Diplo Compilation/Overview

[Raolinx Aeromancer]

Compilation of Diplo posts by Aruspex. Don't want to lose this stuff and I'm not familiar with wikki enough to edit whats already there.

Diplomacy Paths
Newbie Progression
Civic Diplomacy
Regional Trade
Writs (Embassies)
Consular Embassies
Missions
Consul

Introduction to Parleying

Originally Posted by Aruspex
How to Parley like a Pro

If you are looking for the "short form" of how to parley like a pro, read the colored text. If you want a full description of the system and how to play it, keep reading after that!

Short Form: Guided Play-through (the colored section)

Go to the Abilities Book (or press “P”) and select the Diplomacy tab. At the bottom, press the button marked "Strategy."

This will open a group of five boxes to hold your Statements (cards).

Open up your ability book and go to the Diplomacy tab. From there select the Comment, Evaluation, and the two Assertions that are the same color as the Evaluation. For instance, if you are a Goblin, your primary Expression is Reason, which is green.

The final slot is for you to place an Assertion of another Expression type (color). Knowing what your opponent is playing will help you determine which Assertion to place here. If you have no information about your opponent, choose an Assertion that catches your eye.

Hail the NPC, choose the parley option.

On the right is the gameboard while on the left is the Dialogue Window. Your Strategy window is normally in the lower left. Take a moment to position them such that you can see your opponent and your own character.

In parley, up is your opponent, and down is you. Each Statement has a cost in Expression (or zero cost), and the amount they add or subtract Expression from your opponent and yourself. Also, there is a refresh timer range, and a wax seal in the upper right of the Statement which represents Influence, or damage.

Play your Comment Statement by selecting it and then pressing the "Speak" button. Notice several things happened. First, some dots of Expression appeared on your opponent's side of the gameboard. Also, the marker on the right side of the gameboard moved to 1. The number at the bottom next to the speech bubble went down by one. A line of dialogue appeared in the Dialogue Window. Finally, the Statement's icon has been replaced to say "X rounds remaining."

Your Comment moved the indicator one down (your direction) due to its 1 Influence. This earned you a Dialogue Point, which is the measure of how close you are to victory. You got a line of dialogue. You gave your opponent fuel to fight back against you.

Your opponent may play a Comment back at you to move the indicator back to zero, or he may play an Evaluation to build up Expression for an Assertion on you.

Whatever your opponent decides, it's time to gain Expression yourself! Choose your Evaluation and press "Speak."

You've gained two Expression in the color your Assertions can use. It's time to take the fight to your opponent!

If your opponent played a Comment on his first turn, he likely played another Comment or an Evaluation on his second turn. If he played an Evaluation on his first turn, then you likely just got hit by an Assertion, and the tide has turned in his favor!

Parley is a tug-of-war. You need to pull the indicator back to your side of the line, and you'll do it now by playing your 2-cost Assertion. You're back in command of the board!

Play your Evaluations to build up Expression to play Assertions. Use a Comment for a quick gain when you can. If you chose an Assertion in a type of Expression your opponent gives you through his actions, play those as well! Don't forget to Listen (pass your turn) if you are ahead or if you have nothing you can play this turn.

Later, your Repertoire of Statements will have Repeals and Rebuts, which gives you more flexibility to build new Strategies and take on tougher opponents.


High Level Overview

The goal of the enhanced parley system is to count your Parley Progress down to 0 before your opponent does. In order to achieve this goal, you must move the Parley Indicator to your side of the playfield (downward) using diplomacy abilities called Statements. Many Statements cost Expression, which serves as fuel, while others provide Expression for later use.

Most Statements, in addition to helping yourself, also provide some benefit to your opponent in the form of Expression, Progress, or both.

Getting Started With Parley

Parley consists of a dialogue window, a gameplay board, and your Strategy (which you can think of as your hand of cards).

Parley requires some preparation before you begin. Talking to the initial trainer will net you some abilities (seven) and (eventually) a special shirt.

All abilities in Diplomacy, called Statements, are categorized in 2 ways. First is the type of Expression, second is the Type of Statement.

