Luckymoose
The World is Mine
Turning a player want for conservative election results into a military coup is fairly extreme.
EQ, how do you work out NPC diplomacy? Did you mention that you got someone else to do it for you? If so, I feel that one of the main flaws in your NES is that they aren't very good at it; or alternatively you aren't very good at it. Your NPCs are invariably tactless, predictable, and unable to see their own interests, and can never be persuaded by anyone to do anything, and they maintain the same outlook on everything, and they never act moderately or behave temperately, and often declare war without negotiating first, which makes them pretty much impossible to deal with.
From my own experience having trying to mod NPCs dynamically is a hard thing to do. Especially if you have dozens to think about. For small and even medium states I usually have them act pretty lamely and only try to have NPCs act "human" if they're major players.
Well, for me, that's one of the easier bits. I have a very firm idea of what's going on, the tricky bit is getting that vision put out for everyone to read and see.
As with what I said, with my NPCs I think out several alternatives for them, then let RNG decide which one. With Capto Iugulum I've been also having NPCs do basic things to keep up with player nations. I.e. building roads, upgrading armies, and eventually even creating their own designs and so forth for armies. It's only when it comes to stuff outside of the basic rational things, such as invading someone, joining a war, or radical government polcies, that the RNG truly comes into play.
But that's completely bonkers. No nation chooses their declarations of war randomly on the basis of an RNG; they choose to declare war if it suits their interests, and if it doesn't, they don't declare war. That's quite as silly and irrational as it would be if all the players rolled dice to determine whether they declare war or not.