Me and Acro were talking today about diplomats and how they seem to be less effective when brought i did a quick check. All results are from 40k+1 prim lands with 0 armies all were NOT influenced by other countries. The result below show the rebellion rate after each turn after sending diplomats.

25% chance of rebellion
23%
20%
18%
17% restless
Country now makes 2 diplomats
15%
14% content
12%
11%
10%
9% supportive
8%
8%
7%
6%
6%
5%
5%
5%
5% devoted
4%
4%
4%
4%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
(game crashed)
79 diplomats in total

Now buying 79 diplomats in one gousing a provence with the same conditions - 13% content.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2010 09:31AM by ghost..

I was testing some stuff too today, soldiers also have effect of countries becoming faster devoted etc.

So more soldiers means more productive faster, not just lower rebellion?

Action
Effect on Control Level

From the instructions page:

Conquest -10 to conqueror
Recruit Soldiers -1 per turn
Levy Taxes -1 per turn
Send Diplomat +10 per diplomat
Build Fort, Keep, or Castle +10
Develop Culture +5
Advance Culture +10
Army Deserts -5 per army

Numbers denote 'control level', and as we know you will also exert control beyond your borders.

I'm afraid ghost's numbers will be dependent on the control over the surrounding lands, and how big they are (farms, development). So the numbers may vary a bit. I think you should also look at the control level if you do nothing. You have to build something, so maybe building soldiers all the time may be a good control condition. If you buy 79 diplomats and then wait 78 turns, do you end up better than when sending one diplomat per turn, over 79 turns?

To answer that, Ghost has to give more info about his "test".

Ghost you say no influence from other lands? What lands did you use for the test and what and who owned the best land next to it

I used Egypt and Moldovia since both farmed themselves from 30k +1 to 40K +1 and I had Palestine at rebellious as well as Bulgaria. There were the only countries that were mine that linked to each country. However, I think Palestine was 70k+1 and Bulgaria was only 40k+1 however I don't think rebellious countries can effect other lands? I kept Palestine and Bulgaria rebellious by making troops in them that I could not afford.

That´s 1 way to do it, but if bulgaria or byzantium etc all the countries in between were/have been kept primitive there won't be influence spread either. I think it guarantees a bit more than making a neigbbor become rebellious again and again. But I think ur info sounds pretty correct, unless u advanced byzantium?

Then, how could building 80 diplo have better effect than buying 80? What factor is missing?

Error in the coding/maths.

I think it is done on purpose. If you could turn a country to almost 100% devoted in 1 turn it would make the game far to easy.

By buying around a 100 of diplomats in 1 turn? = aroundish 600 gold? Diplomats, are just 1 bit to weak for there purpose.

Yes, considering buying dev and advancement up to the country ougtha have a much better effect

Consider you take over the UK which is all advanced and your nearest advanced land is sweden. Norway being primitive. They are the best way to make the provinces like you in this situation. In most cases armies or dev/adv is better but diplomats have uses even of they are remote.

Diplomats can be usefull by building them, buying, I consider a waste.But that's just me.

Agree that buying them is waste. I build them, but rarely. Mostly in 40k primitive, because you lose only one turn untill dev, but it will produce 2 armies/turn instead of one, and of course only if it would not be influenced sooner, and there is no real risk of losing it in the process. An interesting one is 70k +1 dev. If it's for example cyrenaica when you're Nicaea, will take very long to get devoted. So I build 2 turns of diplomats and it advances now in 4 instead of 6 turns, so I lose no turns at all but it will like me much quicker.

Arpad, you say that a 40k prim will produce 2 armies/turn after how many turns of diplomates?

since it should only produce 2/turn when nearly devoted

I'm talking about production after developing. Normally 40k dev produces 1 army/turn when rebelious, so there's actually no difference with primitive. Developing takes 8 turns. If you build diplomats for 4 turns, developing will be down to only 5 turns, so 1 turn extra, and still restless, but 2 instead of 1 armies.

Sorry if i gave the opinion that buying is good, i do not agree with buying them. I use them in backlands mostly if the country is already 40/30k dev, then when restless switch to farms. Buying is stupid as show above, you can get much better results by making them.