Dumb Diplomacy: 2nd 'Screw the Player Event' Avoided.

[Didz]

What I meant by script is a piece of code, not a preset time for a DOW to occur. Meaning, there is a script running that periodically selects a random time, for a random faction to declare war on the player faction.

Oh! well I don't think anyone has suggested that the DOW event is not caused by a piece of code. ETW is a computer program after all.

No, in the context of this discussion I am using the term script/scripted to define an predetermined event or sequence of events which will occur based upon a set of predetermined conditions. e.g. 'It's 1776 so the American Revolution will Start', or 'The King of Austria has died, France has declared war on Austria and a French Privateer has just attacked an British East Indiamen in the Channel.'

The difference is, your stance on this is that it screws up the game, while my stance is that it seems to be a piece of code designed to ensure the player faction is not left "alone" for too long. That seems somewhat acceptable as Empire: Total Peace is not the solution.

Yes! My opinion is that this is a game breaker.

Empire Totalwar is a Strategy Game, not a shoot'em'up. By implication as a strategy game it should present the player with a celebral challenge not a click-fest challenge. Therefore, throwing random mobs at the player just to screw up his chances of winning is not acceptable, just as the random barrage ballons in the Dambuster Simulation game was not acceptable in the flight simulation programme.

In my opinion its lazy system design, especially as its clear that someone actually did put some effort into trying to produce a decent diplomacy system. Basically, it looks to me as though someone at CA with a time constraint or lack of interest overruled the design team and told them to stop wasting time trying to produce a decent diplomacy system and just throw in a Random DOW generator.

Basically, any idiot could do that in five minutes, but what it has left us with is a broken diplomacy system (or at best one thats unfinished) and a game that can't be played as a strategy game becuase it doesn't respond logically to the players actions and doesn't present the player with any viable strategic options, other than blitz everything that moves.

As you say, this is all rather pathetic. After so many years in the business one would have expected better from CA. The only good news is that there is a work around.

The sad news is of course that because all DOW's are random, not only do stupid ones occur, such as Poland declaring war on New Spain. But the reverse is equally true, and situations which truly do warrant an AI faction going to war actually get ignored.

Lol! I quite literally just finished typing the above when I actually had a DOW that made a lot of sense. In fact, if I didn't already know that they were completely random I would have been quite impressed. The situation was that my army in America under General McDowell having captured Georgia from the Cherokee had noticed that the reason Georgia had been unguarded was that the Cherokee had just captured Florida off the Spanish. Considering this to be an opportunity too good to miss McDowell had marched south and seized Florida destroying what he thought was the main Cherokee force defending it. I was feeling quited pleased with myself until a large Cherokee force appeared in Carolina and overan the colonials trashing the entire colony before marching north and repeating the dirty deed in Virginia. (For some reason the Colonials have been investing heavily in a Navy instead of defending their homes.)

Anyway, McDowell force marches North, recaptures Carolina and heads off on the road to Williamsburg, Virginia. So, I'm thinking...hey this is not so bad I'm gaining extra provinces here without having to complete the 13 Colonies mission, perhaps I should let the indian's trash the other colonial states.

End Turn: Random DOW - France declares war on the Thirteen Colonies are you prepared to defend your Ally? (Spain is an Ally of France) Doh!

Now! as I say that would have been clever, if I didn't know already that it was pure chance. France has decided to invade Maine from the North and grab itself some extra land whilst the colonies are in a state of disarray and I'm up to my ears in Indian's. Add to that the fact that France and Spain together have a decent sized navy and I could be in trouble.

Unfortunately, things didn't quite go Frances way. Again if I thought there was any logic behind the event I would have said that France had misread the diplomatic situation. The first thing that went wrong for them was that Spain declined to join the war, leaving them all alone to face Britain and its navy. The second thing that went wrong was that the Colonists declared their independance the United States emerges early and Frances Army was teleported back to Canada. At the same time all the Indian's were sent back to back to their reservations. So, instead of an elegant 'coupe de main', France is now right back where it started with its arse hanging out of its pants.

But it was a nice try, shame it wasn't the result of some clever programming by CA.