Imperator - Development Diary #9 - 23rd of July 2018

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Hello everyone and welcome to the 9th development diary for Imperator. Today we’ll start talking a bit about diplomacy, and cover a few of the features of that type.

Imperator follows the “new” generation of games, if we still consider CK2 new, in that opinions are two-way, where you can love someone that hate you, and you can see in detail what is causing the numbers to be that way.

And as has been common in our games since CK2, the AI will tell you exactly why it will accept or decline a certain diplomatic action.

2018_07_23_2_cut.png


Aggressive Expansion is a concept we liked in EU4, but it was awkwardly implemented. In Imperator we have an AE value in your country, kind of like badboy in older games, so you can see how it is decaying etc. This is then applied in the opinion calculations with each nation, depending on where they are and their status with you.

A nation, depending on its rank, can have a number of diplomatic relations. Each Alliance and Tributary counts as 1 relation, while a defensive league occupies just 1 slot, no matter how big it is. For each relation over your limit, all your power costs are increased by 10%.

One cool new thing in Imperator is the Defensive Leagues. This is a purely defensive alliance that allows multiple nations in it, and it is defensive towards anyone outside of the league attacking it. The leader of a league is the one that invites people in. A defensive league takes only 1 relation slot, no matter how many members. Only City States and Minor Powers can be members of a defensive league.



The Diplomatic Actions include the following.
  • Declare War / Sue for Peace
  • Offer/Dissolve Alliance
  • Proclaim Guarantee
  • Ask/Cancel Military Access
  • Offer/Cancel Military Access
  • Demand/Break/Cancel Tribute
  • Request/Cancel Trade Access
  • Support Rebels
  • Fabricate Claims
  • Invite/Kick/Leave Defensive League
  • Improve Relation
  • Send Gift
  • Intervene in War
  • Threaten War
  • Enforce Peace
  • Sell City

2018_07_23_1.png




Next week we’ll talk about country ranks, and how that impacts what you can do.
 
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Cool! :) Approximately how many relation slots countries will have?
 
Thanks! Going over the relation limit seems to be harshly punished. The map more by the way looks really clean and clear, great to see. Badboy seems fine although the devil is in the details in what effect it has.

I'm mildly disappointed that defensive leagues don't result in some sort of mini HRE including reforms, elections for leadershipland ways to make them more permanent. Even in this form though they seem an interesting mechanic which should help a bit while being small/playing tall
 
So what exactly will Aggressive Expansion do in Imperator? In CK2, defensive pacts will sprout up everywhere and in EUIV, once you hit a threshold, coalitions will be formed and actively fight back. Will Imperator take from those systems at all, or is it just as you said, a gigantic nerf to your ability to use diplomacy?
 
So what exactly will Aggressive Expansion do in Imperator? In CK2, defensive pacts will sprout up everywhere and in EUIV, once you hit a threshold, coalitions will be formed and actively fight back. Will Imperator take from those systems at all, or is it just as you said, a gigantic nerf to your ability to use diplomacy?
Maybe it would give countries near you a bonus to joining defensive leagues.
 
Will Guaranteeing take up one slot per guarantee?

Have you ever considered (other games included) making them cheaper than one relations slot?

I always wondered what were the devs' thoughts on this :)
 
Is there a limit regarding distance to the leader in these defensive leagues? I wouldn't like to see a defensive league going from Iberia to India in a kind of "island hopping", where every 500 km another opm is a member of it.

And although the overall distance is huge, the individual distance to "next member" is not so far ... so please stop the ai from doing something like this. ;)
 
I wonder, with AE being a number tied to the country - does that mean that conquering India while I wait for my European AE to cool down a bit won't be a thing? That would be a shame :(

Doesn't make much sense I think. Let's say we are powers in Greece. I'm your neighbour. Now I start to conquer India... you would still care even if you're in Europe right?
 
So one thing that EU4 allows that Stellaris doesn't that SERIOUSLY changes the dynamics of multiplayer is the defensive alliance to bypass truces. Meaning, Spain attacks France, France loses, France tries to recoup loses by attacking Savoy, Spain allies Savoy after the war is declared, uses "defensive" CTA to bypass truce.

Stellaris doesn't allow that and in turn it makes multiplayer far more tolerable when you're adjacent to a superior power that wants to kill you.

So for Imperator will there be a defensive alliance to bypass truces? Attacking in to a target that was ALREADY allied pre-war seems fair to allow them to bypass a truce, but allying POST-WAR to bypass a truce has always seemed incredibly shitty (and was straight disabled in singleplayer because it's so shitty to play against.)

(Also how are multiplayer alliances work? Will they again ignore relations and stuff like that to allow anyone to ally anyone?)
 
Doesn't make much sense I think. Let's say we are powers in Greece. I'm your neighbour. Now I start to conquer India... you would still care even if you're in Europe right?
"That power adjacent to us is getting massively powerful!.. but I'm sure it won't be an issue for at LEAST 10 years! Future us can worry about it."
 
I like that we are getting features that were in DLCs for EU4 and that you are revisiting agressive expansion. Looking forward to hear about ranks next week.
 
Doesn't make much sense I think. Let's say we are powers in Greece. I'm your neighbour. Now I start to conquer India... you would still care even if you're in Europe right?

"India quid est?" Consul C. Sulpicius Longus II
 
I am not a fan of EU4 AE as it is very gamey to have a hard limit of 50 and as long as you juggle to stay at 49 everything is fine.

It also rewards larger, or rather long, countries as they can attack in one direction and the gained AE wont affect countries on the other end of the realm making it possible to chain wars without downside.
 
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