What Do Civilzations Want? (Diplomacy Suggestion)

from Stardock Forums
For the life of me, I can't figure out what the civilizations will take to do something. I spend too long clicking and resubmitting various combinations of goods, planets, etc. to try to bribe them in to giving me something, or helping me in a war.

A "want" would be to add something similar to Civ3. "To give me X, what would you require?"

/ds
564 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
This kind of takes away a lot of the skill involved. I know others may disagree with me on that, but that is specifically why we didn't put in something like that.

Part of the challenge of the game is for players to come to learn what is valued at what. It's what seperates a new player from an expert player.

The text will turn green when the AI is willing to accept it. So you can get a pretty good idea fairly quickly of what they want and don't want.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Usualy the text in the middle of the screen will change colour from yellow to green. Green meaning they will accept your offer. If you are not strong in diplomacy or if the Empire you are talking with are stronger in diplomacy than you you will have to give them quite a bit more than they will give you.

Getting them to declare war, especialy on someone who they like or trade with can be costly. As a general tip I would say diplomacy techs and bonuses are quite important in this game. Either be able to make them give you stuff or be able to take it by force (for free :) )

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
does relative military or economic strength figure into the equation or is it just diplomacy skill? i.e. if the drengin had 10X more military power than the PC, would you have to offer much more to get the same result? you'd think a civ with a serious edge would drive a much harder bargain.

d

~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Civs with a leg up on you do drive a harder bargin. The leg up could mean more military power, bigger empire etc. Thats been my limited exerience. However, I would think that, regardless of relative power, they would agree to an even (or close to even) trade if there was something you offered that they really wanted. Would this be trhe case?
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Can I add to this, Frogboy?

I completely understand your thinking, but while I *could* learn all the relative values of things, the very fact that you have a green indicator means I simply resubmit offers until it turns green.

Might I suggest two options:

1) Having *no* such indicator for those who enjoy that challenge; and

2) Having an 'auto-offer' option that gets you, say, 90% of what you could have gotten had you done it manually?

Just an idea to save some clicking since negotiations do take up a lot of time otherwise.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Uhmm.. The only thing with auto-offer would be that the computer might want to give away things you don't want to part with. I rarely trade Military tech with other Empires and when I do I make sure I am ahead of them even if I give them that specific tech.

I do agree that auto-offer would be helpful when you are first staring out (or just don't want to bother with it), but speaking from experiance after playing a coupple of games you get a rough undestanding of how much to offer (given you might need to reajust it a few times for maximum yield).

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I think the 'auto-offer' would be most helpful on the dollar amount, not the tech itself, etc.

Example:

Tech offers are on the table. Negotiations are in the yellow. I want offer (or get) just enough bc's to make it green. Next to the slider, simply hit 'auto-offer' to bring it to green. The same for influence.

Since getting the offer to green at this point is nothing more than resubmitting these items again and again, I see no strategy in it. It's just time wasted, IMO. I suppose there is a certain role-playing element in that, but then the text should go an extra distance and say things like: "You're getting closer, but not enough."

But rather than bother with that kind of text, auto-offer would relieve one of the biggest time-stealers.

I should say when in used the 90% figure above, I'd be quite happy to be 10% off what the maximum offer would have been had I tinkered with the offer manually. That's a price I'd be happy to pay.

Just a thought...
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I would second the auto-cash option. When trading, I spend the most time tinkering with the cash and influence amounts and months to get an acceptable trade.

I would add that I prefer cash over a period of time, rather than lump sum. I don't know if the opponents give more net cash as a lump, or over time; but I do know "buy now" items cost lots more over time.

An auto-calculate for the amount would remove a bit of the tedium spent getting the absolute maximum value out of a trade. It feels too much like "Guess my Number between 1 and 100". Perhaps a diplomatic research option that gives auto-calculate... :)

~SDC~
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Yin, I guess I misundrestod you the first time. I agree that such auto-offer would be helpful. Good sugestion :)

~SDC~
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
They will usually take a system with a morale of 0. I am usually ready to be rid of them. :D

~SDC~