Expansion and diplomacy

[quadalpha]

So, a general information thread about the diplomatic implications of expansion. Please make any corrections or additions as necessary.

When you are playing an European faction, your relationship with other European factions will take a -10 hit whenever you take a province through conquest anywhere in the world. Note that taking a province through diplomacy - for example, as part of a peace settlement - doesn't not incur the deduction, nor do your relations with non-European nations suffer from expansion. These deductions accumulate and can be seen in the diplomacy map tooltip under "Territorial expansion." The deduction will be much more for the faction you took the province from. The accumulated deductions decays (that is, they will be forgotten) at the rate of 1 per turn.

Some implications for strategies may include trying to take provinces through peace settlements whenever possible, or using state gifts to appease major powers. Note that all state gifts give a +100 bonus to relations, and the effects do not stack (i.e., will never go above 100, no matter how many gifts you give). The state gift bonus also decays. (Speculation: maybe the difference between the state gifts is that the more expensive ones take longer to decay?)

Edit: might as well throw another observation in here - newly created republics hate other government types much more than the other governments dislike it.

[Mister V]

Interesting. That's why when I was sitting back for 50 years, being the most powerful nation, everyone wanted to be friends, but when I started conquering they all became Unfriendly.

I think that some factions might have a preset negative modifier though. More precisely, those which are enemies from the start (Russia/Ottomans, Britain/France, etc.).

[Sir Beane]

Interesting. That's why when I was sitting back for 50 years, being the most powerful nation, everyone wanted to be friends, but when I started conquering they all became Unfriendly.

I think that some factions might have a preset negative modifier though. More precisely, those which are enemies from the start (Russia/Ottomans, Britain/France, etc.).

There are other modifiers to relations such as:

* Historic friendship/enmity
* Trade agreement
* National rulers respected/not respected
* Same government/ different government
* Same religion/ different religion
* Military Alliance
* The enemy of my enemy is my friend

[quadalpha]

Most modifier seem to be capped. For example, trade agreement is capped at +60. One modifier that is not capped is "diplomatic threats." You get -30 each time you use the threaten option in diplomacy. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be a sure way to get nations to declare war (so you can avoid their alliances). I had Wurttemburg to around -650, and they stayed stubbornly peaceful.