Diplomatic plays currently have several issues that I've noticed, some of which may be intentional, but in my opinion, all of this should be changed at least to to some degree:
First, no diplomatic play may be initiated for a war goal that costs more maneuvers than the initiator has access to (this prevents puppeting giant countries all over the place). Each country would be able to see their number of "base maneuvers."
During diplo plays, nations other than each side's leader will have their own pool of maneuvers to add war goals or sway with. A new sway option will be added, offering a player manuevers directly from the swayer's pool to the nation being swayed.
Second, a new stage will be added to the beginning of every diplomatic play if the initiator has at least one ally, during which the initiator's allies may back the initiator or remain undecided (beginning undecided). During this stage, conscripts cannot be activated by either side, the defender's primary war goal cannot be set, and the initiator can withdraw the play without penalty or instantly advance to the next stage. At the end of this stage and beginning of opening moves, maneuvers will be distributed among the allies that have committed according to the following formula:
A constant p is given, where p > 1 and higher values of p give less maneuvers to large alliance blocs. My initial suggestion for p is around 1.5, 2 seems a little to large, but this should ultimately be decided by testing.
Each countries' number of contributed maneuvers (The initiator contributes all maneuvers minus those used on the initial war goal, while their allies contribute all the maneuvers they would normally get on their own) raised to the power p, then, all these results are added together. The result is raised to the power 1/p to determine the total number of maneuvers to assign (adding more allies in this stage increases total maneuvers available, but with diminishing returns). These maneuvers assigned to each ally is: (their contributed maneuvers)*(total maneuvers to assign)/(total originally contributed maneuvers). While this formula is intended for allies of the initiator, it could also be used for nations in defensive pacts with the defender.
During the main phase of the play, any nation with maneuvers may use them to add war goals, or sway other nations. Any nation which abandons support loses all its maneuvers in that play permanently, though its sways remain in effect. Swaying may also take the form of one nation directly gifting other nations maneuvers to use in the play, without dictating what they must be used for. Other nations joining a play in this stage will not re-distribute maneuvers according to the above formula. If maneuvers are not used by end of the play, they are held over into the war, where they can be used for more swaying (if a nation is swayed during a war, the other side should have some time to counter-offer, or make an offer in exchange for neutrality) of nations who haven't declared themselves neutral or adding war goals.
Also, allow negotiated settlements during diplo plays if agreed to by all participants.
I think this will ultimately improve the diplo play and war systems by making them more flexible and dynamic. Alliances, which are currently terrible because the ally of an initiator will never get anything out of a war, will become more valuable and exciting, since late-game multilateral alliances will allow plays with lots of maneuvers and war goals. It will also give more autonomy to non-primary participants by giving them more options in plays.
- War leader for each side has way too much control over what gets added, and secondary participants, even those stronger than the leader, have no say.
- Negotiated peace is not possible until the war actually starts, and AI biases hard-locks that for a while even after the war starts.
- Allies of the initiator and nations in defensive pacts with the defended can't get any wargoals at all without abandoning their side.
- The initial war goal can be huge, bypassing the maneuver system (eg. puppeting a major power).
- When wars get huge, with multiple GPs on each side, you end up with cataclysmic conflict over usually tiny stakes.
- Infamy doesn't really affect big enough nations (evidence: every France run on YouTube)
First, no diplomatic play may be initiated for a war goal that costs more maneuvers than the initiator has access to (this prevents puppeting giant countries all over the place). Each country would be able to see their number of "base maneuvers."
During diplo plays, nations other than each side's leader will have their own pool of maneuvers to add war goals or sway with. A new sway option will be added, offering a player manuevers directly from the swayer's pool to the nation being swayed.
Second, a new stage will be added to the beginning of every diplomatic play if the initiator has at least one ally, during which the initiator's allies may back the initiator or remain undecided (beginning undecided). During this stage, conscripts cannot be activated by either side, the defender's primary war goal cannot be set, and the initiator can withdraw the play without penalty or instantly advance to the next stage. At the end of this stage and beginning of opening moves, maneuvers will be distributed among the allies that have committed according to the following formula:
A constant p is given, where p > 1 and higher values of p give less maneuvers to large alliance blocs. My initial suggestion for p is around 1.5, 2 seems a little to large, but this should ultimately be decided by testing.
Each countries' number of contributed maneuvers (The initiator contributes all maneuvers minus those used on the initial war goal, while their allies contribute all the maneuvers they would normally get on their own) raised to the power p, then, all these results are added together. The result is raised to the power 1/p to determine the total number of maneuvers to assign (adding more allies in this stage increases total maneuvers available, but with diminishing returns). These maneuvers assigned to each ally is: (their contributed maneuvers)*(total maneuvers to assign)/(total originally contributed maneuvers). While this formula is intended for allies of the initiator, it could also be used for nations in defensive pacts with the defender.
During the main phase of the play, any nation with maneuvers may use them to add war goals, or sway other nations. Any nation which abandons support loses all its maneuvers in that play permanently, though its sways remain in effect. Swaying may also take the form of one nation directly gifting other nations maneuvers to use in the play, without dictating what they must be used for. Other nations joining a play in this stage will not re-distribute maneuvers according to the above formula. If maneuvers are not used by end of the play, they are held over into the war, where they can be used for more swaying (if a nation is swayed during a war, the other side should have some time to counter-offer, or make an offer in exchange for neutrality) of nations who haven't declared themselves neutral or adding war goals.
Also, allow negotiated settlements during diplo plays if agreed to by all participants.
I think this will ultimately improve the diplo play and war systems by making them more flexible and dynamic. Alliances, which are currently terrible because the ally of an initiator will never get anything out of a war, will become more valuable and exciting, since late-game multilateral alliances will allow plays with lots of maneuvers and war goals. It will also give more autonomy to non-primary participants by giving them more options in plays.
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