Expression represents the four ways in which you can influence someone. They are each keyed to a color.
- Demand = Red
- Reason = Green
- Inspire = Blue
- Flattery = Yellow

Expression is a fuel that you spend to activate some abilities. Much of parley is building up your Expression to play Assertions or other Statements that cost Expression to win the parley.

Assertions are one of the five Types of Statement. Each Type represents a different way of interacting with an opponent:

- Comments - low powered Statements that move the parley progress in your favor, but nearly always give Expression to the opponent. They are almost always free to play.
- Assertions - high powered Statements that move the parley progress quite a bit in your favor. They are expensive to play in terms of Expression, and also generally give Expression for the opponent to use.
- Evaluations - Statements that give Expression to you for use in Assertions, Repeals, and Rebuts. They come in two broad varieties.
- Repeals - Statements that take a type of Expression from you, and give you a large amount of another type of Expression in return.
- Rebuts - Statements that steal an opponent's Expression (if it is present).

Building a Strategy

After you have begun your initial Diplomacy training, you will begin with 7 Diplomacy Statements, which vary depending on your initial Race and Adventuring Class. Your set of Statements, known as your Repertoire, will contain 5 Assertions, 1 Comment, and 1 Evaluation. Your Repertoire will grow rapidly as you continue play.

Opening your Strategy window, you will see five slots in which you can drag one of your Statements from your Ability Book. As you progress in Diplomacy, you will gain more Strategy slots

An initial Strategy should contain a Comment, an Evaluation, at least one Assertion of the same Expression Type as the Evaluation.

As you progress in Diplomacy, you will need to formulate specialized Strategies for individual opponents, and Strategies that are flexible enough to allow you to choose your own style of play.

Conversation Types

When you hail an NPC, any conversations on the NPC will be identified as one of five types. These types represent the ways in which you would interact with an NPC.

These Conversation Types limit the specific types of Expression that can be used in any Parley. (Updated to new limits)

- Incite - Demand, Inspire, Reason
- Convince - Flatter, Demand, Reason
- Interview - Flatter, Demand, Inspire, Reason
- Gossip - Flatter, Demand, Inspire,
- Entertain - Flatter, Inspire, and Reason




If you have a Strategy that uses mostly Reason, for instance, it would not be smart to take part in a Gossip parley, as you will not be able to use your Statements!

A clever diplomat will choose instead to use the limitations of the Conversation Types to their advantage, selecting Statements that give the opponent Expression that they cannot use.

Dissecting the Statement card
Note this is already up on the wikki so not adding the graphics.

The Statement card packs a large amount of information in a small space.

- A - The Name of the Statement
- B - Influence: The amount the Statement moves the Parley Indicator in your favor (can be negative). The color of the wax seal indicates the Expression it belongs to (in this case, Flattery)
- C - An icon indicating the Type and Expression for the Statement.
- D - The cost for you to play this Statement. This Statement costs 2 Flattery to play.
- E - The benefits and penalties your opponent receives when you use this Statement (in addition to the wax seal). This Statement GIVES two Reason to the opponent when played. [note: the visual representation of this has recently changed, you can see actual gameplay Statements in the screenshot below.]
- F - The benefits and penalties you receive when you use this Statement (in addition to its cost). This Statement has no further costs or benefits.
- G - The Refresh Timer for this Statement. The primary means in which randomness is injected into parley. This amount is rolled when the Statement is played, and ticks down at the end of your turn (starting the turn after you play this Statement).

The Gameboard

The gameboard for parley consists of several distinct sections that affect one another.

At the top, the board indicates the Conversation Type - in this case an Incite, which means Demand, Reason, and Inspire are in play, and Flattery is not allowed.

In the upper-left is the space where the opponent plays their Statements. Their Statements will remain in this space until the next one is played so you can refer to their abilities as you plan your next move.

At the lower-left is the space where you play your Statements. To play a Statement, you click on it in your Strategy and it will appear in that space (if you meet the requirements to play it!).

At the bottom of the gameboard are two buttons, Speak and Listen. When you are ready to play a Statement, press Speak to play it. If you cannot play any Statements (or choose not to, a very important strategy!), then you press Listen, which effectively passes your turn and ticks down all your Refresh Timers.

