Diplomats and ambassadors

[Tarkus]

A couple of quick questions regarding diplomats...sorry in advance if this is plodding over old ground:

1. What exactly is happening when a foreign diplomat is hanging around next to one of your cities, with that city's income changing by a few mnai each turn? I assume he's bribing my troops, but I don't seem to be losing entire units. I haven't been watchful enough to have a good before-and-after picture of what's going on...

2. How can I best use a diplomat that has evolved into an ambassador? He may be useful when remaining in one of my cities, but seemingly only when a foreign diplomat happens to enter into negotiations with that city and its governor. And as soon as I move that ambassador out of a city (i.e., to go forth and negotiate with foreign factions), his abilities drop dramatically. What to do?

Thanks in advance...hope these ain't too dumb...

[johnhughthom]

The foreign diplomats are trying to bribe your city, they can't bribe a few units, only the entire city. I believe that if you have a diplomat who has become an ambassador he will push the level of bribe needed way up meaning its unlikely the AI will be able to afford the bribe. It can also be a good idea to put a diplomat in a stack to make it more difficult to bribe armies.

[Parkev]

2. AFAIK the Ambassador trait is specially included to increase cost to bribe for the AI quite a bit, to offset potential large accumulation of money that they acquire thanks to the money script.

[Thaatu]

...with that city's income changing by a few mnai each turn?

That's because of growth increasing/decreasing the tax revenue. Also farming incomes changes from time to time.

[Tarkus]

Thaatu,

What's actually happening is that a foreign diplomat is standing outside my city and, during that faction's activities for the given turn, he is clearly seen negotiating (the "diplomat talking" animation). Since I don't have a diplomat in the city, there's no direct opportunity for the negotiation scroll to come up. Immediately after he's negotiated for a few moments, there's a change in the income for that city only -- indicating an apparent direct consequence of the negotiation with that city. This is in addition to the general change in income for all cities that immediately the "end turn" action...so it seems different to me than the income generated from farming, mining, etc.

[Foot]

Thaatu,

What's actually happening is that a foreign diplomat is standing outside my city and, during that faction's activities for the given turn, he is clearly seen negotiating (the "diplomat talking" animation). Since I don't have a diplomat in the city, there's no direct opportunity for the negotiation scroll to come up. Immediately after he's negotiated for a few moments, there's a change in the income for that city only -- indicating an apparent direct consequence of the negotiation with that city. This is in addition to the general change in income for all cities that immediately the "end turn" action...so it seems different to me than the income generated from farming, mining, etc.

Um, you don't need a diplomat to bring up the diplomacy scroll, you only need a diplomat to initiate diplomatic proceedings. If the diplomat wished to talk, he would talk with your general (or if you didn't have a general, I assume with the captain of the garrison - I have no idea what happens if the city is empty, I imagine that they couldn't do anything on it). The diplomat is definately attempting a bribe and failing. Whether the income is connected is impossible to say, but its not because of any successful diplomatic agreement (bribe or otherwise).

Foot

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I'm not sure the diplomat doing his animation to a city means he is trying to bribe it. I've had super rich factions have a diplomat doing that ever turn to towns with two skirmishers in it. He could clearly afford to bribe a "Large Town" with a tiny garrison.

My theory is it is just a silly diplomat bug like the 'Don't attack us"-"We won't attack you" deal.