how can you improve your own opinion of another nation?

[egill]

i'm Portugal 1626, in a longish war with Eng v France and Denmark. We're just staying ahead in naval battles. Fr and Denmark are churning out galleons and early frigates. I have the largest fleet but am playing catch-up in naval tech.

A decade ago Portugal broke a long-standing alliance with Spain. It wasn't me, the AI decided to do it. (does anyone know why?)

I've rebuilt Spain's friendship +118 opinion and she is willing to re-ally
The problem is Portugal's low opinion of Spain +50; Any ideas?

thanks
Egill

ps i'm dominating Malacca and have cored Taiwan - what size force do I need for a reasonable chance of success in conquering some provinces in
South China? I can't spare much.

 

[Nilmerf]

It's because they broke the alliance, you get a negative opinion modifier from that that decays over time. Assuming you have a royal marriage, the only other thing you can do is ask for military access too and wait until your opinion is positive.

 

[egill]

thanks
I'll ask for access (I already have RM)
the weird thing was that the AI told me that it was me that broke the alliance!?* why?

 

[Morricane]

Besides Alliance, Royal Marriage & Asking for Military Access & Fleet Basing Rights, Giving Subsidies actually gives a yearly bonus to BOTH nations...
It scales to the amount of money you shell out monthly and the bonus you get for giving them money is lower than the one they get. (for example, in my game I gave France like 30 ducats monthly since they fought vs. the super-massive Spain-Austria alliance while I fought Spain-Austria as well - they got like 6,8 pts a year and I got 1,4 pts a year, something like that)

So it's not substantial but certainly is worth doing it if you really are only 5 or 10 points away from getting an alliance or something.