My Ideas! (Diplomacy and etc)

[b:3rkljgut]My Ideas![/b:3rkljgut]
[i:3rkljgut]Let me show you them.[/i:3rkljgut]

Alright, so there’s a pretty good consensus that Diplomacy is a useless class. I’ve been thinking on it a little while and I’ve come up with a couple really good ideas (at least, I think so). The goal here is to give Diplomats something fun and unique, and to try and get away from the idea of Diplomats as "show up to cap a planet" guys and give them their own little competitive mini-game to improve their home planet. Some of them hinge on a few changes, some of them should be relatively easy to put in. So, uh, let’s get started.

Level 1 Diplomacy – [b:3rkljgut]Govern[/b:3rkljgut]
This’ll be the first skill, and one of the big changes to Diplomacy. In my ideal world, this command will tie the player to the planet he has decided to [b:3rkljgut]Govern[/b:3rkljgut], semi-permanently. This’ll force players to take a deeper interest in their own planets, and it’ll slow down the day-by-day blockade tug-of-war in-game as well, because each faction will need enough diplomats to run every planet they cap. Governing the planet will, as I said, attach the player to the planet and allow them to make use of further commands in the Diplomacy tree. Doing this, rather than requiring a Clan, allows for neutral planets to be governed by neutral players. There should be some sort of penalty for seperating from your home planet, though I haven’t decided yet what it should be.

Level ?? Diplomacy – [b:3rkljgut]Defenses[/b:3rkljgut]
This command will give the Diplomat and /only/ the Diplomat control over his planet’s pturrets and pshields. This’ll give the Diplomat some much needed sway over space battles.

Level ?? Diplomacy – [b:3rkljgut]Embargo[/b:3rkljgut]
This command will place an Embargo on the target planet, from his planet. It will slowly lower the pop. support of the target planet, and will affect cargo prices. Cumulative, so multiple planets can choose to place an embargo on a target.

Level ?? Diplomacy – [b:3rkljgut]Structures[/b:3rkljgut]
Borrowing from Johnson’s post ( <!– l –><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.legendsofthejedi.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&amp;t=787&amp;p=8374#p8373">viewtopic.php?f=5&amp;t=787&amp;p=8374#p8373</a>&lt;!– l –> ), this’ll allow the Diplomat to commission for a structure to be built. Specifications as far as what the structure is for and what it will do (clan base, garrison, factory, refinery, etc) will hinge on code changes. I’d highly recommend implementing changes from his thread.

Level ?? Diplomacy – [b:3rkljgut]Improvements[/b:3rkljgut]
Allows the Diplomat to make improvements to various structures on his planet.

Level ?? Diplomacy – [b:3rkljgut]Announcement[/b:3rkljgut]
Allows the Diplomat to make a free broadcast from his home planet.

Level ??/??/?? Diplomacy – [b:3rkljgut]Savings 1/2/3[/b:3rkljgut]
Scaling allows the Diplomat to save his clan 5/10/15% on structure purchases, etc.

Level ?? Diplomacy – [b:3rkljgut]Speech/Propaganda[/b:3rkljgut]
Used on a target planet’s broadcast room to lower pop support. Speech for good align, Propaganda for evil align. OR, conversely, have Speech used to raise pop support on home planet and Propaganda used to lower pop support on enemy planet.

More to follow as I think them up, of course.

I love it, and not just because you referenced my post, but because diplomacy as a class needs a major overhaul. I really like the idea of a diplomat being tied to a specific planet, although I can foresee this causing a -ton- of people making diplomat alts just to have one tied to every planet, or something to that effect. Does the ‘govern’ skill actually do anything, other than tie the diplomat to a planet? If not, I think it should, as diplomats need some type of skill-based leveling, rather than relying on packages or datachips 100%. Overall a lot of great ideas. *thumbs up*

Hell yeah, the main one being diplomats and govern. You got have people other than Senators playing diplomats then, they could be &quot;ambassadors&quot;, &quot;mayors&quot;, &quot;representative of &lt;x&gt; city on planet &lt;x&gt;&quot; and help with day to day things. Multiple diplomats helping out each other governing one planet – cool idea, group RP is always fun.

Embargo – Of course. Maybe being able to bump up the price of certain resources and lowering others, so along with embargoing cargo routes, you could force planetary trade to suit you/your planet/your clan.

Defenses – …Yes and no, planetary shields/turrets would need tweaking for it to not make diplomats too overly powerful in space battle scenarios. Leave the flying to the flyboys.

You could throw in a coded election system.

Let me explain:
You can use a skill &quot;represent&quot; say every 8 hours.
The player who represents the most gets most points in the next election
and thus gets the highest position in the diplomatic hierarchy.

Get my point?

This’ll ensure that the most active player will get the most important position.

Most seem like pretty good ideas, think though it takes structures too much away from engineers. Either have both able, or maybe like diplomats have a room with the deeds or are needed to make the frame, engineers build and upgrade. That kind of thing.

Could add that smugglers would have an ability to trade from / with and embargo’d planet.

since they are smugglers and all.

I don’t know about a coded voting system, I can see it being abused entirely too often…