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SHADOW MAGIC SCRIPTING
Scripting Database

Using the Diplomatic Action Event to control Player/AI relations

by Talon-Thorn

DOWNLOAD: sample scenario files

Outline:
A simple scenario where the player is not allowed to make peace with any of the neutral AI players. When peace is agreed upon, the script resets it to war on the following turn.

Scripts:
This sample scenario uses the New Turn trigger combined with the Diplomatic Relation Condition. When conditions are "peace" the trigger fires to convert the relation to War using the Diplomatic Action event.

Setup:
See sample scenario files for details.

Details:

You should look at the actual working scripts in the sample scenario for specific settings.

Apparently (and I'm going only on impressions from using the script in a test scenario) player relations change each day (positive or negative, probably based on the wizard's spheres, chosen race, and AI difficulty setting). As a result, the solution for maintaining player relations is to adjust them on a regular basis, such as each day.

I recommend using a "new turn" event that adjusts player relations by around -20 per day and leaving off the extra declaration of war events. I tried this using -20 each day and it worked quite well. I am pretty sure that should neutral players succeed in making peace they will declare war shortly thereafter.

You may want to experiment with something less than -20 on player relations. It may give the scenario a much nicer feel (where relations deteriorate instead of everyone declaring war at the beginning). However, the right adjustment may vary based on the type of wizards in the game. In the scenario I set the player wizard to have death magic and undead as its chosen race -- which is likely to really turn off life wizards of good races. I also tried playing the sample scenario with player relations adjusted by -10 each day and with no declaration of war events. The game ended up with me being at war with everyone after about 12 turns, but there were three wizards who made alliances that did not break by day 30. (I didn't try longer as they were allied long enough to cause problems as it was.)

Having even one neutral make peace would add some color to the scenario, and maybe it wouldn't affect the game as long as the player doesn't stay peaceful for much past a few days.