In the middle of the board is the Expression Field. The top section is for your opponent (you can see your opponent's name at the top), and the bottom section is for you (your name is at the bottom of your section). In between are four color-coded symbols for the four Expression types. When an Expression type is disabled due to Conversation Type, it will be grayed out (in this case, Flattery).

As you build up Expression, colored dots corresponding to the color of the Expression Type fill the space below the four symbols. As your opponent gains Expression, they appear as colored dots above the symbols.

On the far right is the Parley Indicator section. At the top is a speech bubble with a number. This is the number of dialogue points remaining for the opponent to reach before they win. Likewise, your points to victory are shown at the bottom of the Indicator section.

In between is the tug-of-war of the Parley Indicator. A line indicates the zero-point. When the Indicator is at this space (most parleys start this way), neither side gains a dialogue point.

When you play Assertions, they pull Indicator down to the bottom (and a number appears showing how many spaces from the center it is). As long as the Indicator is anywhere on your side of the line, you gain a Dialogue Point and a line of Dialogue in the Dialogue Window!

As the opponent pulls the Indicator to their side of the Indicator (the top), they gain Dialogue Points.

The first player to zero wins!

Flow of Discussion

Thus, the flow of a typical parley is:

Play Statements to build Expression in the Expression Field that fuel Statements that pull the Indicator to your side of the line. Hold it there as long as possible, and pull it back when the opponent pushes it back up. Every turn it is on your side of the line (for your opponent OR yourself) you get a Dialogue Point.

The races of Vanguard favor the following Expressions:

Demand Races
Dwarf
Vulmane
Varanthari
Wood Elf
Orc
Mordebi

Reason Races
High Elf
Gnome
Goblin
Kojani Human

Inspire Races
Thestran Human
Varanjar
Lesser Giant
Dark Elf

Flattery Races
Halfling
Qaliathari Human
Kurashasa
Half Elf
Raki

Your starting race gives you your 5-point Assertion and your Evaluation.

Your starting class determines which Comment you receive.

The classes each favor an Expression as well:

Demand Classes
Warrior
Dread Knight
Inquisitor
Necromancer

Reason Classes
Ranger
Monk
Sorcerer
Disciple

Inspire Classes
Paladin
Druid
Cleric
Shaman

Flattery Classes
Rogue
Bard
Psionicist
Blood Mage

You also automatically receive a 2-3 point Assertion from each Expression.

Thus an example of an initial Repertoires is:

Some of the information from these original posts by Aruspex has changed. Of note, players no longer get 4 and 6 point assertions from the newbie quests. Those are now 3 and 4 point assertions, plus one 5 point assertion (race card).


Thestran Warrior: Inspire/Demand -
Demand Comment
Inspire 6-Point Assertion
Inspire Evaluation
Inspire 4-point Assertion
Reason 4-point Assertion
Demand 4-point Assertion
Flattery 4-point Assertion

In future patches, the newbie experience will provide you with your choice of another Comment from the Expression of your choice:

Demand Comment
Inspire Comment
Flattery Comment
Reason Comment

Also, the Thestran Warrior will get a Repeal and Rebut based on their starting area. Let's say he plays in Bordinar's Cleft, he will get a Demand Repeal and a Demand Rebut, as well as his choice of one Repeal and Rebut from another Expression.

At the end of the newbie experience, our Thestran Warrior will have the following potential Repertoire:

Demand Comment
Inspire 6-Point Assertion
Inspire Evaluation
Inspire 4-point Assertion
Reason 4-point Assertion
Demand 4-point Assertion
Flattery 4-point Assertion
Inspire Comment (or Demand, Reason, Flattery)
Demand Repeal
Inspire Repeal (or Reason, Flattery)
Demand Rebut
Inspire Rebut (or Reason, Flattery)

Thus, our Warrior will be entering the world of Diplomacy with a total of 12 Statements in their Repertoire.

Civic Diplomacy

Civic Diplomacy is the art of manipulating the citizens and rulers of a city to acheive large bonuses and effects.

Each city can be likened to a series of levers. In smaller villages and towns, there may be only 5-6 levers. In the largest cities, there can be 35 or more!

Each lever represents one combination of NPC and conversation type. Thus, Entertain Soldiers is one Civic Diplomacy lever, and Convince Soldiers is another.

