Quote Originally Posted by Whacker
A cool little idea that I had regarding diplomats.

- Give us the ability to "sacrifice" a diplomat near another faction's city to create a permanent "embassy" in that city to that faction. For example, I just build a single diplomat, then traipse him off to another faction's capital. When he's near the capital, I can click on him and select "create embassy". He then disappears (as well as upkeep), and you now have the ability to enter dialog at any time with the other faction through your interface somehow. Diplomats would still be useful for direct work on the campaign map, but being able to talk to another faction without having a diplomat close would be great, such as to make an alliance before you attack, bribe them, etc. Perhaps if you or someone else captures the city that you created the embassy at, then that ability disappears. I kinda dislike this though, I'd prefer for it to stay open somehow. Also now that I think about it, the embassy as a building itself on the build screen isn't a good idea, more as just an abstract idea.
Interesting idea , but to be realistic , it would have to have an upkeep cost (the diplomat will still want to be paid} .
It would also need to be an available target for sabotage and destruction by the faction that owns that city {just like today , a host nation/faction should be able to eject an embassy} ie : a building .
It would have to require the Faction owning the city targeted to give permission for it to be created .
An act of war by you or the host faction would have a high probability of the Host Faction choosing to eject your embassy from their city , and that would give you then a fresh new diplomat outside their city {perhaps with some traits and ancillaries related to say , the dialogues and results thereof over the last 10 turns ?}
The Embassy would still need its' own Diplomat type traits and ancillaries {at first based on those of the founding diplomat , but later changing as he dies and others replace him behind the scenes} .


On a related note , it would be nice if armies could have an option to attack foreign agents , but I imagine the A.I. isn't mature enough yet to manage the complexities that would surround that {would either kill everything in sight starting wars etc or ignore them when it shouldn't} .
It would be more realistic ; how long would an imam really have lasted openly preaching in Il de France in 1250 or a Catholic bishop in Egypt in 1100 ? The local lords would simply have chopped their heads off or physically thrown them out of the country if they were lucky !