Diplomacy Update is officially released

[LiarFox]

The day has come.
Field of Glory: Empires has been updated to Version 1.1.0, bringing the newly enhanced Diplomacy system on the table. It is a massive update, improving and impacting many game mechanics and features so be sure to check out the full changelog below.

Thanks to all players who helped us fine tune the new diplomacy system through 3 Beta Patches. You have done great and we hope to see you apply to our new round of beta!

Version 1.1.0

Balance and tweak to diplomacy

• Declaring a client state does not prevent getting regions from them
• Allies loiter less in your home territory
• Can't get ships from the 'Give Special Units' diplomacy clause
• Validating a transaction returns you directly to the intro Diplomacy panel
• One-sided transactions will either increase (gift) or decrease (extortion) relationships
• AI will propose many less transactions
• AI Allies capturing a region formerly owned by another nation (legitimate owner in advanced diplomacy) will give it back immediately
• Can enter regions of a nation with whom you have a peace treaty (allows evacuating your army when stranded) – Human player only.
• If all your capitals are besieged (or lost), severe penalty during peace treaty
• You can now demand regions owned by the vassals of your enemy
• Having hold of an enemy region when making a peace deal makes the region cheaper
• AI Vassals don't give back regions to human overlord anymore
• AI more reluctant to be absorbed or client-state if the other nation is not bigger
• AI will value more money, metal or manpower if it lacks some, and value less if it has enough
• AI less interested in trading units if not enough money
• Small factions will be much less prone to send transactions (less spamming)
• Explicitly name winner and loser factions in clause tooltips
• Region Clause: Lowered significantly cost if at war
• Give Units Clause: Can only be done if neighbor (sea-neighbor ok)
• War control gives less penalty
• War exhaustion triggers more rapidly (emphasis on wanting to make peace faster)
• AI will want to make peace faster as War Exhaustion accrues
• AI will not propose a cooperation during a bargain if already allied
• AI will only demand or accept the Relinquish objective clause if neighbor
• Validating a transaction returns you directly to the intro Diplomacy panel
• Additional texts for Diplomacy (FRE SPA GER)

Other changes
• Added the Sacred Estate building, an improvement to the worship place with a special effect (GC310 has some in Egypt, Armenia, Media)
• Objectives show the turn they were given in nation panel
• Sinope harbor position nudged east
• Gaining a slave in battle might mean losing a population in the region
• Updated quotes and hints, courtesy of Neilbala the Brythonic King
• Fix to Armenia having too many levied units
• Dynamic objectives can be given according to more criteria
• Food stockpile never goes below zero
• Periplus not given if you own the region
• Too big World Factions groups lose 10% of their units per turn (depending of AI level)
• Fixed overcrowding tooltip which was erroneously mentioning region terrain and not city terrain.
• Rex Custodiae can now be built from a Palace building (if CL 3)
• Nomad herd don't have cattle as a bonus anymore
• Fix to a typo in Ptolemaic Egypt gameplay text
• Units: war elephants now provide 2 support values
• An old objective won't be phased out if you own a region adjacent to it
• Fix to Stoa bug
• Added translation for French, Spanish and German.
• Mercenary decision has a 500-money prerequisite
• Kolchis / Armenia missions fixed and tweaked
• Debts modifiers added after gain back factored in
• Updated Empires DB archive


Compatibility notes 1.06 to 1.1.0
100% compatible
Previous versions
It is advised to restart a game

[USGrant]

Note: you must opt out of betas for Steam to download 1.1.0.

[Groogo]

Looking forward to this, great job you guys, the industry could learn from how you folks run your Customer Service!

[asharif]

Sounds like one of the best game in years just got even better.

[Soulequilibrium]

I started a new game with this update and tried out some stuff. First of all it's a little weird to me that the cooperation and client state suggestions are available as both normal and transaction options but the alliance and declare war suggestion only as normal options? Seems very cluttered, why isn't it all unified under the transaction option?

