I really think that the diplomacy in total war is one of its worst aspects (apart from the AI but we won't go into that now will we)

The best diplomacy i've seen in a game has been in Civ IV. There you have all you're options laid out in front of you. You don't have to walk a diplomat through 2 hostile countries and around the black sea (what really pissed me off in RTW is that i could be conquering greece and not be able to speak to the selucids without walking around the entire black sea, and yes i know i could have used a ship but most of those were fighting the greeks.) you just have to click on a button and you can negotiate to your hearts content. The other great thing was that you could see how the AI felt towards you so that it would tell you if it was pissed off at you and why. The diplomacy AI was also good so that if it was allied to you then it wouldn't suddenly declare war on you for no reason escpecially if you owned half of the world. However they would attack you if you were weak or had some boarder cities that had almost no garrison.

If total war could impliment some of these features then i believe that the games diplomacy would improve greatly.

*Suggestion mode off*