Thus, the two variables to consider when planning to do Civic Diplomacy:

- What type of NPC (what Station) do I want to influence?
- In what way (what conversation type) do I want to influence them?

There are eight types of NPCs in every city. Some cities have many of one type and few of others. In some cities, working with one type of NPC will spawn more of that type to communicate with. In others, speaking with one type may reduce the number of NPCs to speak with of another type!

The type of NPC is known as the NPC's Station. Each Station represents one of the vital categories of citizen in a fantasy medieval city:

- Domestics (ordinary citizens - Those Who Toil)
- Soldiers (the warriors and guards - Those Who Fight)
- Crafters (the skilled laborers of the city - Those Who Create)
- Clergy (the priests and shamans - Those Who Share Wisdom)
- Academics (the magic-users, sages, and historians - Those Who Know)
- Merchants (the vendors and traders - Those Who Trade)
- Nobles (the rulers and their assistants - Those Who Rule)
- Outsiders (monsters and hermits - Those Who We Shun)

Also, for reference, here are the five conversation types:

- Convince
- Incite
- Entertain
- Gossip
- Interview

Combinations of these create the levers for Civic Diplomacy in a city. For instance, in Bordinar's Cleft there are currently:

Domestic Convince - The Will of the People
Domestic Incite - Support of the People
Domestic Entertain - Cheer the People
Domestic Gossip - Story of the Town
Domestic Interview - Simple Pleasures

Each one of these, when active, has a specific effect that takes place on anyone in the city until it goes away. It is up to the community of players to determine these effects and decide when to bring them about.

One person cannot influence a city on their own in a reasonable timescale. Each time you win a Civic Diplomacy parley, you will increment the lever by one space (more as you gain skill). You will also decrease other levers (explained below).

In order to make an effect happen, the lever must meet a threshold. Obviously you'll want friends to make this happen faster.

Example: You decide you want the effect from Simple Pleasures (a bonus to harvesting skill). You start Interviewing Domestics and move the marker from 10 to 11. The threshold for Simple Pleasures is known to be 50, so you get three friends together to work on Domestic Interview. Each of you win a parley, moving the lever from 11 to 15 very quickly. You continue winning Simple Pleasures parleys until the lever hits 50. Suddenly, everyone in the city, whether they participated or not, gets the harvesting bonus!

However, the city is never passive. Every few minutes, all levers move back toward their starting points. Levers that have increased move down, and levers that are below the starting point move up.

Levers also oppose each other by following certain rules:

- Gossips never oppose anything else.
- Most other types oppose one another in the same Station.
- Merchant conversations are a special case, and will be covered in Regional Trade.

Example: You perform an Interview Domestics. You move the "Simple Pleasures" lever up one space (from 10 to 11), and move the other three levers associated with Domestics down one (from 10 to 9) - Support of the People, The Will of the People, and Cheer the People.

What is the purpose of Civic Diplomacy?

First, there are individual rewards. These include coin, prestige faction, regular faction, diplomacy clothing, diplomacy abilities, adventuring items, crafting items, and recipes.

Second, there is the group effect. Some examples of bonuses available are a runspeed buff, endurance regeneration buff, a damage shield and mitigation bonus, new diplomacy abilities, etc.

Working together is the key for Civic Diplomacy. One player can oppose another, but many players working together will quickly and efficiently change the face of the game world.

To check the current status of a Civic Diplomacy enabled area, enter the area and type /citystatus. This will be tied to a location in each city in future builds.

Information Brokering

One purpose of Information Brokering is to provide a more immersive connection between the activity of Civic Diplomacy and the loot you get out the other end. I think we can all agree, for instance, that Entertains giving you money makes some sense (tips for your jokes, etc.). It makes much less sense for you to be receiving a shirt for asking a soldier to buck up and fight the enemy.

For this reason, when the system re-animates, you will begin receiving Information, which you can spend at an Info Broker for a randomly selected Diplomacy loot item.

Now, before you panic, we give a lot of power to the player to determine what sort of loot you will receive. In the old days, we hooked up a generic loot table with all manner of good stuff to the parleys, and you had only minimal ability to play the levers how you wanted if you were looking for specific loot.

