Here’s an idea inspired by the board game Cosmic Encounter: You could add a negotiation card to the battle situation, which would effectively cease hostilities for the fleet selecting it. If both players would play the negotiation card, neither side would open fire, and instead a diplomatic exchange would open instead. Of course, as in the board game, the option would exist to backstab the other player by playing a combat card against a defenseless fleet playing a negotiation card. Now, this doesn’t make much sense in single player, but it could be imagined that in multiplayer, at least, the negotiation card would bring an additional strategic layer to the game. For example two fleets could engage in a sham battle simultaneously, while making a secret treaty to attack a third party instead!

This is a similar suggestion that has been suggested and is listed on summary list (linked on my signature planel). If you feel you have any sugestion or ideas for the game create a detailed thread and link it with a summary of your suggestion to the discussion thread (linked on my signature panel) where I can add it to the summary list so that the Devs Team to look at for possible development into the game.

I think this idea has a lot of potential...don't rush into throwing the mechanic out of the single player experience. I can see it playing out if the UI is built in a way allowing such a system to flourish. In a nutshell, the computer your fighting against should/needs to be able to identify his odds of success once the card is played by the player. Those statistics would influence the UI's decision making process where if he is in a disadvantage, then he would accept the diplomatic approach...if the battle is even where both parties would lose a large amount of units regardless of whether it triumphents, he would also accept the diplomatic approach. The idea can also work the other way around, where the UI would play the diplomatic card in order to avoid a battle unfavourable to it (only usable once per battle...to limit the spam).



You can also add onto this system the behavioural traits of the player in question and the UI, depending on the scenario at hand. For example, if the player in the campaign has a tendency to backstab opponents, then his chances of getting a favourable response from the UI when the card is used would be extremely low. That "reputation" system could also be implemented on the computers. This way, the UI would be able to identify whether or not this fight should be resolved diplomatically or not. If the player has a habiit of backstabbing, which should be accounted for by the game during the experience, then the UI would take that into account and either decline the approach altogether or take advantage of the card played and backstab the player to achieve a victory.



This system would also bring into play the reputation system very similar to Shogun 2, where if you form treaties and alliances with computers and dont commit/respect them, the computers will eventually stop trusting you and your odds at getting a positive response from diplomatic relations decreases (slightly/dramatically depending on the damage done to relations during the campaign). On the opposite side of the spectrum, the UI should also be able to identify how long an alliance has lasted between it and the player, and act in accordance. That means that their replies with regards to diplomacy, trade, battle allegiences, and so on and so forth would be more positive the longer the treaty has lasted.



I can probably go on forever because everytime I bring up a scenario or an example, an entirely new system or mechanic comes to mind after that which needs to be implemented in order to help support or enhance the effectiveness of that system. Resulting in me just going on and on about it...so I'll wait for a response and reply accordingly.

Yes, reputation would be a good addition, unless it's not there already. I think Alpha Centauri did this also well, with reputation openly displayed and affecting diplomacy throughout.



Well, concerning the negotiation card, I suppose it needn't lead to too much complication. Still, thinking about it, it might add to the suspense of the combat. One could imagine for example first contact scenarios with it, which could be presented with the battle cam system such as it is now. Would you rely on the peaceful negotiation card and get the ships to communication range, or will the meeting end in exchanged volleys and subsequently war? This would be close to the first meetings with other nations in civ IV, where the first question is always war or peace.