Diplomacy pop ups?! newbie help

Semaj231 said:

also should i try and take out portugal? do they like to colonise the new world just as much as spain did? so should i eliminate a compitetor?

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While this is true, other christian nations with a port will also have a good chance at colonizing after the 1500s. After many years of game time, the AI will make the world map look chaotic and messy.

Semaj231 said:

i miss frances 'call to arms' tool tip on the bottom left of the screen. this causes them to dissolve alliance and want nothing to do with me! i have scoured the options and tried looking for posts, but i just don't know how to make it a pop up

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As DDRJake posted, there is unfortunately no way to make those diplomatic offers/requests pop up automatically.

also just a question, the only way i have figured out properly take over territory (lets use the example of castilla trying to take over aragon) is by invading them with land troops, sieige all there provinces and occupying, followed by me demanding provinces from them. this is good and all, but i end up with a fuck tonne of infamy, am i just rushing it? im sure there is a more peaceful way of being a happy empire.

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Usually the main thing you need to do to get peace is to destroy their army, reducing their War Capacity to zero or close to it.
Just because you occupy all their provinces doesn't mean you need to take 100 warscore worth of provinces in the peace deal; as frequently said here, it's a 400-year game, no need to rush. Also pay attention to what casus belli you use; different CBs will give you different amounts of infamy for taking provinces.

EU3wiki.com read the file on CBs and the strategy guide for castille.

One piece of advice: this game can be confusing if you're not taking things slow sometimes. That can best be achieved by using the spacebar or pause button frequently when messages are popping up. Usually I just pause the game as soon as a message pops up. Quite a few times I lost some stability while thinking I was clicking a dismiss button for a merchant announcement. Turns out half a second before a decision screen popped up which I couldn't even read.

Locating countries is a different matter than locating provinces. You can find the latter by using the find button (an arrow). Locating countries sadly is a matter of topographical knowledge (as far as I know), which is of course one of the game's stronger didactic aspects

The Call to Arms icon is unfortunately easy to miss. You just have to remember to keep an eye out for it, which hopefully should get easier with experience. Another clue is that if you're looking at France on the map and suddenly they start building new troops in all of their provinces, it's a safe bet they've just gone to war!

Other countries hiring your advisors is good news, because they pay you for them. It maybe doesn't matter so much as Castille, but for small countries it can actually be a large chunk of your income in the early years.

You can sometimes inherit land peacefully, or even persuade a small country to unite with you using diplomacy (vassalise, wait 10 years, annex); but both are fairly rare events. Conquest is the main way to expand - but unlike Total War, EUIII is not a game where you have to keep on expanding non-stop or die. The infamy mechanic forces you to space wars out: a period of conquest followed by a period of peace as you absorb your gains.

When you go to the 'Declare war' screen, you should see different casus bellis listed out. Click on each of them to see the benefit: some of them allow you to annex provinces for lower infamy cost, or gain more prestige from the war, or whatever. Choose the best for your purpose, and above all make sure you actually click on it and don't declare war while you have "No CB" selected, or you'll regret it! Learning how to acquire good CBs against another country is an important part of learning to play the game better, since many of them have preconditions.

It's pretty much a free choice whether you conquer Portugal or ally with them. Yes, they'll compete against you in colonisation, but so will other European countries. Maybe it's better to see Portuguese colonies neighbouring yours in the New World than to see French ones?

The country info screen in the top left (click your shield) will list all your allies, and also all the countries you currently have a CB on, which is useful.

If you're at war, you'll also see an alert icon appear on the bottom right of the screen, with the shield of the enemy war leader. Clicking this brings up an information screen listing all your allies and enemies, plus lots of other information. Also, you can use the 'Diplomacy' map mode to shade all your allies in green and anyone you're at war with in red.

To see if two AI nations are allied with each other, the only way to do it is to click on one of their provinces and look at the country information screen that pops up there. (Or you can go to declare war on them - it will warn you if they're allied with anyone - then press 'Cancel' instead of actually declaring war.) The ledger does have a page listing all current wars in progress.

To find a country: I think (but can't remember for sure) that if you open the first page of the ledger, find that country's shield, then click on it, the map will centre over the country's capital. If you're at war with someone, though, the fastest way to find them is (as mentioned) switch the map mode to 'Diplomacy', zoom out, and look for provinces coloured red.

OP, have you played the tutorial? EU3 is one of the few games where the tutorial is actually good - not a big wall of text, quite interactive. I really recommend playing it.

Johnbarnshack said:

OP, have you played the tutorial? EU3 is one of the few games where the tutorial is actually good - not a big wall of text, quite interactive. I really recommend playing it.

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Quite the contrary for me, I found it vague. It only told me how to do some things. What I'd like the tutorial to do is to tell me what these stats mean and what that button does.

Semaj231 said:

so sorry, i'm back!

is there a screen where i can see my alliances, countries i'm and war with and other countries alliances? i hate when one of my ally's declare war and i go to help, only to be completely confused at who i'm at war with.

also, i hate getting a CB on a country i've never heard of. how can i locate countries easily? i can locate provinces using the tool quite easily.

i tried looking around the forums and in game, but dam it cant be this hard to miss

cheers

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The diplomatic map mode does a good job of showing who you are allied to and who you are at war with. You can also click on any other country whilst in that mode to see the diplomatic map from their point of view. Information about alliances, wars and CBs are mainly contained in the last 5 pages or so of the Ledger (book icon in the lower right of the screen) There is actually a lot of useful information in there and I recommend you use it. The game will automatically pause when you open it so you dont have to worry about that either. It contains army/navy/economy sizes for every country in the game, information about your provinces, pie, and much more

StephenT said:

To find a country: I think (but can't remember for sure) that if you open the first page of the ledger, find that country's shield, then click on it, the map will centre over the country's capital. If you're at war with someone, though, the fastest way to find them is (as mentioned) switch the map mode to 'Diplomacy', zoom out, and look for provinces coloured red.

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Thank you so much for this