Diplomacy Interface

[dejvid2]

The underlying Diplomacy is awesome. I can think of a couple of minor tweaks but essentially it is pretty near perfect as can be.

However:

Information is quite hard to get to because it is buried quite deep.

For example if you want to know who a rival power is at war with you first go to the page which shows the map of who your are at war with.
On the map you click on the flag of the power which you are interested in. This opens a new window that has information about that power and has a map showing the location of the power.
You then click on that map (unless I had watched the development stream it would never have occurred to me to click on that map). Only then do you get the map which shows who that power is at war with.

But the point you really need that information is when a power asks you if you want to make peace. If they are at war with a close ally of yours you don't want to make peace because you will ask you to break that peace.
Hence a list of who a power is at war with should appear on the window where a power offers peace.

I would also prefer a simple table rather than a map ie
Rome: War
Antigonid: Defensive Alliance
etc

This is about Diplomacy but the tendency to hide essential information that requires a lot of clicking to get to is a problem of many features of the game.

To be clear, though I find the interface both counter intuitive and clunky the underlying game is excellent. A poor interface won't spoil a good game nor would a good interface save a poor game.

[pavelk]

Hi dejvid2,
thank you for the feedback, we always appreciate it.

For example if you want to know who a rival power is at war with you first go to the page which shows the map of who your are at war with. On the map you click on the flag of the power which you are interested in. This opens a new window that has information about that power and has a map showing the location of the power. You then click on that map (unless I had watched the development stream it would never have occurred to me to click on that map). Only then do you get the map which shows who that power is at war with.

There is much easier way: right click on the tile which is owned by the player you want to see his relations, it will open diplomacy window with that player. Click on the minimap in diplomacy window. There are actually more ways how to popup diplomacy window with particular player from the game (without clicking on number of buttons).

But the point you really need that information is when a power asks you if you want to make peace. If they are at war with a close ally of yours you don't want to make peace because you will ask you to break that peace.
Hence a list of who a power is at war with should appear on the window where a power offers peace.

There is a button at the bottom of the poped up window for all the offers/treaties. Just click on that button.

[gwgardner]

You can also right click on another countrie's banner, when on the diplomacy map, and the relationship lines and statuses show those of that country instead of the player country.

[dejvid2]

Thanks for your help. I will now not have any problem in future finding the needed info.

However.
It is still going to be a problem for those starting the game in future. I would never have worked these things out for myself and I am sure that that there will be others who, if the they do not read this forum and read this post, will never find that screen

Why not make the screen twice as big and have that map always visible?

Even though I can now get the information I need I will almost always want that information so I would still prefer to save myself a few clicks and always have the information available.