How is difficulty calculated for Majors/Minors stratagems?

[mahaniok]

I have been trying to play a diplomacy game, I invested in Foreign Affairs council with a really strong leader, but I can't do almost anything because all cards have crazy high difficulty.

Some major cards:
"Gift 400 Crd" = diff 217.
"Embassy" = diff 350.
"Trade" = diff 290.

Some minor cards:
"Offer protection" = diff 202.
"Offer client" = diff 249.

Any way to improve these difficulties?

I see that for majors it depends on "AI stance". how can I improve / change AI stance?

thanks

[newageofpower]

ORIGINAL: mahaniok

I have been trying to play a diplomacy game, I invested in Foreign Affairs council with a really strong leader, but I can't do almost anything because all cards have crazy high difficulty.

Some major cards:
"Gift 400 Crd" = diff 217.
"Embassy" = diff 350.
"Trade" = diff 290.

Some minor cards:
"Offer protection" = diff 202.
"Offer client" = diff 249.

Any way to improve these difficulties?

I see that for majors it depends on "AI stance". how can I improve / change AI stance?

thanks

Alot depends on the AI culture and political profile. You're not going to get Expansionist Militarists to sincerely cooperate with you - its just not in their nature. Similarily, if you have a very high "aggression" score the AI will suspect you.

[mahaniok]

What if all 3 majors I border are "militarist"...

[redrum68]

I wish there was a tooltip for the difficulty showing the breakdown.

[stryc]

I have very little idea on how which type of AI is likely to react to any given overture. Up to this point just about every AI has a difficulty up in the several hundreds so, in general, I just don't bother with it anymore - which is a shame to end up ignoring an entire chunk of the game. Some sort of tooltip/breakdown would help unobfuscate the matter. Say what you like about Paradox games but their tooltips for such things are spot on.

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: newageofpower

ORIGINAL: mahaniok

I have been trying to play a diplomacy game, I invested in Foreign Affairs council with a really strong leader, but I can't do almost anything because all cards have crazy high difficulty.

Some major cards:
"Gift 400 Crd" = diff 217.
"Embassy" = diff 350.
"Trade" = diff 290.

Some minor cards:
"Offer protection" = diff 202.
"Offer client" = diff 249.

Any way to improve these difficulties?

I see that for majors it depends on "AI stance". how can I improve / change AI stance?

thanks

Alot depends on the AI culture and political profile. You're not going to get Expansionist Militarists to sincerely cooperate with you - its just not in their nature. Similarily, if you have a very high "aggression" score the AI will suspect you.

I think relations is another factor in this. Much harder to improove relations if they distrust you.

[V4ndall]

Like the old games, many possibilities are handled numerically, that is, instead of listing something as explicitly impossible it's difficulty is set very high. That said, many zones are simply not open to any kind of diplomacy. Firstly, the territories, zones without a city can by controlled by things incapable of doing so like wild animals, remnant androids, arachnids, mutants (this one is a bit weird, since they are clearly intelligent and have the worst military units I ever came across, so they're hardly in position to be doing so). Next there are the free folk minors, which can have a city but follow a warrior culture like low tech hunters or apocalyptic raiders, they are quite hardheaded but can be negotiated with when enough pressure is put on them. Then, you have scavengers and farmers, who are in fact a bit too easy to sway and get their zones annexed/unified into player regimes. Lastly majors have a whole bunch of diplomacy modifiers depending on profile compatibility, their stance and relation with the player regime. All three of those can be diplomatically changed through covert ops stratagems (like supporting a more likable faction in their government), story events and existing deals (like trade, embassies and similar stratagems) respectively.

[Maerchen]

You can however raise relation with any regime with the Plea for Friendship covert ops stratagem for 5PP. Saved my behind more than one time when a realtion suddenly went south with a major or slaver and my military positioning wasn't optimized for this. Raising the relation with two or three of this often delayed their war declaration for enough turns to react. It helps with diplomacy, too, of course.

[eddieballgame]

One thing I noticed that is a 'mixed bag', when they offer to help you...be warned. [:)]

[laughinglab_MatrixForum]

What doesn't make sense to me though, is that Plea for Friendship works without a skill check, but gifting a sum of credits does.

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: laughinglab_MatrixForum

What doesn't make sense to me though, is that Plea for Friendship works without a skill check, but gifting a sum of credits does.

I am a bit rusty, but what does it cost to play? A 10's of PP? A Fate Point? is it easy to get?

[laughinglab_MatrixForum]

I am a bit rusty, but what does it cost to play? A 10's of PP? A Fate Point? is it easy to get?

IIRC (haven't played the diplo game in a while), PfF is a normal (non-fate) covert ops stratagem that increases relations with any regime for a small (<10) PP cost.
The relation gain is pretty small, but you can easily play several of them in the same turn and even on the same faction since it's not technically a diplo stratagem. There's no skill check involved.

[newageofpower]

It's a faction stratagem, though, and rolling it means you didn't roll something more useful like an city improvement, ala Zoo/Militia/Commercial Project, or even better, an S-tier Leader Boost like Cooptation/Sacred Oath.

[Maerchen]

Being able to raise your relation multiple times by up to 20(?) points for 5PP before you play unification and getting a fresh zone, thousands of militia troops and maybe some helpful hex perks is nothing to sneeze at, though.

It is an auto-success, not restricted to once per round stratagem you can play on any regime. And in mid/lategame all your cities should have zoo/commercial IIIs anyway.

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: newageofpower

It's a faction stratagem, though, and rolling it means you didn't roll something more useful like an city improvement, ala Zoo/Militia/Commercial Project, or even better, an S-tier Leader Boost like Cooptation/Sacred Oath.

Ah right, that was it. Faction Stratagem. Meaning you can not get it reliable.