Why everyone dislikes me in the campaign map?

**NapoleonMaster** · March 27, 2018, 04:34 PM

No matter what i do, i can't improve my relations with other factions it's always locked in distrustful.

Neither money or offering something to them does nothing to improve relations and even my starting allies dislike me.

Regardless of the faction I play, everyone dislikes me.

Is this a bug or it's intentional?

**Beckitz** · March 27, 2018, 05:28 PM

Not a developer, but from what I've seen, EB II diplomacy tends to be a type of gamey-fied realism, that is, the realism of antiquity. For one thing, do not forget, an empire is a form of slavery and empires conquer, through totalitarian means. You'll generally find that once you cross a threshold in size and power up to the level of an empire, your diplomatic relations with your neighbors become transformed by the new power dynamic: they'll either cower in fear from you keeping themselves safe, or they'll wage war across your borderland regions trying to protect themselves and expand their lands. Either way, your relations with them will be poor, it just depends whether they fear you or not. It's not a coincidence that, at this point, the 'enslave' option is usually the most expeditious when dealing with enemy prisoners and conquered settlements. You're an empire now, you trample down your rivals and you rule through fear.

Smaller states, on the other hand, are almost the opposite - other powers are happy to wheel and deal with you, since you aren't a huge threat but in fact a useful counterweight to flip the balance of power between rival blocs. If you are at such a modest size, I don' think you'll find it too hard to make alliances as long as you can afford to offer some tribute in gold. Even playing as Pontos, for example (on M/M), a hard campaign as a relatively isolated faction, a basic strategy is to ally with the Seleucids while you secure Anatolia, and generally they'll accept as long as you can afford ~1300 gold per turn for 5 or 10 turns. In my experience this is generally true about most diplomatic partners for a small state. Additionally, although other powers do not tend to fear you, small states have a much better chance at playing for respect. If you consistently occupy settlements, give out gifts, and release prisoners, you can get your integrity level up to Trustworthy which will seriously improve your odds of avoiding backstabs and sudden attacks, offering you some level of protection that you can't rely on from your smaller military power.

In general, be gamey about your alliances. EB II is gamier than EB I, and most of all, the focus on gameplay is a result of realism being made into game elements. In EB I, you often take your pick of what you want to see in your empire and on your map, and whatever you choose will work or can be made to work. In EB II, the realism railroads you more into doing a specific thing depending on what circumstances you are dealing with. Just waxing here, but my advice is to make your alliances clearly purposed and temporary. Ally in order to secure your border before a war on another front, and never view your alliances as permanent - oftentimes the person you want to make your ally, will also be the person you probably want to attack next after your current war. Rulers were very mercurial in antiquity, and in that sense, I don't know, but the asperity of the strategic level gameplay in EB II could be seen as intentional. You really have to think like an antique ruler and think in terms of how much coercive force you have at your disposal and how it measures up to the force of your neighbors and rivals at any given time. You usually have to crush another power whenever you get the chance, lest they grow more powerful and become too much for you, just as you generally have no choice but to charge at other states more powerful than you and work pretty quickly and directly to become strong enough to attack them and take out the threat

**Beezertheturnip** · March 27, 2018, 05:50 PM

As far as I know, the dev team hasn't changed much about diplomacy from the original M2TW. And if you've been doing a lot of conquering, you've probably been sacking and maybe even exterminating/enslaving settlements you take over. Each time you do that, you take a hit to your reputation. It does eventually normalize back to 0, but that takes forever, even in a game as long as this is. If you've been expanding (likely), your reputation goes in the toilet unless you're in nice mode and occupy every place you take over.

**QuintusSertorius** · March 27, 2018, 06:12 PM

"Distrustful" is just a label. Specifically, it's the middle value in the faction_standing. It's normalising back to the middle.

**XDeath007** · April 03, 2018, 04:13 PM

Hehe, I've gotten despicable numerous times basically for the reasons Beckitz said.

Yet, despite that, I've actually managed to get a pretty good alliance with the Arverni as Rome in my current campaign. Right around the Polybian Reforms, I had Italy, Sicily, and was about to take rebel Massalia in southern Gaul. However, the Areuakoi took it before I did. At this point, the Areuakoi had fully conquered Hispania, half of Africa, and over half of western Gaul. The Aedui were basically gone and the Arverni had 1 settlement left just north of Massalia that leads into the interior of Gaul. I didn't want to fight the Areuakoi on 2 fronts so I allied with the Arverni (I even got military access to their lands!). This alliance stayed until I cancelled it after the Marian reforms. While this alliance was in effect, I conquered Hispania, southern Gaul, and Africa. The Arverni, funny enough, managed to claw their way back and take back a good chunk of Gaul. There were even some battles where we fought together against the Areuakoi. The only reason I cancelled this mutually-beneficial alliance was because Rome needs to eliminate the Arverni as a victory condition.

**Kaskad** · April 03, 2018, 11:12 PM

Talking about the military access agreement: what are the effects when an AI army (allied) walks into our territory without the military access granted ? The relation automatically worsened ?