Has anyone found a Diplomatic Solution?

**Didz** · 08-06-2009, 10:18

Has anyone made any progress with a solution to the diplomatic problems this game has?

I've just started another campaign and once again within 16 turns Spain is at war with practically the entire world. Its getting really monotonous now, every faction ends up exactly the same.

I seem to recall several people were studying the data tables to try and find a way of sorting this problem, just wondered if anyone has found anything. Just switching off the 'Player hate routine' would be a major accomplishment.

**Prussian to the Iron** · 08-06-2009, 13:29

i hate when everyone DoW's on you, especially when ou make them your protectorate first. thats really what ruined spain for me; when the U.P., italian states, venice, england, portugal, westphalia, and morroco all DoW on ou at once, i just get disgusted (in part due to the fact that in most o the cities i can only train god damn militias) and quit it.

the main problem is that i cannot prepare armies beforehand for fear of getting negative income.

**Didz** · 08-06-2009, 14:32

I'm pretty sure someone found an entry in the tables that switched the 'rabid lemming' mode off at least for minor nations, but I couldn't find it when I looked for it earlier. As I recall every faction has a mode of behaviour and he reckoned that by switched them you could stop at least some of the stupidity.

**Yun Dog** · 08-06-2009, 16:43

Aeoleron9 over at the TWC has the following suggestions and links:
Quote:

1. Alliances prevent Wars. When you have allies, other factions are more reluctant to attack you. Always make some friends in the first turn, especially if you start out alone. Don't make too many allies though, unless you want to get dragged into unnecessary wars.

2. Watch where you step. Each faction in ETW is hard-wired to want certain regions, such as their core regions, victory conditions, and historical goals. When you take these regions for yoursef, be prepared for an inevitable attack. For example, my very friendly Russian ally backstabbed me when I held on to Petersburg for too long. This is a major reason for AI re-declaring war after a treaty, because you still have something they want.

3. Watch who you share borders with. Always be extra careful with bordering nations, and watch out when you expand your borders. In the case of crazy Minors, sharing borders is enough to guarantee a war.

4. Always keep enough stacks in your regions. I can't stress this hard enough. No matter how friendly your neighbors or even allies are, or how preoccupied they seem, ALWAYS keep an army at home to rival them. The AI calculates the armies inside your regions as a whole, not individually, so you don't need to garrison every town. But when your armies are on hostile soil, the AIs no longer register them in your total strength. So keep the campaigning as short as possible, unless you want to bait an attack.

5. Minors will always attack sooner or later. You can only minimize the damage by making them protectorates ASAP, which cancels all their alliances. Nobody likes to get dragged into a major war because some minor's got a deathwish.

1. Take at least two of their regions. Most Majors will accept peace after a loss like that. You can also slowly wear down the AI with prolonged blockades and town raids. Even small victories like these can make a difference when demanding peace.

2. Destroy their army as completely as possible. This is especially important when you want to force a peace/protectorate with a Minor, because they don't have spare regions you could capture. This is also useful to stop the AI continually declaring war. Just beat them to a pulp so they don't have anything to threaten you with.

3. Don't try to offer back a high unrest region for peace, such as newly-captured capitals. Because you're just trying to avoid a rebellion, of course the AI won't oblige. But giving back happy and wealthy regions for peace is entirely viable, and you might even demand a tech or two in return

4. Use threaten if you could sneak an army up to an undefended AI city.

5. Don't forget the usual tricks, unlimited military access and paying over turns. Supposedly, if you offer to pay them over time they're less likely to break the truce.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=272513

His solution for the minors
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=280507
To Quote:

"Basically, I felt it was easier to maintain peace with major factions than minors in vanilla. You can scare off hostile majors with enough troops, but against minors there is nothing you can do. As long as you border them, they'll attack you.

So I made every minor into a major faction with full AI. And it worked.

With this fix, the ex-minors no longer declare suicidal wars against me. For example, in vanilla France was always attacked by Savoy or Wurttemburg early off. After the fix, my new French campaign is now 25 turns in and they're still at peace. As long as you keep a decent overall garrison in your regions, they won't mess with you.

