Ways to raise your opinion of other countries?

[bbqftw]

I would like a quick answer - besides asking for military access, are there any other ways I can increase my opinion of a country? In this case, I am trying to ally a neutral country far away from me (so they don't feel the need to improve relations with me), but I have imperialism CB on them, so my opinion of them is -20 - not enough to be corrected with military access. They would accept the alliance if I had a positive opinion of them.

I am a merchant republic, so RMs are not possible.

Since I have multiple CNs, peacefully asking for trade power transfer (which I think is a bidirectional relations increase) is not an option.

Other option would be to forcefully vassalize them, give them the lands I want them to have, and then either DOW them or cancel the vassalization. But that is a very inelegant solution.

Any help would be nice =)

PS. I can understand the concept behind not being able to ally those who your country dislikes, but this mechanic was implemented in an age where you could freely select rivals, meaning that a country had to have done something truly horrible to yours for you to be unable to ally them. Maybe minimum opinion should be changed to ~-25 (so if they accept alliance, you will not auto-break it due to negative opinion), but system is fine as is.

 

[swm]

If it's only -20, maybe military access and a month of fleet basing rights? That should get you up to zero, which I think the game allows.

 

[bbqftw]

The country doesn't have ports

 

[swm]

The country doesn't have ports

So much for the easy solution.

Rival one of their rivals so you get the enemy of enemy modifier?

Post a picture of the situation (preferably of the diplomacy screen of the nation you want to ally).

 

[bbqftw]

ultimate goal is to give the Samarkand COT to someone downstream of the Samarkand node. Since I'm roughly trying to keep my own expansion coastal, Samarkand being surrounded by inland nodes is a big problem since I pull the trade value out of that node using light ship propagation. So I will get a 'friend' to do it for me.

Tabarestan is ideal because they have neutral opinion of me, not threatened, as well as hostile to Timurids so they will join a war against them, as well as trade ideas.

 

[swm]

I do not think this is doable if you can't rival Qara or Shirvan, short of Tabarestan changing its mind and choosing to improve relations with you.

Looking at http://www.eu4wiki.com/Relations#Changing_own_opinion
There's just not much there that you can control.

For now, I'd say first guarantee it and then try to get the AI's attention somehow (conquer provinces from its enemies, attack its rivals, conquer towards it).
Or just go the gamey route and vassal it.

It's... kind of unfortunate that the mechanics work like this, but I can't see another solution.

 

[ahyangyi]

Roleplaying a bit:
You, as the god-ruler of your country, clearly see the need to form an alliance to some country. Many good thinkers, diplomats, advisors and maybe the ruler also think so.

However, most of the nobles or merchants (depending on your government style) in your countries hate them and don't back the idea at all. You can try to persuade them by asking that country for some small benefits (military access/fleet basing rights), but that may not work to a great extent.

 

[swm]

Roleplaying a bit:
You, as the god-ruler of your country, clearly see the need to form an alliance to some country. Many good thinkers, diplomats, advisors and maybe the ruler also think so.

However, most of the nobles or merchants (depending on your government style) in your countries hate them and don't back the idea at all. You can try to persuade them by asking that country for some small benefits (military access/fleet basing rights), but that may not work to a great extent.

I mean kind of, but calling -1 hatred is kind of stretching, and it doesn't make much sense for something like an Absolute Monarchy where theoretically you shouldn't care. In any case, it doesn't explain the hard block. A stab hit would make sense, but simply not allowing it does not.

 

[ahyangyi]

In any case, it doesn't explain the hard block. A stab hit would make sense, but simply not allowing it does not.

In a republic, I guess, -1 is when your proposal of getting an alliance will get 49.9% vote. 0 is when you will get 50.1% vote.
In an absolute monarchy, maybe the monarch is hesitating. -1 is when he slightly leans on no getting an alliance and 0 is when he leans on getting one.