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Diplomacy
Published on September 22, 2003 By Ray the Wanderer In PC Gaming
Before I move on to the other diplomatic moves, would like to comment further on part 2a and also the issue of my gameplay suggestions.

On the Flagship Drengin Ascension.

“Lord Kona, we have received a transmission from the Humans. They would like to sell us two techs for cash. They are offering to sell the first tech, Stellar Cartography, for 50bcs…”

“Excellent. What is the value of the tech, Chief Advisor?”

“Lord Kona, we already know the locations of all yellow stars.”

“What is the VALUE of the tech, Senior Advisor?”

“100bcs, my Lord.”

“That’s a great deal. Accept it. What’s the second tech?”

“Galactic Domination Philosophy at 1,000bcs over 50 turns, my Lord.”

“What is the value of the tech?”

“My lord, that tech is useless.”

“Just TELL ME the VALUE of the tech, Junior Advisor!”

“It’s worth 100,000bcs, my Lord.”

“Wonderful. We do not have the funds now but I’m sure the Inter-Galactic Bank would be willing to give us a loan.”

“I will arrange the loan immediately, O great and wise one.”


This scenario illustrates an issue with a system where the AIs do not gauge the true utility of the trade received. Similarly, AIs fighting for their very lives would hardly be interested in High Density Metal at that moment. Obviously, it would be great if AIs could decide on the relative value of techs purchased based on how the techs would aid in their overall strategy rather than how good a deal they are getting based on the tech’s value. However, I’m not sure how this issue can be resolved without a revamp of the current diplomatic model.

Over the course of two Galciv blog articles, I have mentioned several suggestions that we can make to the gameplay. Thought I should clarify that I would like to see, if possible, for these suggestions to be made in varying weightage from Normal difficulty to Maso difficulty. If this gradual implementation over difficulties is not feasible, I would suggest that these be implemented at the Crippling and Maso levels, which I term as the Challenge levels.
Comments
on Sep 22, 2003
lol!

Nothing like a clever narritive to drive home a point
on Sep 24, 2003
"Obviously, it would be great if AIs could decide on the relative value of techs purchased based on how the techs would aid in their overall strategy rather than how good a deal they are getting based on the tech’s value. However, I’m not sure how this issue can be resolved without a revamp of the current diplomatic model."

Hey Ray,

What about subdividing the AI value into three (or more?) values so that they better correlate with game circumstances?

For example:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------
TECH 57 HighDensityMetals
//------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name "High Density Metals"
Model ""
Tech_Requirement "NanoMetalComposition"
Tech_Requirement "BattleArmor"
Research_Cost 400
Overview "High Density Metals will improve our productivity. (edit)"
Description "High Density Metals are good. (edit)"
Tech_Category 2
Research_Value 0
Production_Value 10
Military_Value 2
* (current variable) AI 12*
Ability "Production"
ENDTECH

So, with the new modifiers, the AI now has a different total AI value for High Density Metals if the AI's priority is war (2), production (10), research (0), or peaceful advance (12).

Stellar Cartography currently has a value of 1, but should definitely have a value of 0 (or simply no AI entry). I don't know whether the research cost for a tech is used to calculate value, but my guess is that it should be ignored in favour of a calculated value measurement.

Of course, this all assumes that the AI value is currently being used this way.

End transmission.