penalty for rejecting a Delegation (I don't yet know why you would; I didn't test if they need it to learn things about you like military size)
• Neutral civs will not always accept Delegations for some reason. I am suspicious that civs perhaps 'know' things they shouldn't. Like perhaps Cleopatra knew that she should dislike me for me low military even though her relationship status did not have a modifier for it yet. Cleo would be a good one to test this with.

 

[isau]

I've looked at that XML file as well and to me it still supports a running total in the background. I think what is happening is that when most agendas trigger, in addition to the damage to relationship over time displayed on the screen, there is an immediate hit to the standing pool. It would certainly make sense for Gorgo. Less so Cleopatra.

I suspect but haven't test extensively that First Impression is based partly on difficulty level. On Emperor I have never generated a positive first impression. But I have not actually gone to the other difficulty levels to check.

Of course another possibility is that the various - + values shown on this screen are lying to us and some are weighted heavier than others, and if that's the case I will request that Firaxis display the true value of each item.