Diplomacy is a gameplay mechanic in Empire: Total War. It allows the player faction to interact with other factions, allowing them to trade money, technologies, military access, become allies, etc.
Options to interact with a faction[]
- Request Trade Agreement
- Request Alliance
- Request Military Access
- Give or demand payments
- Give or demand military access
- Give or demand technology
- Present State Gift
- Declare War
- Demand to be a protectorate
Modifier Points[]
- War: -70 to -200
- Historical Grievances/Friendship: Varies depending on faction (depends on the history between the two factions before 1700/1783 in Warpath/United States Campaign), decreases over time if trading or allies with the faction in question
- Government Type: Factions with the same government type will have better relations. Absolute Monarchies and Republics distrust each other the most; both types slightly distrust Constitutional Monarchies. +30 to -30 normally; however, if one of the factions has had a revolution and recently changed type, this number will be in the hundreds.
- Religion: +30 to -30 (Positive if same, negative if different)
- National Leaders Command Respect: Varies depending on the faction leaders' number of stars
- Failed Assassination: -5 to -50, depending on if the player tried to assassinate agents of the faction
- Acts of Sabotage: ?
- State Gifts: +100, -1 for every turn that passes (All state gifts contribute to the same amount of Modifier Points). Territories, technologies, or money given outside of the form of state gifts also add slightly to this modifier and also dominish over time.
- Trade Agreements: +15 to +60, +1 for every turn that passes.
- Trade Agreement broken: Varies depending on how long trade was established; a positive but diminishing number
- Enemy of my enemy is my friend: +10
- At war with an ally: -10
- Alliances not honored: -25 initially, decreases over time (1 point per turn). Once this trait is obtained, -5 points are permanently allocated to each affected faction. This occurs if a faction backs out of an alliance when an ally is being attacked, and is applied to all factions in the same theatre.
Territorial Expansion Modifier Points[]
- -5 points per territory to every faction upon capturing a region, except for the Ottoman Empire and the Native American factions. Buying or trading for regions does not count towards this modifier. Modifier grows exponentially if multiple territories are taken in one turn. Conquering rebel territories does not apply the penalty.
- -60 points for every territory against faction that loses territory to the player
- +1 point for every turn that has passed since taking a province
General Information[]
Diplomatic actions can be successful if the deal is sweetened with money, technology, regions, or military access, a threat is made, or the two factions are friendly to each other.
Diplomatic relations generally sour as time goes on. While most diplomacy modifiers have a limit (e.g bonuses due to trade agreements stop improving past +60), penalties for territorial expansion can increase indefinitely--particularly for factions being annexed by the players.