Why does my faction's reputation always get lower and lower?

**Calypze** · December 08, 2012, 09:41 AM

Whenever I play a campaign, either the grand campaign or any of the Kingdoms campaigns, over time my faction's reputation gets worse and worse. And this is rather odd as I always keep alliances (except when I'm forced to choose one ally over another due to that they go to war against each other), I try to play honest, I almost never try to assassinate the characters of allies. So why does my reputation get worse as the campaign goes on?

Sure, I have a tendency to exterminate big enemy cities (out of pragmatism as else they will get unruly) and I never ever release prisoners (either ransom them or execute them straight away). It's hard to be nice in war. But that's against factions I'm already at war with (or rebels). It shouldn't affect my reputation as a partner to other factions that I have no hostilities with.

**marcus_agrippa** · December 08, 2012, 09:50 AM

Still both executing prisoners and exterminationg cities does damage your reputation.

**Aeratus** · December 08, 2012, 09:55 AM

Exterminating cities reduces reputation by a lot. Executing prisoners reduce reputation a little. See http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Reputation-M2TW

Also, if you're playing on H or VH, reputation goes down automatically each turn.

It shouldn't affect my reputation as a partner to other factions that I have no hostilities with.

That's relations, not reputation. Relations is faction-specific. Reputation is global.

**Consulo** · December 08, 2012, 10:51 AM

Yep everyone has already said it. It is because you're executing prisoners and destroying cities. Ransoming is generally the neutral approach, as is sacking. So be aware of what repercussions your actions may bring.

**PapaRosario** · December 08, 2012, 12:14 PM

Difficulty does not affect reputation.

Edit: Occupying a settlement also does not increase reputation. There are a few things wrong on that wiki page.

Here's some evidence for both of those:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Difficulty affects relations with every faction. Reputation is different. Also, whether that value goes up or down every turn is not just dependent on difficulty level, but is also dependent on current relations. Difficulty just sets what it gets normalized to. For example, the value could go up every turn on Hard difficulty if current relations were low enough. Or it could go down every turn on Medium difficulty if current relations were high enough.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Occupying a settlement does not affect your reputation.

**totalwar_legend** · December 09, 2012, 08:27 AM

It's easier to have a bad reputation than a good one. Maintaining alliances seems to do nothing for getting good reputation. If you want to be good, the best way is to get into some battles, capture a lot of soldiers and release them, and to simply occupy, and not sack or exterminate cities. Also, when doing diplomacy, leaving the balance in generous seems to help

**PapaRosario** · December 09, 2012, 08:34 AM

Yeah, releasing soldiers is the best way to increase rep. Make sure you capture at least 80 to release for the best effect.

As for generous offers increasing rep, that doesn't happen. If you want to see a full list of things that increase rep, go to descr_faction_standing and Ctrl+F for "global". Anything with a positive global value increases rep, and anything with a negative global value decreases rep.

**Calypze** · December 12, 2012, 03:46 PM

Thanks for the replies, now it makes sense, at least for the "in-game logic". But as I said, alas it is hard to be nice in war. Releasing prisoners strikes me as dumb. He who gets away lives to fight another day.

**Sitalkes** · December 12, 2012, 04:13 PM

Well releasing soldiers seems dumb (and maybe it makes the game last longer) but what it means is you get to beat them again and get more stars, chivalry, and attributes for your generals more quickly than you would otherwise