Feature Request A27 - Advanced Diplomacy

[LordStark]

Hi team,

I would like to request a new feature in the game - even if it is only used by modders. 

The feature would allow for your very own units to become disgruntled and turn on you. I would like to see a new class type "Leader" who gives the player various benefits but who is also at risk of betraying you and taking his soldiers with him - effectively becoming a new AI player (but with various limitations).

To help illustrate how it would work, I will explain how I would implement it in my mod:

You start the game with a Lord who represents you (the player) in game. The Lord offers a population cap (e.g. 30), rather than buildings. Houses are the only structure that can boost the population cap (by 2) but the Lord Player can only build 5 max. The Lord has the ability to grant Lordships (upgrade) to experienced Men at Arms. Making them your vassals. The vassal Lords further increase your population cap (eg by 20). The Lord Player is the only unit in game that can build a castle. The vassal Lord is able to build a manor that is at least 100 meters away from the Lords castle or any other manors. The vassal Lord can then build an additional 3 houses around his Manor (increasing population cap by 6). There are also limits on farms and so having vassal Lords allows them to build more farms on their manor for your overall benefit.

What I would like to happen is that each vassal Lord could have a random personality. If you lose a lot of soldiers in a short amount of time, a vassal Lord might begin to think he could overthrow you and attack. Alternatively, if you play too defensively, another Lord might think you are a coward for not being aggressive enough and end up turning on you. There might also be a situation where the vassal Lord does not attack you, but him and the soldiers that were created via his manor house stop obeying your orders, or you begin receiving less resources from their gathering. 

The idea (in my mod) would be that having vassal Lords increases your population cap and farming ability while also increasing the speed in which you can raise an army (you can train soldiers via the manor and via your own barracks - which would also be limited to 1  in the game). If you have two vassal Lords plus your own barracks, you can train soldiers from three buildings rather than one. The downside to having vassal Lords is you risk your vassals turning against you with all the soldiers that you trained via their manor house.

Outcomes for treacherous Lords:

1. They attack you.

2. They don't attack you but they also refuse to obey your orders.

3. Gather rates from units built at the manor house decrease by 25%, 50%, 75% (simulating the vassal lord not passing on the resources to you). 

4. They actively help your enemy.

5. A combination.

Loyalty variables:

1. Soldiers/villages that were built via a manor house are killed at a much higher rate than those built via the Lord Players barracks/castle or other manor houses.

2. Too much defensive play.

3. To much aggressive play.

4. Building a manor house close to enemy territory.

5. Your overall strategy/policies - a feature where you could choose a "defensive/aggressive/economic" strategy where the health of your units is increased by 10% or their attack is increased by 10% or villager gather rate is increased by 10%. Different vassal Lords will react differently to different strategies of the player. I imagine this being a feature where you can adopt specific policies for how villagers and soldiers are treated (each policy with its pros and cons) as well as different policies regarding military strategy. You can choose to be a "Just" Lord Player who focuses on "defense" and making decisions "Collaboratively". Each of those three policies (Just, Defence, Collaboration) would effect the vassal Lords relationship with you. Alternatively, you could be a "vengeful", "aggressive" Lord Player who "Dictates" decisions. 

Of course for the actual 0AD game, I imagine the player could appoint Governors/Consuls/Generals etc etc.

And of course the advanced diplomacy could be a feature the player choses to turn on/off at the beginning of the game.

[Stan`]

Sounds like a very complex feature with lots of edge cases. I can imagine units defecting to gaia as a start. Else you'd need to add new players and pretty sure that won't work if you reach 8 players.

[LordStark]

Defecting to Gaia sounds fine... but if not, this would primarily be for modders (although maybe I am the only modder).

At the moment the way I play my mod there are only ever two players anyway - Lord Player and the Norse.

Lord Player essentially needs to grow has Army to the point that he can cross the water and crush the Norse on their home turf. The diplomacy side of things would have shown up with a Lord betraying you while you are over fighting the Norse or perhaps betraying you immediately before you attack the Norse.

To be honest, if I had the choice, I would make the mod one player only. Every map would have the Norse as a sort of Gaia faction that raided you while you try and build up your society. 

[MirceaKitsune]

Sounds nice but likely too complex for default. I can see this happening as a mod.

[Darkcity]

There are 2 similar use cases where it can be implemented in main game as well.

UC01: Bribing units

Current scenario: We can bribe opponent's 1 unit but only to share vision. 

Expected: Select whether you want to share vision/become your unit. The resource cost for becoming unit will double of share vision. for example lets say, sharing vision cost is 100 metal, then becoming your unit will be 200, and if you bribe with 1000 metal and select become your unit, then 5 ranodm units of opponenet will become your unit.

Where should it work? for initial testing purpose it can be done in diplomcay game mode. It will be very intresting to play.

UC02: conquering units

Game settings: Regicide & word population enabled. Exmple settings, 3 player game, word pop 450, regicide.

If a player1 kills player 2 hero.  All his buildings and units will be of player1, and his pop cap will rise to 300. It will intensify game play. 

 

There are other settings i have in mind but i think for starter this should be enough. Let me know your thoughts @Stan`

Edited June 15, 2022 by Darkcity

[Stan`]

I suppose you can create your own game mode for that