Now, you spend your Information with Brokers who specialize in types of information and degree of quality of information. We even have a broker who points you to other brokers!

The Information types break down into:

Blackmail
Plots
Arcana
Trends

The degrees of information break down to:

Hearsay
Rumor
Evidence
Fact

When you desire to get loot, you will take your Information to a specific broker, such as a Blackmail Broker. Based on the broker you have selected, you get a random loot item from a more specific set.

For instance, Arcana Brokers give out Chest and Waist items. Thus, if you are looking for a chest item, turning in your Arcana Rumors, Arcana Facts, etc. will get you a good shot at this.

Alternatively, turning in Rumors will get you a shot at any item in the list, but at a presence quality tier. This is useful in that the exchange rates for a "roll on the loot table" are better for the degree brokers than the type brokers.

Example numbers:

It may cost you 15 Hearsay, or 10 Rumor, or 5 Evidence, or 3 Facts to get a roll on the Arcana Broker. Alternatively it will cost you 10 Hearsay to get a roll on the Hearsay Broker (or 7 Rumor on the Rumor Broker, etc.). These are example numbers, by the way, not solid yet.

The specific information brokers (Arcana, Blackmail, etc.) have "boobie prizes" in them that have value, but are not specifically clothing. The "tier" brokers (Fact, Hearsay, etc.) have pure item lists, with no boobie prizes.

Finally, not every Broker is present in every town, city, or village. Lomshir will have a Hearsay and Trends Broker, and you will have to travel to Khal or Hathor Zhi to turn in your Blackmail info.

When we connect this up to the Diplomat's Mask you will start to see when Writs and Embassies start popping up, we hope to give you a lot of choice as a player in getting the best shot of choosing your own loot when you need it.

Diplomacy Focus Point

Diplomacy: Many cities and towns now have a Diplomacy focus point. The focus point is a set of bulletin boards surrounding a pillar or tree. These focus points have been placed in significant areas in cities, towns, and outposts and are intended to be gathering places for diplomats. Cities that are slated to have Civic Diplomacy active in the next couple of weeks have a whole bulletin board and complete pillar or tree. Cities that will have Civic Diplomacy soon, but not immediately, have a burned down board and broken pillar. Note that all of these focus points are NOT operational at this time!

- Diplomacy: Diplomacy focus points placed in:
Bordinar’s Cleft, Tursh, Rindol Field, Three Rivers, Renton Keep, Leth Nurae, Veskal’s Exchange, Misthaven Crossing, Halgarad, Dahknarg, Konarthi Point, Tahean's Vengeance, Lomshir, Hathor Zhi, Pankor Zhi, Khal, Ahgram, Mekalia, Oasis, Afrit, Zarabadi Landing, Tanvu, Ca’ail Brael, and Martok.

[Raolinx Aeromancer]

Writs


The tenative starting skill for the Writ system is skill 200 in Diplomacy, and 500 points of local Prestige Faction. These are subject to change, and will likely be brought lower for testing until we get more content in.

The Writ is given by a randomly spawning "writ giver" who exists in or around the Diplomacy hub of each city (Diplomacy hubs will be in much later in Beta).

There are nine individual writ givers in each major city - their properties are discoverable by you all as to which Writ each one gives.

Writs are divided into three broad categories:

Adventuring-centered Writs
Crafting-centered Writs
Internal City Writs

Adventuring and Crafting centered Writs have a destination to another city on the continent, and normally requires stopping in the chunks in between to do a number of parleys.

The reward is determined by the choice of Writ taken. For instance, from Bordinar's Cleft to Leth Nurae there are six Writs. One Adventuring and one Crafting Writ goes to the Queen, one of each to the King, and one of each to the Chancellor in Leth Nurae. The same is true in the reverse direction. Which quest you choose to take determines the reward you will receive.

Among the rewards you receive from Writs:

- Prestige Faction (this and Gossip Civic Diplomacy are your best way to build up Prestige Faction) in the city you are travelling TO.
- Some money
- A special item specific to the Writ giver.
- Local Faction in the city you are travelling TO.
- other goodies.

