City-State Diplomacy Mod

[Gazebo]

City-State Diplomacy Mod

“If you can't go around it, over it, or through it, you had better negotiate with it”
Ashleigh Brilliant

Mission: To give Civilization V a better, more realistic simulation of geopolitics via a new system of city-state diplomacy.

Design Philosophy: This mod is a complete overhaul of the city-state diplomacy system that reduces the importance of the 'Gifts of Gold' and introduces a new, unit-based system of influence. Players are now encouraged to build and use diplomatic units and/or complete city-state quests if they want to earn influence. Because diplomacy now requires production, time and energy, players must actively and consciously strive to maintain good relations with neighboring city-states. Furthermore, diplomatic units, being defenseless, are liable to capture or destruction if sent too far from safety, thus long-distance diplomacy now utilizes a risk-reward system. The AI has been trained to utilize this system, so do not be surprised to see diplomatic units from many different civilizations criss-crossing the world in search of influence!

This Mod Includes: This mod includes 5 new diplomatic units, two new diplomacy-centric buildings, a new Patronage-tree policy, and a substantial overhaul of the AI's city-state diplomacy mechanic. See the spoiler below for more details.

Thanks, and please look for my mods in the mod directory in Civ V and here on Civfanatics.

Gazebo

Compatibility report: These mods should be compatible with all mods except those that modify the Philanthropy policy, Suleiman's trait, tech tree overhauls and/or mods that change the settler.dds file. CCMAT is confirmed to be compatible. Other compatibility tests forthcoming– feel free to PM me with compatibility requests.

For more on this, see the following thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=9791362#post9791362

[JoshTheValiant]

I gotta say I kind of love this mod concept. Planning on testing it over the weekend.

I have one question though: Is it possible to make this system expand into dealing with rival Civs as well? As in, make diplomatic units required for striking up trade deals and discussions (not war or peace) with those Civs if adjacent to or inside their territory? I know the Trade Deal mechanics won't support it, but it makes sense to me that if City States work one way, than so too should other diplomacy.

[Gazebo]

As it stands right now, no, because the game doesn't allow for it.

Once the DLL is out, though, that shouldn't be a problem and would be lots of fun.

Thanks for your interest!
G

[Procylon]

Nice mod.

I assume the diplo units upgrade each other?

Does the AI know how to use them? I assume you gave them some of the great merchant AI characteristics?

You should add the Embassy with globalization or something.


I may use this sometime in the future when I begin adding in subversives.

The diplomat units would be invisible though(except to themselves and other subversives), and they will be able to do certain other things to Civilizations.

[Gazebo]

Nice mod.

I assume the diplo units upgrade each other?

Does the AI know how to use them? I assume you gave them some of the great merchant AI characteristics?

I may use this sometime in the future when I begin adding in subversives.

The diplomat units would be invisible though(except to themselves and other subversives), and they will be able to do certain other things to Civilizations.

Hey Proclyon,

I'll address the units point by point:
1.) No, they don't upgrade, because the only differences between them are movement points (each new unit gets +1 movement) and cost. I may add in such a policy, but, as it stands, I know that I personally would never spend the money to upgrade.

2.) The AI is very good at using them. They know how to embark them, send them across the map and deploy them to make alliances. In fact, they are sometimes too good! As a result, I have removed the 'gift gold' mechanic for both the player and the AI, making the only methods of influence quests and diplo units.

3.) When you research globalization, you gain access to the UN and an Ambassador unit- I didn't want there to be too many things to have to build near the end. One thing I might do is add a +25% diplomatic unit production bonus to the UN. That would work nicely.

4.) Let me know if you want to use anything from my mod- I've put a lot of work into the AI mechanics, which is the most 'trial-and-error' aspect of this type of mod.

[Jinzor]

I once saw this mod in the list of mods available, but I didn't know EXACTLY what it did. But after reading this, I am definitely going to play with this mod on every time I play a single player game. This mod should infact be included in a future expansion pack of Civ V.

