Diplomacy Query

[Javolenus]

Hi All,

I'm happily playing EB but have a question regarding diplomacy. Here's the situation:

As a newbie I'm playing the Romani faction. At the start of the campaign I had my hands full with Greek, Rebels and Carthaginians, so I wanted to keep the Averni, Aedui and Sweboz onside. And so I sent diplomats to make peace and open up trade. Then, in order to keep my northern neighbours sweet, I started gifting them small amounts of cash at regular intervals.

So far so good. But later the Aedui attacked me. Realising that the Aedui were also fighting the Averni and Sweboz, I got my diplomats to gift attacks on the Aedui to both the Averni and Sweboz. The idea was to keep these two tribes onside and maybe organise a front against the Aedui.

But to my surprise, neither the Averni or the Sweboz would accept my gifts of attacks on their enemy, the Aedui. And to add insult to injury, claimed that my word could not be trusted. And yet I haven't broken a treaty in the whole campaign. And I made peace with them, gave them trade rights, and coughed up cash gifts.

Any comments welcome, as I'm not sure how to play the 'diplomatic game'.

[overweightninja]

It's quite a challenge I'm afraid, search this forum or google and you'll find many references to the poor diplomacy in RTW, and to answer your questions more directly...

1. Small tributes are a good way to keep alliances strong, keep it up.
2. Trust is very hard to earn for the purposes of some diplomatic actions, and the AI simply won't repsond to reasonable request, attack faction requests are considered quite demanding by the AI it would seem, best bet stack up a load of money and keep increasing your trade offers if you want it that much (although to be fair they probably wont help you a huge amount anyway).

IIRC the military and diplomacy code were produced completely seperately, and the military AI overrides the diplomacy AI, hence diplomacy is very rarely consistent.
Hope that helps, sorry it couldn't be better news :(
Cheers

PS
Check the mods forum for the "force diplomacy" mod, it's not cheating when you're dealing with RTW AI

[Constantine the Great]

The diplomactic engine in Rome Total War is notoriously stupid. There's not much that can be done about that, as it is hardcoded and cannot be altered. You could try downloading the Force Diplomacy Minimod, though.

[Javolenus]

Hi,

Many thanks for these replies. In a way it's reassuring that some diplomacy faults lay with the AI and not me! I'll check out the Force Diplomacy mod, as the diplomacy problems let the game down a bit. Otherwise it's totally immersive and awesome. I really like the visual design elements of EB and I'm impressed by the music too.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
TW diplomacy, since it was intrudoced in MTW, is an unfeature, merely an enhancement. I've posted this about ten times but here we go again: One of the devs (possibly Jack Lusted, aka Lusted but don't quote me on that) said that the two engines (diplomatic and military/political) were developed independently of each other by different programmers/teams. The military AI disregards the diplomatic one completely, while the diplomatic one takes into account the military situation to some extent, at which point it's really stupid I think.

If you want to make use of the diplomacy unfeature install the force diplomacy minimod. It's totally in your hands not to exploit it though.
.

[Javolenus]

Hi Mouzafphaerre,

Thanks for this reply - and especially as you've already answered a previous diplomacy query of mine, posted in the Entrance Hall.

I'll probably check out the Force Diplomacy mod, but for now I'm playing EB without diplomacy! so far so good . . .

[Moosemanmoo]

but for now I'm playing EB without diplomacy! so far so good . . .

Have a balloon for your admirable approach

[Spvrrina Vestricivs]

The only reason why I employ diplomats is for the trade rights at the beginning of a campaign and to make it harder for rich enemy factions to bribe my ungoverned cities out from under me.

It's such a pity that CA didn't spend more time considering the diplomacy side of the game, it would've made it even more immersive IMHO. Still, if/when RTW2 sees the light of day and it is fully mod-able (is that actually a word?), hopefully that can be rectified.

[Javolenus]

Thanks for the replies. I think the game would benefit from an extra dimension - like functioning diplomacy - although EB does a fantastic job of making the basic game immersive.

I once played a game called 'Crown of Glory' set in Napoleonic times. Although it can't stand next to RTW in graphics, it did have a functioning diplomatic angle.

[Danest]

I think that when you play on the harder campaign difficulty levels, the AI is even more aggressive and stubborn (though I haven't proven it, it seems this way).