Greetings, associate!
These past few months, we were busy with diplomacy mechanics. Diplomacy in Revival: Recolonization works on multiple, simultaneous levels – just like in real life! Today, we're going to talk about the fundamentals of this game system.
Diplomacy is found in most 4x strategy games. For good reason - by engaging with it, players should feel their influence over the game world, as well as perceive reactions from other agents on the map. In Revival, there are two groups you can negotiate with: free tribes and factions.
Free tribes have no allegiances to anyone, but they can become vassals. On the other hand, factions are led by AI-controlled emissaries. They build their own empires, capture territories, claim resources, and pursue their own goals.
Whether you make allies or enemies with these groups depends on your emissary's philosophy, your tribe and your playstyle. Diplomatic relations are governed by "loyalty", a modifier that players can influence. In addition to loyalty, each player has a reputation score.
Reputation is a resource – you can gain or lose reputation points. If one party wants to make a move against another, it will cost them reputation. The cost of these actions will depend on the opposing faction's loyalty and the duration of the action.
Players will accumulate reputation every turn. The rate of growth will depend on your relations with free tribes and factions, upgrades available from the science tree, along with your choice of emissary.
Loyalty is a scale and not a resource; it represents your relations with a specific neighbor. Loyalty can be affected by certain interactions between groups, such as cooperation, neutrality, hostility and war. But it is not a factor that severely prevents you, the player, from playing Revival the way you like.
For example, two factions with high loyalty can still fight each other. However, the higher the loyalty, the lower the reputation cost to make peace again. As an additional benefit - other peaceful actions will also cost less.
It's certainly easier to start wars if your loyalty is low, but trade and scientific agreements will cost a lot more for their duration. However, much like in real life, you can manipulate loyalty by spreading rumors and giving gifts. So there’s benefits and drawbacks to consider, just like with most systems in 4x games.
The team is working hard to make the Open Alpha available to you this June, and we're looking forward to hearing your feedback on diplomacy!