Author Topic: Suggestions for Factions/Diplomacy  (Read 16051 times)

Offline Cookie Flava

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Suggestions for Factions/Diplomacy
« on: May 06, 2018, 01:50:24 pm »
I would like to suggest the game includes more diplomatic elements for Factions. It’s all fair and well saying natural leaders emerge and such but its very difficult to work together as a faction or communicate at all with other factions.

1)   Faction Message
Suggestions:
Add further formatting tools to faction message.
Coloured text would be amazing.
At least make it so in the faction message input the text shifts down instead of running off the screen

2)   Chat options as regards a faction are quite limited
Suggestions:
-A faction leader only chat
-A faction leader only chat for all factions
-A #1 leader chat between all factions
-A elected representative chat between all factions
Any of these could equally be done in discord. Maybe a faction leaders chat with your factions own leaders only.

3) Any way at all to know the leaders of a current faction. Without this makes it hard to contact them. You basically have to stalk them down
There are only 3 ways to know the leaders of other factions
-Bump into them in a game AND notice
-They are around on discord AND you notice
-Word of mouth

Suggestions:
-Maybe make it possible to see the leaders of other factions in game or on the forums at all times
-Add a diplomacy/all factions war channel to discord-it could be just leaders, some leaders, and elected rep or make it an open channel to all.
Just please anything to make it possible talk with other factions or your own faction more effectively.

Ultimately, I would love a full-on diplomacy system with in game alliances and truces but its unlikely to happen. I know the response in the past has been to leave it be and let diplomacy grow organically outside the game but with some factions with low player numbers and new players constantly joining and players leaving makes this a challenge.

How can one hope to form a meaningful treaty if 6 players who live in the furthest time zone from the other players, sometimes without a shared language people are confident in, can just decide to attack somewhere and faction a break a truce.
Another response is to say that good coordination and communication are what the faction war rewards. Well I feel like it that’s like turning it into a sheep herding competition without any “tools”. In fact its not what it rewards at all. It rewards faction size and desperate, blind chat spam and herding. I know things scale for faction size but you cannot scale shared languages, time zones or people seeing messages. What should be rewarded is good strategy on the world screen and grind in game. Not herding people into installing discord and what feels like a desperate challenge to contact anyone.

That’s my experience as a newer player to Alliance. I played GoI a while a go but never really became part of the community. I understand the experience might be different for those who have been part of community for a while or those in bigger factions. The lack of any diplomacy really feels like a ceiling on the world map.

Or maybe you think I should just go play CIV5 instead :P


Offline Bookkeepper

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Re: Suggestions for Factions/Diplomacy
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2018, 02:33:59 pm »
Adding more chat channels in-game is perhaps not so elegant. The main issue being you have to be online to see it. Perhaps combine a couple of ideas: leaders can access a "conference" message that other factions can read. That way the text is persistent.

Perhaps construct a new "Diplomacy" tab under the faction menu.
It has the option to view other faction leaders, and clicking on their names behaves like in lobby so you can friend/pm them. You can also leave a message about your intentions that all other leaders can see.

I also hesitate to say add more channels to the discord cause it's already pretty crowded in there...

Offline Cookie Flava

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Re: Suggestions for Factions/Diplomacy
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2018, 05:25:15 pm »
These are great ideas. My suggestions are not concrete. I really feel this discussion is needed. Thanks for your good ideas.