Ideas For Diplomatic Game Mechanics

[Average Geography Nerd 11]

Hello! As the title suggests, this post is listing some ideas for new game mechanics relating to diplomacy. This area of the game is especially important, as it shapes your entire experience. Diplomacy was really oversimplified in Age of History 2, and I feel like this made the game less fun to play, as history nerds like me couldn't play in historically accurate scenarios. However, I know some people appreciate historically inaccurate AI. This leads me to my first idea.

1. Toggling Historical AI: This mechanic allows you to choose if you want AI nations to follow a historical path in the form of a set of goals (territorial aims, diplomatic aims, etc.). This way even if the player's actions cause a deviation from the historical timeline, they will still get a semi-accurate experience. For example, Japan aimed to conquer China and Southeast Asia due to a lack of resources in the WW2 time period. In the scenario creator, players will be able to edit and change these goals for their own purposes. If the player turns off historical AI, the actions of the AI will simply be guided by diplomacy (relations with different nations).

2. Influencing Other Nations: The game should have a mechanic that allows you to influence the actions of other nations. The influence of all nations will total 100%. The larger share of this value nations control, the more weight their opinion holds over the nation they are influencing. When nations you have more than 5% influence in are attempting a diplomatic action, the player is first prompted on what they think. Depending on the answer, the nation you are influencing will have a lower or higher percent chance of succeeding in their diplomatic actions. When it comes to AI, in historical mode they will be more likely to answer in a certain way depending on whether or not it impedes the goals of a nation they have positive relations with. The AI's answer will be randomized if you are not in historical mode. Influence is gained through financial aid, military aid, and economic investment. The receiving nation will attempt to decrease the influence of other nations, and this can be done in a few ways. First, they can send financial aid, and military aid, and invest in other nations' economies. When they do this, the AI will have a 50/50 chance of either obtaining influence in the receiving nation or decreasing that nation's influence in its internal affairs. Military and financial aid can be sent to any country by the player, but the AI will only send it to nations it aims to influence (determined by set goals) or nations it has positive relations with that are in a military conflict (especially if this conflict is with a nation it has negative relations with). The AI will also have a chance to send aid to its allies periodically, and this chance increases depending on relative strength (so Luxembourg, for example, won't be likely to send aid to the U.S.). Economic investments will also have a set chance to whether or not they have made the investing nation money periodically. 

 

3. NATO Mechanics For Modern Day Scenario: In real life, NATO has a certain way of functioning, under which all nations have to unanimously agree for a new member to join the alliance. Most notably, NATO's Article 5 (Collective Defense Mechanism) can only be invoked with the agreement of all nations. This should be extremely likely to happen if a member nation is in a military conflict. However, if a nation in the alliance has negative relations with the nation attempting to invoke Article 5, the motion will be less likely to pass, as this nation can attempt to block it. Despite this, not all is lost, as nations in the alliance should have the ability to influence this nation diplomatically, pressuring them to move forward with the motion. Keep in mind, this is only for the Modern Day Scenario and doesn't really apply to anything else.

 

That is all, but feel free to add your own ideas in the replies.