Diplomacy Updates

[Tyrel Lohr]

Posting the first in a series of diplomacy errata here in its own thread for people to pick apart and let me know if it needs more information.

First up is Covert Diplomacy:

Covert Diplomacy
Not all diplomatic negotiations are carried out in the public eye, or with official sanction by the governments involved. Empires often engage in such covert diplomacy when they want keep their political dealings hidden from their rivals.

Covert Treaties
Empires have the option of negotiating secret treaties with each other. Whenever a player offers a treaty to an opponent, he may indicate that this is a covert diplomatic action. This treaty is being offered and negotiated in secret and, if signed, its existence will be kept a closely guarded secret by both parties. Only those two players will know that their empires have signed the treaty, and it won’t be publicly revealed to their opponents. As far as they are concerned, the two empires still are in the same diplomatic state that they were before the treaty was signed. The empires may choose at any time to reveal the existence of their new treaty, however they are only required to do so when they are performing a public action that would require them to be in that diplomatic state.

Covert Declarations
Similarly, an empire may attempt to make a covert declaration of war against an enemy. This covert diplomatic action incurs a penalty of -40% to an empire’s chance of successfully declaring war. If the covert declaration is successful, the empire will secretly be in a state of War with that enemy power. This gives the empire’s military the go ahead to start moving into position to prepare to launch a sneak attack against the enemy. The fact that the two empires are at War doesn’t have to be revealed until the invasion begins. For example, if one Trade partner secretly declares war on the other, the empires will continue trading with each other normally until the first shots are fired.

Secretly declaring war on an opponent so that you can perform a sneak attack on them is seen as a dishonorable move in diplomatic circles, and empires gain a +20% bonus to their attempts to break treaties with or declare war against powers that commit these kinds of attacks.

Uncovering Covert Diplomacy
Empires may use Intel missions to attempt to uncover covert diplomatic arrangements that other powers have signed with one another. A successful Espionage: Diplomacy mission reveals the particulars of a covert diplomatic action (treaty or declaration) that the target empire is trying to keep hidden. This action is chosen at random from the selection of covert diplomatic actions that the target has yet to reveal to its neighbors.

[Tyrel Lohr]

Here's the Armistices update for review!

3.4.4 ▶ Armistices
Empires that are in a state of War can negotiate an armistice at any time to put an end to the conflict as long as they are in contact with each other. Signing an armistice restores the two powers to a diplomatic state of Non-Intercourse. If two warring empires aren’t in sustained contact or contact has been lost since the war began, they won’t be able to negotiate a peace and the war will continue until contact is restored.
In the event that the warring powers aren’t in contact with each other, they can have a third party act as a mediator to assist them in negotiating an armistice to the end the war. This mediator must have sustained contact with both the powers, and it cannot be at war with either of the them. This allows empires that are no longer capable of restoring contact to at least sign an armistice with their rival and return to a state of Non-Intercourse.

The standard armistice is a “no-fault” agreement — it doesn’t officially place guilt for the conflict on any one party, and there is no requirement for either party to surrender any additional resources to their enemy to secure the armistice. However, players can negotiate armistices that carry special conditions or limitations. An element common to historical armistices is the consideration of reparations. The terms of an armistice might specify that one empire will pay the other a number of economic points or transfer control of systems that are currently under its control.

Armistices often include special agreements that officially acknowledge territorial claims or otherwise establish a tentative border between two empires. This lets the powers apportion contested systems (including neutral systems) between their respective spheres of influence to ease post-war tensions and give them a chance to rebuild without worrying about going back to war with each other to decide the control of these contested systems.

Alliance members cannot negotiate separate peace deals with opponents during a war, and all armistices are negotiated with the Alliance as a whole. The allied power that has the highest total System Income serves as the leader of the Alliance under these circumstances, and it is up to them to negotiate peace deals with enemy powers. While it’s preferable that an Alliance leader discuss the peace deal with his fellow allies there is no clear requirement that he do so. This delineates the differences between an egalitarian alliance and a totalitarian one. Empires that don’t want to give up this kind of power are encouraged not to form Alliances in the first place.