There's also a nice side-effect: you will now get notifications from all factions. Apparently diplomatic notifications only work between major factions, so now that everyone is a major, you'll be notified about every war/broken alliance, even between nations like Westphalia or Cherokee."

his diplomacy guide
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...10#post4932110

Personally, I think the game is completely ruined no matter what you do, as my low amount of playing evident in my sig demonstrates.

way to turn a great game into a complete TRAIN WRECK

THANKYOU CA

**Didz** · 08-06-2009, 17:50

I thought it was Aeoleron9 but when I tried to find it I couldn't. I'll check the links you supplied. Thanks.

PS: Ok! tried Aeoleron9's suggestion to make the minor factions more intelligent, but when I checked the starteos file I couldn't find the entries he mentioned in his text. There seem to be multiple Faction_arrays, each with a Faction table under it but I couldn't see the entries he said to look for so I'm stuck.

If anyone else has done this can you give me some guidance, or a screenshot, so i know what to look for.

I'm afraid a lot of his other idea's for avoiding stupidity from the AI just don't seem to work for me. For example: I've captured multiple regions off an enemy but they still won't accpt peace, even when you are beseiging their last capital.

P.S. Sorted....found the post and with a bit of help from Aeoleron I've edited my startpos file so that the minor factions should now behaviour with at least the small level of stupidity as the major factions. Hopefully, this will reduce their 'rabid_lemming' tendencies at bit, but I shall have to run a campaign to test the effects fully.

**Hosakawa Tito** · 08-08-2009, 11:58

I'm currently playing a Spanish Campaign. One thing I've tried is to be really careful who I make trade agreements with. Usually I'd make trade pacts with every nation I could, enemies included. However, with the massive negative hit to one's diplomatic relations when breaking any treaties in the recent patch, that just ensures you will be in diplomatic purgatory in no time. I currently have only 3 trading partners and it's 1739, France, Venice, Maratha. I'm at war with GB, UP, Austria and have just attacked the Italian States.

**KHPike** · 08-08-2009, 20:19

'1. Alliances prevent Wars. When you have allies, other factions are more reluctant to attack you. Always make some friends in the first turn, especially if you start out alone. Don't make too many allies though, unless you want to get dragged into unnecessary wars.'

This is untrue. I feel that the AI still blindly dives into a war even though he is surrounded by my allies.

'2. Watch where you step. Each faction in ETW is hard-wired to want certain regions, such as their core regions, victory conditions, and historical goals. When you take these regions for yoursef, be prepared for an inevitable attack. For example, my very friendly Russian ally backstabbed me when I held on to Petersburg for too long. This is a major reason for AI re-declaring war after a treaty, because you still have something they want.

3. Watch who you share borders with. Always be extra careful with bordering nations, and watch out when you expand your borders. In the case of crazy Minors, sharing borders is enough to guarantee a war.'

In relation to S/n 1 above, S/n 2 and 3 take greater precedence...if the AI wants its territory bad enough, or if you share borders long enough, it will most certainly declare war on you no matter what the conditions. There have been cases where war was declared on me but no move was made by the AI for at least 5 years...

'1. Take at least two of their regions. Most Majors will accept peace after a loss like that. You can also slowly wear down the AI with prolonged blockades and town raids. Even small victories like these can make a difference when demanding peace.

2. Destroy their army as completely as possible. This is especially important when you want to force a peace/protectorate with a Minor, because they don't have spare regions you could capture. This is also useful to stop the AI continually declaring war. Just beat them to a pulp so they don't have anything to threaten you with.

3. Don't try to offer back a high unrest region for peace, such as newly-captured capitals. Because you're just trying to avoid a rebellion, of course the AI won't oblige. But giving back happy and wealthy regions for peace is entirely viable, and you might even demand a tech or two in return

4. Use threaten if you could sneak an army up to an undefended AI city.

5. Don't forget the usual tricks, unlimited military access and paying over turns. Supposedly, if you offer to pay them over time they're less likely to break the truce.'

These do not work either. I have tried the above tactics and tricks many times...and they do not work. Usually, a declaration of war means a fight to the death.

However, in an experiment when I was Austria warring with Russia, I offered Russia half my empire (abt 10 regions worth) for a peace treaty. And yes, they accepted!

But come on, why should I compromise when they're the ones getting pounded? And so, in the tradition TW's broken diplomacy, I proceeded to steamroll across the steppes...