Raising my reputation

[Marcus II]

Did a search and couldn't find the thread I was looking for, but how do I raise my global reputation? I have had treaties with numerous countries for literally over a hundred years, except maybe violated one or two at most within that entire period.

My current rep is Dubious, and the pope has always loved me since day one. I can't figure out what I need to do.

Any suggestions?

[Axe-Battler]

in 1.2 patch reputation is well balanced, and takes a very long time to build up, and get lower...they make you work for it.

You need to constantly release prisoners and occupy settlements, minimize wars, and that's pretty much all there is to it.

[Marcus II]

Some issues/questions

1. I do ransom prisoners every time, so I take it that doesn't count?
2. I have only fought one war, which was only declared after some 130 years of complete peace.
3. All my relations is either Outstanding or somewhere up there with all my allies/trading partners aside the Muslim factions (I'm playing as Denmark)

4. Will giving gifts of 100 florins to each of my allies for several turns fix this issue?

[Recluse]

in 1.2 patch reputation is well balanced, and takes a very long time to build up, and get lower...they make you work for it.

You need to constantly release prisoners and occupy settlements, minimize wars, and that's pretty much all there is to it.

I have to disagree a bit on this one.

The rep certainly takes a long time to build and raise, but in my current (vanilla, 1.2) campaign it took one turn to drop dramatically.

I had gone ~150 turns being Mr. Niceguy, allied with 10 factions, never started wars, never more than one enemy at a time, always try to seek peace quickly, etc. My reputation reached "Very Reliable" and stayed there a long time. It helped tremendously in diplomacy, and I highly recommend it for those players that want to be more effective in diplomacy, and acquire territory using diplomacy, but...

Venice (neutral state), kept doing things to annoy me and I finally got fed up. I took an Army from Damascus and attacked and took Antioch (which BTW they had earlier gotten from me in a diplomacy deal that landed me Venice), and my faction reputation immediately dropped to "Despicable."

Diplomacy went out the window, ceasefires went out the window, many other factions started to backstab me, declare war, blockade my ports, and generally treat me like dirt, and I've had to switch over to the traditional slash and burn approach since then because no matter what I did my rep wouldn't improve.

[Marcus II]

So I take it that reputation in the game is like making a pyramid out of cards - takes forever to do, but can be destroyed with less than a flick of the finger.

[Recluse]

So I take it that reputation in the game is like making a pyramid out of cards - takes forever to do, but can be destroyed with less than a flick of the finger.

I only have a sample size of 1 since I've never tried to play a campaign using this style of play before, but that sounds like a good summary of how it went for me.

[Axe-Battler]

1. I do ransom prisoners every time, so I take it that doesn't count?
2. I have only fought one war, which was only declared after some 130 years of complete peace.
3. All my relations is either Outstanding or somewhere up there with all my allies/trading partners aside the Muslim factions (I'm playing as Denmark)

4. Will giving gifts of 100 florins to each of my allies for several turns fix this issue?

1) ransoming prisoners has no effect on your rep, it will not count against you or for you, it's considered a basic thing to do.
2) fighting 1,2,3 or even 4 wars won't really affect your rep, it will only begin to effect your rep if you constantly go on war paths.
3) good.
4) not really, gifts are mostly jus there to get your relations higher rather than your rep.

[Marcus II]

Thanks for being the only guy that actually replied

+rep (haha, which is what we're talking about)

[pat the magnificent]

i think if you send a diplomat to the nation you're about to attack cancel trade rights first, it lessen the hit to your rep.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Also don't use spies and assassins. Ransoming prisoners will not lower or improve reputation.

[Quark]

Check out descr_campaign_ai_db.xml for the triggers. I would suggest that you may want GrandViz's Ai as this takes into account relations with allies enemies etc. The game seems to know when you use spies and assassins, even if you succeed, so this lowers your rep. I have tried games where I NEVER spied inside a base and it seemed to help and only ever killed off foreign assassins in war and the odd Heretic at the popes request.

[Sammyboi]

I think sending a diplomat with some demands attached to 'accept or we will attack' before attacking your enemy also helps. Although since it's guaranteed to be rejected anyway your diplomat might lose some skill.

[Kalos]

I think sending a diplomat with some demands attached to 'accept or we will attack' before attacking your enemy also helps. Although since it's guaranteed to be rejected anyway your diplomat might lose some skill.

Not true, I've had many times where they accept and say "Please don't attack!"

[Archus]

Not true, I've had many times where they accept and say "Please don't attack!"

Thats when you have Power: Supreme.

[Axe-Battler]

I have to disagree a bit on this one.

The rep certainly takes a long time to build and raise, but in my current (vanilla, 1.2) campaign it took one turn to drop dramatically.

maybe because you're using the campaign on very hard difficulty?

[Recluse]

maybe because you're using the campaign on very hard difficulty?

Actually I'm playing M/M.

[hungry_hungary]

I my experiances I asked England to give me 3000 florin in the early game in return for me attacking the Scots (I was the Danes and the English were at war with the scots).
I soon invaded with a stack at Inverness and blockaded all of the Scots ports.
After that i had Reliable the duration of the game.

[scivian]

So using spys and assassins will lower my reputation, as well as fighting battles, what else?

What things does reputation do for you that make it that worth while?

Lately I have ceased to care about my reputation though. I never attack another faction first, but once they attack me I severely punish or destroy them. Just like nearly all civilizations have done, why am I penalized for that? Should the allies have left Germany and Japan with strength? The allies are not looked at as monsters, quite the opposite, as heros.

[Oxberger]

In my Hungarian campaign I have been at peace for 30 years which with the way I play is actually amazing.

I have only been attacking Rebel lands and my relationships have not randomly dropped like before.

I believe this happens when you are not being an offensive nation to another during war time/peace time. Meaning you cannot have a goal of wiping out that entire faction and start a giant blitzkrieg against them. You have to slowly take them out or force them to cease fire.

The only nation I am at war with is Venice and I'm allied to Poland, Byzantines, England, and the Papal States.

[doraji]

Back in patch 1.1 I once played as a super pacifist (it was about 280 years after the start of the game before I had my first battle) and allied with everyone on the map (everyone including the Mongols by the 1300s); without doing anything at all in terms of battlewise, my reputation had simply slowly increased, and increased, and increased... until it was finally "Immaculate". So it seems that having many allies somehow increased my reputation...