Quick question about Diplomats

[Drewski]

In vanilla RTW, diplomats seem to get better "stats" after pulling off successful diplo missions. This doesn't seem to be the case in RTR. E.g. if a newly trained spy successfully completes his first mission, he generally gets promoted to the next lvl of spy.

Wondered why in a equivalent circumstance, this isn't happening with diplomats?....(ok they sometimes get foreign hostages and the like, but they never seem to get to "diplomat lvl 2", as per spies and assassins)

[Andy5]

I think influence is affected by the number of successful negotiations with which the diplomats is involved. I just keep my diplomats moving and constantly negotiating with anybody and everybody. This appears to increase their influence levels - I could be wrong.

[Tiberius Nero]

Successful negotiations do increase a diplomat's influence, and bear in mind that a diplomat can gain ancillaries which add to influence, if you leave him in a city with an academy.

Not that it really matters, in my experience; there are some deals which the AI always accepts, some which it does under certain circumstances (it exchanges maps, if your map is bigger than theirs), and some it always rejects (peace treaties, protectorates and the like).

[Drewski]

Successful negotiations do increase a diplomat's influence, and bear in mind that a diplomat can gain ancillaries which add to influence, if you leave him in a city with an academy.

Not that it really matters, in my experience; there are some deals which the AI always accepts, some which it does under certain circumstances (it exchanges maps, if your map is bigger than theirs), and some it always rejects (peace treaties, protectorates and the like).

Thanks...I rely on the side buttons messages (e.g. telling me my assassin has gained the next lvl of skill). I've never seen one of these for my diplomats. Maybe they are getting more influencial without any announcement, will have to pay more attention when I continue my current campaign

[pannonian]

Bribing enemy armies is the key to improving a diplomat's skills.

[Delvecchio1975]

absolutely - and when they get better, bribing prices go down!

[Mikail Mengsk]

absolutely - and when they get better, bribing prices go down!

and this is VERY good, because i think bribing prices are VERY high

[Jamey]

and this is VERY good, because i think bribing prices are VERY high

This is intentional. Having the AI bribe the settlement you just conquered gets old very fast. I deploy assassins primarily to whack any enemy diplomats which get near my territory to keep them from bribing away my reinforcements.

I find that having diplomats sitting still in distant foreign territory sees a lot of good ancillaries. I'm not sure exactly why. I also like to do map exchanges to build early experience on diplomats.

[Mikail Mengsk]

Oh i was not questioning about that: i also think that is good that bribing cost are high. I don't like winning by bribing every enemy army, and i don't want my armies to be bribed by the enemy

[Drewski]

Well I just got a map exchange plus a tidy lump of cash from the Gauls, from my "4 wreath" diplomat, and he immediately went up to "5 wreaths", but with no announcement of the fact, apart from a manual check.

So I've kinda answered my own question; they do get better, but they keep it a secret

Thanks for replies and tips guys

[HouseOfHam]

Look in export_descr_character_traits.txt and find the GoodDiplomat trait. It's probably going to look something like...

;------------------------------------------
Trait GoodDiplomat
    Characters diplomat
    NoGoingBackLevel 6
    AntiTraits BadDiplomat

    Level Tactful
        Description Tactful_desc
        EffectsDescription Tactful_effects_desc
        Threshold  1 

        Effect Negotiation  1 

    Level Courteous
        Description Courteous_desc
        EffectsDescription Courteous_effects_desc
        Threshold  2 

        Effect Negotiation  2 

    Level Diplomatic
        Description Diplomatic_desc
        EffectsDescription Diplomatic_effects_desc
        Threshold  4 

        Effect Negotiation  3 

    Level Polished_Diplomat
        Description Polished_Diplomat_desc
        EffectsDescription Polished_Diplomat_effects_desc
        Threshold  8 

        Effect Negotiation  4 

    Level Expert_Diplomat
        Description Expert_Diplomat_desc
        EffectsDescription Expert_Diplomat_effects_desc
        GainMessage Expert_Diplomat_gain_desc
        Threshold  16 

        Effect Negotiation  5

As you can see, only the Expert_Diplomat level has a GainMessage defined (i.e., the message that drops on the left when that level of trait is acquired). You can add a message for every level, by inserting a GainMessage line with a unique identifier. The text for the identifier goes into text\export_VnV.txt

There are a few other traits that affect Negotiation ability, but you'll have to find those yourself.