it is gonna be long and hard like the wand of the donkey.
let me share you my view about the diplomacy of this game.
about what?
true! what is called in this game diplomacy is merely a pop-up window report about the attitude of every country, a counter, and a declare war button that is the most diplomatic option in this menu. it is clearly seen that to call this whole to diplomacy is a strong exaggeration.
but do not bin it! rename it instead! call it what it really is: INTELLIGENCE! and remove the declare war button to a new menu with the title of DIPLOMACY!
how do i imagine the diplomacy in this game? this is a historical war game, so diplomacy adds just an extra taste to it like the salt in the stew, important, but it is not in the first line. both playability and historical accuracy have to match.
so ww1, theatre europe. some of the countries have all their cards on the table, others still have them in hand and some countries are to be out of this game. the first group contains the ringleaders: austria, serbia, germany, belgium, france, britain with the commonwealth, russia, the ottoman empire and persia. they have no choice, they enter and fight at their side. all i would give them: targets, goals (let me detail later). those who joined the camps later are in the second group: italy, bulgaria, portugal, usa, romania and greece. they have to be granted some choice, either join any side or watch the story outside being neutral. the third group is about the neutral ones: netherlands, denmark, norway, sweden, spain and switzerland. they cannot be brought in war except they are attacked.
before i carry on, let me introduce the concept of the CLAIM. the subjects of the claim are cities, forts, capitals, ports and the territories around them, say so war targets a country fights for, tokens the big guns pay in the diplomacy with. some claims are historical (like italy joined entente with the promise to get trieste and trento) others are fictional (like serbia fights for sarajevo and cattaro). in the game it means if a city is claimed, like an italian one from above, say trento, if any other entente power conquers it but italy, it does not matter, it belongs to italy as promised. a deal is a deal!
one more new concept has to be introduced, the PASSAGE. the passage grants the units of other countries to move in the territory of the country, either having support or not, but the units and the status of the country remains neutral. this is useful two ways. persia and greece are obvious, they were battlefields without official declarations of war. but what if a country surrenders?
let me detail this. pretend that germany conquered half of france in early 1916, paris included, and france is to surrender. the present game this is a message only, france turns to neutral, germany keeps the territories she conquered, blah, blah. what is this? rubbish! there would have been negotiations and deals behind this event, lets translate them to this game an elegant but easy way. so the message comes: france would surrender. terms are following: france is out of war, she receives her german occupied cities back, french claims are void, claims against france have to be completed, passage is granted to germany and her allies, french units abroad have to move home territories automatically or be disbanded, and a tribute is to paid germany every turn. the CP may decide: signs the peace treaty or not? choose yes: see above - and in this case the other entente units are also obliged to leave france territories as well having a special kind of passage that are valid only for them moving (out of) there, but any other entente units are not allowed to enter the french territories any more; or they may resist this not respecting the french decision: that means war with france and france joins CP! if the CP does not accept the terms, well, that means france stays in war with something special: france receives some extra morale, like 50, and some extra manpower too, like 200 angry men, but no PP. and the war rages on...
see? this is closer to the reality. you have a choice. and playability is considered.
now get back to diplomacy. first of all, the claims of the countries have to be set, they are default. below is a draft about.
the first group:
AUSTRIA - she starts war. she claims venice from italy, belgrade, kraljevo, nis, skopje, tirana and cetinje from serbia. if bulgaria joins CP, the claim of nis becomes void.
SERBIA - she starts war. she claims sarajevo and cattaro.
GERMANY - she joins central in turn 3. she claims novo-georgievsk, warsaw, brest-litovsk, riga, kovno and vilna from russia.
BELGIUM - she joins entente in turn 3. she has no claims.
FRANCE - she joins entente in turn 3. she claims metz and strassburg from germany, beirut, damascus and aleppo from the ottoman empire.
BRITAIN - she joins entente in turn 4. she claims gaza, aqaba, jerusalem, mosul, samarrah, baghdad, kut, basra and kuwait from the ottoman empire.
RUSSIA - she joins entente in turn 5. she claims konigsberg, danzig, posen and breslau from germany, prague, krakow, lemberg and przemysl from austria, erzurum and samsun from the ottoman empire.
TURKEY - she joins central in turn 10. she claims batumi, sarikamish and tiflis from russia, port said, ismailia, suez, cairo, alexandria and nicosia from britain and heraklion from greece.
PERSIA - she has special rules. she gives passage to the entente with full supply, her units do not move and she does not join the entente unless their units are insulted by CP units. she has no claims.
the second group:
ITALY - she is to join entente in turn 25, except paris falls before(!) then joins central instead(!). she claims trieste and trento from austria OR tunis, sfax and mareth from france (both ways are historical).
BULGARIA - she joins central if serbian city of nis conquered by central AND all big central countries are still in war. she claims the city of nis against serbia (the appropriate austrian claim becomes void), fort of roupel against greece and the city of constanta against romania (big bulgaria dream completed).
PORTUGAL - she joins entente in turn... er, sorry, i do not know, 9 march 1916 or sooner (on account of the sea warfare), except paris falls before(!) then stays neutral instead. she may join again if usa joins(?). she surrenders if france, britain and italy have surrendered. anyway, this fictional line still has to be worked out. but she has no european claims, sure.
USA - she joins entente in 6 april 1917 or earlier (sea warfare). she surrenders if the war in europe is over. she has no claims.
ROMANIA - she joins entente if the manpower of austria is less than 90% AND the russian cities of vinnytsia, chisnau, odessa and kiev are not conquered by central AND paris has not fallen AND italy and russia have not surrendered. she joins central if the russian cities of vinnytsia, chisnau, odessa and kiev are conquered by central AND all big central countries are still in war. she claims the cities of klausenburg, temeschburg and debrecen OR the cities of vinnytsia, chisnau and odessa (the appropriate bulgarian claim becomes void).
GREECE - she has special rules, the civil war and hesitates between both sides. the greek units do not move, the entente units are allowed to move her territories (passage granted) but they DO NOT receive supply from the greek cities. she joins entente if there are at least nine (i just wrote a number) entente units on her territory (island of crete does not count!) deciding the civil war AND italy is still in war AND paris is not conquered. she joins central if italy is out of war OR paris has fallen AND all big central countries are still in war (the appropriate bulgarian claim becomes void). she has no claims.
the third group:
NETHERLAND, DENMARK, SWEDEN, NORWAY, SWITZERLAND and SPAIN: they are not to join any side, but can be attacked. the war declaration gives some extra morale and manpower to the countries of the other side.
graphic realisation in the game: a new panel is needed, diplomacy. like in the current diplomacy menu, the countries are listed on the right. having clicked on a country the info panel on the left shows the conditions of the join. there are two blocks in this, the entente and the central. each block contains the terms of join with a tick if they are met. below the conditions there is a button that is active only if all conditions above are met: the country is ready to join. click it, the country joins, welcome to the club, bro. on the bottom left there is the declare war button from the old diplomacy removed. if a power is already in war, the info panel shows nothing special, or some resource (strictly PP) allocation thing can be put here, whatever.
that's it. by numbers the cp was predestined to lose, but some what-if events can color the game and change the history. what if paris had fallen in 1914 or early 1915? would italy have joined entente anyway or would she have chosen the old allies? if romania had not had the powerful russian forces in her back would she have attacked the strong austria? or if there had been a real counter-proposal about a border correction toward east on the table would she have chosen the CP? interesting questions, think about them.
thank you for your attention.
about the cost of ships, i think i put them, because they were free to repair, no PP, i presume? sorry, i do not remember any more... but the repair process is also interesting, only 1 PP for a dreadnaught? okay...
))
