The Empire of Tamriel is working to rebuild the Diplomacy community. Any players who would like to join the struggle mail me. P.S Please downvote any of Japanball's rude messages.

How so?

My plan is to train low level Diplomacy players and build from there.

Train them how?

By being dumb

We have a Discord channel. I will mail you an invite if you like.

The discord channel was GREAT until a certain WAYZIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT kicked me out

^That is our clan Discord stupid.

The diplomacy community doesn't really need to be rebuilt, it is good. There are only two real issues

* Most importantly, we need to get rid of the "wait one turn after declaring" rule. I remember when people first started using that rule and the backlash it caused, I actively avoided games that use it. Now it is a standard so I mostly make my own games or play games from players that I know also hate the rule.
*We also have to encourage not only more roleplay, but better roleplay. People who rp in a ridiculous and "silly" way can disrupt an otherwise good game. Players in large slots who don't roleplay or interact not only disrupt a game, but often ruin it. I usually fix this by making sure all the main slots are filled with people who I invite and I have played and interacted with.

other than these problems I do not really see a big problem and I have actually found easier to fill diplos recently than it has been than earlier in the year.

The main problem with the Diplomacy community right now is the fact that a 27 player Diplomacy real-time game will not fill.

Edited 12/23/2017 13:07:02

Maybe yours do not. But mine and my clan's games always fill within 24 hours. I put up a 37 player multiday and it filled in a few hours. Maybe your prereqs are too high? I would say it was hard to fill a diplomacy a few months ago, but the situation I think has already improved. If you send me some examples of templates that aren't filling I could take a look and see if there is anything that might be pushing players away.

Edited 12/23/2017 17:55:56

I personally think the diplomacy community is strong. I have two separate "clicks" if you will (not in clans or on discord, but playing together all the time nonetheless), of dedicated diplomacy players who love the style of play and roleplay just like you would hope given each different template.

I would argue that waiting a turn after declaration was a big step up, and I think it provides a level of stability that the average diplomacy game needs, especially with younger players. That said, for sure there are games that don't need it, and I'm all for templates without the rule, but I would certainly say we're in a better place now that its the norm.

All that said, I would say the biggest problem is the rampant booting. A good diplomacy game is killed in an instant when a few important slots are booted. I think the solution is strengthening the community by working to include those who are new through pms and such, and hosts blacklisting those who get themselves booted for no reason, especially if those players provided almost nothing to the game before their boot.

Kek a creationist just called me stupid

The problem with waiting a turn is that it makes it really difficult to do a surprise attack, the unpredictable players declaring war last minute is a fun and important threat that really doesn't exist in a lot of diplomacy since early 2016. Players role playing as unhinged and unstable countries who could attack with virtually no notice is now non-existent. I remember it started out as "you have to wait x amounts of minutes/hours (depending on if it was multi day or RT) before you declare war" and I was able to deal with that, although I didn't like it. But early last year it evolved into having to wait an entire turn, it takes away the realism of a surprise attack and makes it essentially impossible for a small country to take on a large one.

While it does give the opportunity for small countries to take on bigger ones with the element of surprise, it also paves the way for bigger countries to squish out little ones in an instant, with no warning whatsoever. That said, your arguments have changed my view on the matter.

I think that both ways, having it required to wait a turn, and no requirement at all, both foster an unrealistic playstyle (assuming we're playing on a modern or semi-modern/realistic template). On the one hand, no nation, for various reasons, (in the 20th century onwards at the very least) would just attack another nation out of the blue with no repercussions. However, there is no actual physical barrier to doing so, and history has shown that sometimes the benefits outweigh the costs, sometimes they don't.

Thus, I think the solution needs to be somewhere in the middle. Something that allows players to perform these surprise attacks, like Germany did against the Soviets in WW2, but somehow decentivizes doing so in a significant enough way to foster a level of consideration of the pros and cons of making that move. As you have pointed out, becoming "PE" for it is MUCH too harsh a decentivization, but I'm sure you will acknowledge that at the same time it would also foster more interesting, and more realistic gameplay if there was still some form of decentivization other than just "they will look bad on the world stage".

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=14652198

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=14645487

Edited 12/25/2017 02:40:33

27 players real time diplo? that should take the whole day and more to complete

It's simple: if you're declaring on a player larger than you, you can declare and attack on the same turn. If you're declaring on someone weaker, declare a turn in advance.

I like it @Clint Eastwood

Or you can have a certain number of 'blitzkriegs' per game to attack right after declaring, I have had that rule before, and it was fun before the wave of bootings came in.