Now, I'm Massalia and I have a chat with Saguntum and look at the cooperation suggestion and it gives me a 37% chance of success. I then go to the transaction option and select cooperation. 0% chance of succes. I add in 200 gold. Still at 0%. What? Surely that can't be intended.

I also see stuff like the normal cooperation suggestion having a modifier of -40% "flooded by cheap trade goods" but the transaction cooperation option gives me -24% of the same modifier.

So I don't know what's up but this doesn't look right, at all.

[PocusFR]

It might feel weird, it is in a sense. Now none of the betas during the 3 beta versions complained about that, even if we had some reservation initially about leaving the previous treaties. But we decided to wait if the betas complained about them. In the end, no, they felt it was an alternate form of proposal, more guided (you have only one choice) but with the added benefit of simplicity and higher percentage of success.

If that's too much of a bother for many, we can remove them though, but for now, it was a conscious decision to leave them, even if it might feel like a bit of a discrepancy.

[Groogo]

Originally posted by PocusFR:

It might feel weird, it is in a sense. Now none of the betas during the 3 beta versions complained about that, even if we had some reservation initially about leaving the previous treaties. But we decided to wait if the betas complained about them. In the end, no, they felt it was an alternate form of proposal, more guided (you have only one choice) but with the added benefit of simplicity and higher percentage of success.

If that's too much of a bother for many, we can remove them though, but for now, it was a conscious decision to leave them, even if it might feel like a bit of a discrepancy.

I noticed it and thought that it was a big enough issue that it would be addressed when the next (or final) version was available. The thought of it being a feature never crossed my mind.

[mister.hister]

It bothered me each time but I forgot to brought it up and was sure it will be fixed when out of beta. :D

[Soulequilibrium]

Sorry, I never used the beta or I certainly would have mentioned it.

I'm not opposed to there being alternate, more guided proposals as you say but it's the unevenness and the different calculations that are used that bother me.

You can do cooperation and client state in both, but not alliance or declare war. I feel it would be better if you can do all of them, or none. Especially being able to "buy off" someone so they declare war on someone else could create interesting situations?

Maybe justify different chances of success in that the old direct requests take longer to get a reply on but offer a better chance versus the transaction options which are dealt with faster but have a lower base chance? I don't know, just firing off an idea.

In any case as it is right now I personally find it cluttered and really strange that there's two different formula's used for essentially the same proposals. So, myself I would prefer to see it all unified and just work in a single way, or actually be made really distinct from each other. The later could create interesting depth.

And a really minor note, I also find it a little strange that the proposals are individually on top, then you have the gift and insult options and on the bottom there is the transaction option. I'd expect the transaction option to be on top since it's by far the most diverse and not a "minor" option like gifts or insults.

[eddieballgame]

Excellent

[Blathergut]

Is it just me? Reading the patch notes above, I have non idea what the diplomacy update does. What are transactions, for instance? Were these already in the game (it's been quite a while since I've played)? Is there a detailed description of what diplomacy does to the game?

[gmsh1964]

Originally posted by USGrant:

Note: you must opt out of betas for Steam to download 1.1.0.

wow, did not know that. Thanks

[PocusFR]

I hear you. There will be another patch before not too long (I can't say precisely when), so the diplomacy interface will be reworked some and more consistency in treaties will be done.

We will post today a short document on the Diplomacy Update, the doc must have slipped at the bottom of the forum by now.

[Soulequilibrium]

That's fantastic to hear! Thanks for the quick responses, during out of office hours even, and the receptiveness. And I should have mentioned this in the first post, but I think the Diplomacy update is great beyond my remarks. A really nice addition to a great game!

[Tanaka]

• Updated quotes and hints, courtesy of Neilbala the Brythonic King

Where are these showing? Is this the loading screen quotes because I am not seeing any new ones?

[mister.hister]

Originally posted by Tanaka:

• Updated quotes and hints, courtesy of Neilbala the Brythonic King

Where are these showing? Is this the loading screen quotes because I am not seeing any new ones?

Was wondering this too.