Excellent work.

[Gazebo]

Nice mod.

I assume the diplo units upgrade each other?

Does the AI know how to use them? I assume you gave them some of the great merchant AI characteristics?

You should add the Embassy with globalization or something.


I may use this sometime in the future when I begin adding in subversives.

The diplomat units would be invisible though(except to themselves and other subversives), and they will be able to do certain other things to Civilizations.

If you mean 'upgrade' as in each unit replaces the older one then yes, each unit replaces the previous one (Messenger-->Envoy-->Emissary-->Diplomat-->Ambassador).

[Gazebo]

v15 of City-State Diplomacy posted. Many new changes and tweaks- check it out and leave me lots of feedback!

[Procylon]

Keeps getting better.

Have you thought about making the diplomats invisible like subs?

That is what I have planned for the diplomats/spies/clerics/etc when I add them to my project.

[Gazebo]

Keeps getting better.

Have you thought about making the diplomats invisible like subs?

That is what I have planned for the diplomats/spies/clerics/etc when I add them to my project.

I thought about it, but I decided against it because, when coupled with the 'can enter rival territory' promotion, it makes diplomats OP late-game scouts. I think it is more fun to see someone else's diplo unit moving through your border, as well, than having all stuff like that going on incognito.

Spies, however, should definitely be invisible.

Let me know if you want to add my mod to yours- it might save you a lot of time with flavor tweaks, etc. Plus, its easier to maintain compatibility when there are less (but larger) mods.

You know, there are already a lot of religion tags in the units and buildings .xmls of the game- I might tinker with that once this mod is finished.

I'd appreciate any feedback you (or anyone else) can give on this mod- its been a fun experiment!

[Procylon]

I could possibly use it in the future, but I have a lot of other things on my to do list first.

For now, it looks like it is should be compatible with my mod, so anyone who wants to try it out can try and enable it at the same time.

[Gazebo]

Procylon,

One question I have (you may or may not be able to answer this) is how do we add in custom strategic view icons? My units have custom art and flags, but the SV_icons are all out of whack. Any ideas? Have you come across this problem yet?

[Procylon]

I haven't even moved in the art direction yet personally, but I hear they have been clearing up a lot of the problems with graphical modding in the past week or so. Though I am not sure if they answered the icon problems yet.

What I do know, is that you need to create some kind of icon_atlas, and then in your building/unit/etc, you refer to that icon_atlas:

<IconAtlas>UNIT_ATLAS_2</IconAtlas>
<PortraitIndex>28</PortraitIndex>


So using different icons already in the game is easy. Just change the numbers to suit whichever icon you want to use.

How to create an atlas though you are going to have to hit up some people who work in that department. Lemmy, SamBC, and some others seem to have been working in that department quite a bit.

[Gazebo]

I haven't even moved in the art direction yet personally, but I hear they have been clearing up a lot of the problems with graphical modding in the past week or so. Though I am not sure if they answered the icon problems yet.

What I do know, is that you need to create some kind of icon_atlas, and then in your building/unit/etc, you refer to that icon_atlas:

<IconAtlas>UNIT_ATLAS_2</IconAtlas>
<PortraitIndex>28</PortraitIndex>


So using different icons already in the game is easy. Just change the numbers to suit whichever icon you want to use.

How to create an atlas though you are going to have to hit up some people who work in that department. Lemmy, SamBC, and some others seem to have been working in that department quite a bit.

Yeah, I've got custom atlases, etc.- the problem seems to be that the game only recognizes strategic view icons that are compiled within the game's directory before mods are loaded (much like the wonder/landmark problem). Thus, I have custom icons, just not custom SV flags.

I'll ask lemmy and see what he thinks.

[Gazebo]

3.0 posted with French language support and small tweaks.

Details and download on Civfanatics and Modbroswer.

[Gazebo]

v5 posted: see changelog on civfanatics for more details.

[Gazebo]

v28 posted on CivFanatics and the modbrowser. Look for v29 soon!