Shuttle diplomacy sucks

[Khar221]

Is there ever really a situation where this is needed? Sure it'd be nice if improve relations went faster but I've never had a game over situation because of it.

 

[Mikalos]

"Maximizing efficiency" is "gamey" now?

With that said, the game would not be worse off with the removal of the initial tick of improved relations.

anything involving the words "maximums" "minimums" and/or "efficiency!" are almost always also under the banner of "gamey" things.

 

[hwoosh]

anything involving the words "maximums" "minimums" and/or "efficiency!" are almost always also under the banner of "gamey" things.

Newsflash: We're playing a game! :O

 

[Clownie]

Yes?

Yes.

 

[hitchens]

We all know it. When nothing else is going on, the best use of Diplomats is to Improve Relations and immediately Recall, repeat until nearly the end of the month, Improve Relations with someone distant and don't Recall until the 1st of the next month, repeat. This happens because a relations boost occurs when the diplomat is first assigned in addition to the change-of-month.

And while this gives the attentive and patient human player an advantage -- improve relations with several other nations per month! -- it is extremely tedious and not good gameplay. I don't want to sit here hitting 'pause' every few seconds to reassign a diplomat for maximum advantage; but I also don't want to play sub-optimally, and perhaps suffer later because I can't ally the neighbor that I need to.

Heck, if you only have one neighbor that you care about, the optimal strategy is to recall that diplomat and reassign him every month; this improves relations at twice the rate of simply leaving him assigned.

The fix is easy -- eliminate the relations bonus when a diplomat is first assigned. Perhaps scale up the change-of-month effect to compensate. No more micromanaging, no more visiting all your neighbors (and timing end-of-month for best effect). Put him where he's most needed and leave him.

Yes?

Heh just when you think you seen it all. You complain about gamey tactics sucks, then stop doing it.

 

[Mikalos]

Newsflash: We're playing a game! :O

Not how that term works and you know better

 

[ahyangyi]

anything involving the words "maximums" "minimums" and/or "efficiency!" are almost always also under the banner of "gamey" things.

One tiny change and suddenly the "maximum" is the usual non-gamey way to play. I don't see why you are opposed to such a benign suggestion.

 

[ahyangyi]

If you relied on this gamey technique and you think it should exist, you suck.

If you don't rely on this gamey technique, and you do think gamey is wrong, you should support removing it...

 

[Illianor123]

At most it is 2 countries for one diplomat or 1.5x relations with one country (due to the one month wait between visits), so it isn't that much if an improvement. Very tedious for small gains. Probably should be fixed to only bump relations on the monthly tick.

More important bugs and fixes should be focused on first.

 

[ahyangyi]

At most it is 2 countries for one diplomat or 1.5x relations with one country (due to the one month wait between visits), so it isn't that much if an improvement. Very tedious for small gains. Probably should be fixed to only bump relations on the monthly tick.

More important bugs and fixes should be focused on first.

I agree this is low priority though.

 

[Wixit]

At most it is 2 countries for one diplomat or 1.5x relations with one country (due to the one month wait between visits), so it isn't that much if an improvement. Very tedious for small gains. Probably should be fixed to only bump relations on the monthly tick.

More important bugs and fixes should be focused on first.

Really depends on travel time. If you're in the HRE, you can use one diplomat to boost relations with 10 countries or more in a month because of the very low travel times (1, 2, or 3 days). Same applies to boosting a single country, if the travel time is, say, 3 days, and you send your diplo on the 1st of the first month, 4th of the second month, 7th of the third month etc. you're boosting your relations by 1.9x. Not quite 2, but close. You can also daisy-chain several diplomats for countries further away, maintaining double improvement.

 

[Florryworry]

I usually only bother with my first ally or something or in a pickle still tho if it werent there i doubt it would make much difference

 

[Lord Canterbury]

Do people actually do this? It sound like the most boring exploit imaginable.

Genuine question: What is it that is stopping you just going: "This is the most boring thing I could do in the game. Even though I know it is sub-optimal I will choose not to do this because it will make the game suck for me. I will just consider it a self imposed house rule and pretend like the devs made the change I wanted"?

 

[zdlugasz]

Well yeah, you're maximizing efficiency by exploiting. That's gamey by definition.

I personally do not care about it but I fail to see it as an exploit:
- you get tick on arrival - it is WAD, isnt it?
- as WIZ said, AI gets extra diplomat because it performs diplo things once per month, while human recall and can reuse diplomat the same month again
so devs know that players recall diplomats and gave extra tick on arrival anyway

So if somebody wants to micromanage (the same with colonist - which can be the only help in the neighbor tropical colony playing in e.g. Indonesia) let them do it, others find it boring so they do not do it. IMO it is about style - do you min-max or have fun or both if you like micromanagement.

 

[spinoza013]

but I also don't want to play sub-optimally, and perhaps suffer later because I can't ally the neighbor that I need to.

Check your OCD