A few suggestions about minors and diplomacy
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Stardock Forums
Stardock Forums
I have been playing at “normal” difficulty and have some suggestions I would like to put forward.
I would welcome comments from other players in respect of my suggestions because one needs to be very careful about changes to a game. I find, sometimes when modding a game, that what seemed like a good idea sometimes unbalances or otherwise spoils the game. Stardock reads these suggestion threads and just might do something!
MINORS
I would like to see minors that are a little more than a pushover, on the other hand they should remain minor. I feel that they should do more, at present they just inert. They never seem to start wars and I think that is good because they are minors.
Minors never build starbases. I would like to see them build starbases in their home sector for some extra defence, production and trade enhancement. It would not be desirable for them to harvest resources outside their own sector as this may upset the game play.
Minors fill their orbits with ships meaning they can not build better warships when they get the requisite technology. The consequence is they tend to finish up with an orbital space full of obsolete junk. If I attack one then I want him to put up a fight.
A further consequence of filling their orbit with junk is that they then can not build freighters either so they miss out on significant revenue thus falling further behind. (Umh, and I want some chance they will send a freighter my way).
When minors are fighting back they never invade even if they do destroy all warships defending an enemy planet. I would like to see them invade consistent with my desire to see them defend themselves to the best of their abilities (particularly if I happen to be the one fighting them).
I recognize that players may differ in their views of the game play purpose of minors. Some of these views may be:
1. someone to sell things to, suck them dry and then capture them
2. long term partners to be strengthened and traded with for mutual benefit
I most definitely like to have at least one as long term partner whereas anyone who sees them as plunder may dislike my suggestions. Please comment.
DIPLOMACY
I am concerned that if I ally with more than one power that my two allies will immediately start fighting one another. I have therefore not dared have more than one ally. (I have had this problem with every strategy game I have played except Europa Universalis). I would like to have an alliance system in which any new ally must also ally with your existing ally or at least sign a non-aggression pact, anything to prevent them fighting each other. It would probably be desirable that your allies be given a massive payment to agree to this.
I think an alliance should only be activated if an ally is attacked. There should never be any obligation to assist if the ally starts a war. (This will also prevent the usual human cheese of getting an ally, immediately attacking someone, letting the ally do lots of fighting with the human picking up the spoils). Also, I may not wish to help my ally if he started the war.
I would also like to be able to issue a guarantee of protection for a minor if my relations with that minor are say “close”. This is just a one sided alliance, I must defend the minor but it need do nothing to help me. There should be a very serious penalty for failing to honour this guaranteee and the AI should look to my strength before attacking the minor. This would be useful for protecting trade partners without involving them in my wars.
I would like to see the AI take into account the strength of allies before declaring war. I notice that the majors will attack my minor ally even if I have an overwhelming fleet.
I would welcome comments from other players in respect of my suggestions because one needs to be very careful about changes to a game. I find, sometimes when modding a game, that what seemed like a good idea sometimes unbalances or otherwise spoils the game. Stardock reads these suggestion threads and just might do something!
MINORS
I would like to see minors that are a little more than a pushover, on the other hand they should remain minor. I feel that they should do more, at present they just inert. They never seem to start wars and I think that is good because they are minors.
Minors never build starbases. I would like to see them build starbases in their home sector for some extra defence, production and trade enhancement. It would not be desirable for them to harvest resources outside their own sector as this may upset the game play.
Minors fill their orbits with ships meaning they can not build better warships when they get the requisite technology. The consequence is they tend to finish up with an orbital space full of obsolete junk. If I attack one then I want him to put up a fight.
A further consequence of filling their orbit with junk is that they then can not build freighters either so they miss out on significant revenue thus falling further behind. (Umh, and I want some chance they will send a freighter my way).
When minors are fighting back they never invade even if they do destroy all warships defending an enemy planet. I would like to see them invade consistent with my desire to see them defend themselves to the best of their abilities (particularly if I happen to be the one fighting them).
I recognize that players may differ in their views of the game play purpose of minors. Some of these views may be:
1. someone to sell things to, suck them dry and then capture them
2. long term partners to be strengthened and traded with for mutual benefit
I most definitely like to have at least one as long term partner whereas anyone who sees them as plunder may dislike my suggestions. Please comment.
DIPLOMACY
I am concerned that if I ally with more than one power that my two allies will immediately start fighting one another. I have therefore not dared have more than one ally. (I have had this problem with every strategy game I have played except Europa Universalis). I would like to have an alliance system in which any new ally must also ally with your existing ally or at least sign a non-aggression pact, anything to prevent them fighting each other. It would probably be desirable that your allies be given a massive payment to agree to this.
I think an alliance should only be activated if an ally is attacked. There should never be any obligation to assist if the ally starts a war. (This will also prevent the usual human cheese of getting an ally, immediately attacking someone, letting the ally do lots of fighting with the human picking up the spoils). Also, I may not wish to help my ally if he started the war.
I would also like to be able to issue a guarantee of protection for a minor if my relations with that minor are say “close”. This is just a one sided alliance, I must defend the minor but it need do nothing to help me. There should be a very serious penalty for failing to honour this guaranteee and the AI should look to my strength before attacking the minor. This would be useful for protecting trade partners without involving them in my wars.
I would like to see the AI take into account the strength of allies before declaring war. I notice that the majors will attack my minor ally even if I have an overwhelming fleet.