Need tips for diplomacy

[arcanek]

The search on these forums are really bad. I wonder why they never update it? I saw this format all over the web for years and they still have the search. Anyhow I need some tips for diplomacy. I'm playing with Scotland with RR/RC compilation on VH/VH early era.

Other factions would just randomly come in and block my port, triggering war, my relations with them goes down, so they never accept ceasefire, and more port blocking. This process repeats a lot. Is there any way to stop this annoyance?

Also Norway has 6 allies, and they keep invading my land. When I repel Norwegians my relations with all those 6 European factions go down, so it hurts. Is there any way I could have prevented that?

I also have a question about reputation. I read about it in other topic that maintaining an alliance helps reputation. I secured an alliance with Hungary at the start of the game. I never declared war on anyone - I'm at war with 5 factions but they all declared war on me. I never executed any enemy. I release or ransom. I also never sacked or exterminated settlements so far. Still I see my reputation going down from mixed to dubious. What is the deal here?

[Anaatti]

Is your allies attacking some christians, do you have low papal respect? Or if you are growing too big and AI wants to stop you

[NoMercy88]

You do realise RC/RR and VH/VH makes the game alot harder right?

=P

I don't have to much knowledge of RR/RC but if you keep a high repuation by not attacking allies(try not to make alliances with people who you are gonna attack in the next 30 turns) and keep high papal favour(offer tribute over a long period of time and every 5-10 turns make a single payment) ad then you shouldn't be attacked by christian factions as much. If one of them does attack you don't sally right away and let them attack you because 1. They might be asked to cease hostilies (cause you have high papal favour) and if they refuse they get excommed, and 2. Because you are Scotland and your troops are better in defensive(if you use them properly).

GL and HF.

Kind Regards
Will

[django333]

Get in good with the Pope ASAP. That means bribes, building churches, recruiting priests and joining crusades. The better your standing with the Pope the less likely it is christians factions will attack you for fear of excommunication. As for Norway, there isn't much you can do there. Playing as Scotland, war with Norway is inevitible. You just got unlucky that they have so many allies.

[meese]

Haha, funnily enough I established an alliance with them early on when I saw they were getting the upper-hand over Denmark and have since had lots of royal marriages We even stayed allies when I was excommunicated and then Norway followed suit!

But yeah, for diplomacy, your best bet is to keep your reputation up which means choosing alliances very very carefully, so you don't break them. Very important also to try and get an alliance with the Papacy, as others have said. Then make sure you keep these relations up with tributes or single payments, or even gifting Jerusalem when you know you won't be able to hold onto it (this goes for other settlements too!).

[Tyrenia]

Couple of questions first

What version of SS are you using?
How many provinces do you have?
Who are you at war with (other than Norway)?

Without that info, I can't be any more specific, but as a general thing Scotland should try to ally with Denmark and France to help you against England and Norway. The above advice on His Holiness is also very sound.

As for building rep, other than making alliances, any successful agreement with another power builds your international rep (so long as you don't break it), so trade agreements are quite good, though they don't bring as much rep as alliances of course. Also, I don't think that releasing prisoners/occupying settlements has anything to do with rep. I could be wrong about that though.

[meese]

He said: RR/RC compilation on VH/VH early era

Allying with France definitely helps, but to be honest, as Scotland I always found it unnecessary because the English are bound to fight the Franks anyway (no need for an offensive alliance), and you're not going to need to worry about the Franks attacking you (ie. no need for a defensive alliance). I always found such an alliance to be more of a hindrance because eventually you'll want to move down into mainland Europe but won't be able to with them there.
Still, an alliance with one of the Scandinavian factions is very useful because it means you can focus your attention on moving southward once you've destroyed the other.

For me, I didn't bother allying with France and went with Norway instead of Denmark. That left all of France to me, and I've taken everything from Groningen down to Marseilles, and all of Spain now. Annoyingly, Norway made an alliance with Hungary and Sicily so I'm thinking of doing the same. The Papal States really despises us for killing off Denmark, HRE, Spain, Portgual, Aragon and the Franks, but also hates Genoa for getting rid of Venice. As it stands, Sicily's the only one who has even close to 3/4 approval. But I've gone off on a tangent...

One very safe thing to do is go on the first or second crusade to the holy lands and really fortify the place. Then, whenever possible, call a crusade on a nearby settlement and take that as it'll bump up your papal ranking. And even if you don't care whatsoever about your standing with the pope, it can pay off as you slowly build up your own crusader states (p.s. good idea to get an alliance with them) and have a good economy going ni the holy lands.

[Tyrenia]

He said: RR/RC compilation on VH/VH early era

Sorry, I don't think I made myself clear. I meant 6.0, 6.1 or 6.2

[arcanek]

I really don't understand... it was really hard to make and keep alliances as Byzantine. I would have to pay for alliance and keep giving money to keep the relation up. I'm playing as Venice this time and it goes like this: "Hi, I'm from Venice. Wanna sign trade rights? Yes? Nice! Wanna sign alliance? Suredoodlydoo!" I'm allied with 10 factions now (Papal states, Genoa, HRE, Hungary, Poland, Novgorod, Spain, Portugal, Aragon, Crusaders), and i didn't have any problem getting into alliance even when I was in a war against Byzantines, the most powerful state at the time. Does my faction's relative strength affect the diplomacy? It can't be religion because as Byzantines the relationship with Novgorod, who doesn't even share border, goes down very quickly.

[RollingWave]

First of all, it is much easier to ally with a faction of the same faith. espically if there's little cross interest between the two.

For example, if I'm the Moors, and make ally with Egypt (who might share a border but is typically in the middle of north Africa (aka no where) that there's little interest for either side to keep on pushing) and Kwarzinians, I could pretty much keep this alliance without any worry for the rest of the game.

Catholics are more tricky due to the pope . but obviously, could never go wrong allying yourself with the pope.

Also, if your a non-catholic faction, allying with a catholic faction that's obviously excommunicated (like if you see a crusade called on him) is usually easy, allying with someone with common enemies is usually easier. of course, having a higher level diplomat usually helps