Quote Originally Posted by 46852
Diplomats: Working quite nicely. Succesful treaties give positive abilities, negatives come when you blunder with your requests. Not sure if giving gifts has any effect? A nice bonus would be that high level diplomats would gradually raise your standing with the faction he is located at. Might be hard to add this in though :)

I like this suggestion a lot. Have diplomats function something like priests, but with standing instead of religious levels. This would make them more useful during 'downtimes' and also provide both a pleasant and realistic way of either maintaining a relationship or fixing a problematic one. All too often you make friends with someone and you ignore them a bit because you need to be elsewhere. Few turns later your standing with your allies has dwindled into 'so-so' or (usually) worse and if someone even hints at attacking, they jump for it. Having a diplomat hang out in a foreign land would ease any current issues and also keep the PR machine rolling (assuming the diplomat's decently skilled). He'd be hanging out with all the local royalty and reminding them at how benevolent you are. Makes more sense than constantly bribing your friends. And they could help ease your two countries towards peace (as long as you don't keep attacking in the meantime). Downside, of course, would be the limited number of diplomats, so some would set up an 'embassy' of sorts, while others were your mobile negotiators...