Internal Writs are quite a bit different. Functionally, they are very similar to a simple Diplomacy quest, and they come in three flavors:

- Legal (representing the King or government)
- Favor (representing an individual or family)
- Illegal (representing the criminal element or other nefarious groups in the area)

For example, in Bordinar's Cleft there are 3 Internal Writs, one to help the Flamehammers woo some Bloodsworn back to the clans, one to help a dwarven family recover a lost heirloom, and the final one is to assist the Thunderaxes in a plot to... well, you'll find out.

Internal Writs are a large source of Prestige Faction, Faction, Diplomacy Clothing, and Diplomacy Abilities. Some of these quests come with built-in faction hits (mostly the illegal ones), so you need to plan accordingly!

Writ givers will be arriving soon in Bordinar's Cleft in the "Monument of the People" room right outside the Throne Room. You will have to parley with them to get the quest, and they despawn upon giving the quest.

Oh, last thing, and most important: not everyone in that room is a writ giver. "Placeholders" spawn in addition to the writ givers, and you can speed up the spawn cycle by parleying with the placeholders and forcing them to despawn as well.

Look for the Writ system in the next week or two. It will be popping up in Leth Nurae almost simulataneously to Bordinar's.

The cities that will eventually have Writs in them:

New Targonor
Bordinar's Cleft
Leth Nurae
Khal
Ahgram
Hathor Zhi
Tanvu
Caial Brael
Martok

[Raolinx Aeromancer]

The Diplomat's Mask

Beginning in a future patch (ie: not now), a Diplomacy clothing vendor will appear in some major cities. In addition to some basic Merchant-based clothing, they will offer Diplomat's Mask.

These Diplomat's Masks are adventuring head items - they take up the Face slot. At this time the masks will not display on the avatar, but we have hopes for that.

The masks have four* (subject to balancing and change) slots that can be upgraded. Those slots are: Gem, Rune, Inlay, and Points.

Examples of gems you can upgrade your mask with are: Water Opal, Tomb Jade, Dragon Tears, and of course, Diamonds.

Examples of runes you can upgrade with include: Pure Rune of Loyalty, Vile Rune of Deceit, Rune of Honor, Rune of Wrath.

Examples of inlays you can add include: Ivory, Nacre, and Niello.

Examples of points you can add include: Thorn, Ray, and Flame.

When you complete an Adventuring Writ (and a number of other pieces of content), you can choose one or more of these rewards. Provided you have enough Diplomacy skill, you can upgrade your existing mask with one of these items, giving your mask mods such as + attribute, heal mod, nuke mod, resists, regen, and more.

Thus, the mask is a magic item that you customize as you see fit. Gems and Runes are fairly plentiful (and varied), while the inlay and points are much more rare and powerful.

Once a mask is upgraded, it can only be worn by those with a skill equal to the highest skill item placed in it.

For instance, a mask with a water opal (no skill requirement), a rune of devotion (200 skill requirement), and a nacre inlay (300 skill requirement) will require 300 Diplomacy skill to equip. There are no restrictions, however, on trading the mask itself, or the parts that make up the mask.

[Raolinx Aeromancer]

Scoring



On the right had side of the parly screen is a column with numbers at the top and bottom. (#12) The top is your opponent (red), the bottom is you (blue). So far the parley always starts at zero and you can only reduce your Remaining points (#8) when the marker is on your side of the zero. Keepng the morker on your side of the zero keeps your opponent from runing out of points. (#3)



The only reason I posted this is that most guides dont go over the fact that your point total only goes down when the marker is on your side at the end of the round.

[Kethra]

Wow... thanks for posting this. Mind if we move it to wiki as well?

[Raolinx Aeromancer]

Thats why I was posting it. If I was familiar with Wikki I would have done it myself. But Rao dosnt do wikki.

Rao

[Pirotess]

Nice post Rao! We'll get it integrated right quick!

[Pel]

sweeetnesss, thankyou!

[ariaya]

Great post! It helped to fill in a few questions I've had. Thanks!

[Doddy Curumehtar]

Originally Posted by ariaya

Great post! It helped to fill in a few questions I've had. Thanks!

If you still have any questions, I'd like to know what they are. I'm responsible for the VGTact FAQ, and we need more meat. What better than some frequently asked questions to fill it out a bit more!