diplomacy stinks

[Skeptic]

I have gotten to a skill of about 250, and i am a thestran human, mainly have alot of blue cards with little red and green card fillers.

So i start doing quest for presence gear, and low and behold (and i find this alot) im not gonna win the final parley to get the item because the chick doesnt allow me to play my blue cards.

I have run into this 2 many times and i really feel like i am being punished for being a thestran human.

Even skill has no effect do to the cards, doesnt matter if they start out with 40 points and i start out with 5 If i cant play blue i lose 90% of the time.

Now i have did a few quest to get some additional cards but really no matter how u look at no blue no win, I can understand no you cant play blue on other continants but not on thestria.

Really The developers need to look at this and make skill a more of a factor againt the opponents card than there starting points cause once u get locked in your done and you know what i mean.

Second of all most teir 3 loot sucks, shoes with +13 presence? what is up with this, let there be better rewards cause really after today i got so frustrated at this diplomacy in the game i jerked the cord out of the wall.

If any have any advise or quest that i can susceed with using blue cards let me know much would be apriciated.

[Taronn Anvilmarr]

one of my solutions to not using my main color is to use the 3 card value of each of the other colors. You only need 2 dots to use the card and it is usually possible to get the dots u need when u need em. lol

sounds crazy but it works most of the time.

also when u loose a couple of times to the same npc - you notice their style of playing......likes red a lot or likes red and yellow....that type of thing.

[Hungkung]

it's not blue cards per say, whatever the quest is, ussually your races preffered presence will be what you are up against, at level 80-120ish you run into a tonne of haflings, which is a test of will power when you are a kitty or other flattery race.

with respect: (and honestly folks, that means just that, think of the sopranos with saying "you know I respect you" when I say it, it means I'm giving justice where justice is due) I'm a little surprised to that at level 250, you ahven't run into the bottle necks before...it mighta been you blew by the halflings (being inspiration(blue) based) without a pause.

advice on strat. is just learn how to play to the strengths that you ahve, go and get the lower level other color card quests (nice ones out of the race track in Qua.for yellow cards and in tanvu) to round out your hand, and when all else fails, level up a few levels then go back to her, and let your lesser # of dialog points than hers beat her.

I've never even gotten close to your heights, but don't underestimate the stupid little snippet of wisdom, I've had it in hand three or four times, and played (and won) on the last hand as the dialog-tug-of-war kept going 1, -1, and then trump with snippet not a pretty way to win, but any crash you walk away from you can get a lawyer and sue the airplane maker for.

[Naiya]

I've learned the value of "snippet of wisdom" very early - my diplomat has a mere 25 in the skill but I can't tell you how often it has been my saving grace - free to cast, move it two down and give your opponent the fuel he needs to give you cards to play as well...

I've played snippet just because I knew it would give my opponent the point he would need to play a card that would give ME the points *I* needed

also, as someone else has said, losing and knowing what your opponent will fuel you with becomes invaluable cause then you know to stock up on those cards.

The last thing (and I'm sure you've learned this at your skill level) is the valuable knowledge of knowing when to shut up.

When I first started playing the diplomacy game, I was playing cards every chance I got the points to play them. I don't do that so much anymore. By skill level 10 (I'm a slow learner) I learned the value of starving my opponent when I had the lead and making him listen for a turn or two. Sometimes it's important to ride the wave.

I'm sure diplomacy gets a lot tougher higher up, but still... these are the core concepts and if you've gotten that high, I know you have a grasp of them, you're just a bit frustrated you'll fly past it in no time, I'm sure!

[Hungkung]

one thing with starving your opponent, --and this is purely subjective data on my part, when you are doing presence grinding it goes by how many "points" you earn as much as keeping control of the dialog tug-of-war.

in my lists of hashmarks, in the games i've kept the dialog button at my 9 or 10 I've gotten a presence-up 1 out of 5-6 hands, when I've stopped at 1 or 2 on my side, the presence-up is like 1 out of 9-10 hands...again I don't ahve the real parsing to back this up.

also note I'm so cheap I won't buy presence-clothes, I just built it up, which will amke your brians creep out of your ears eventually.

[Aredhel]

Originally Posted by Skeptic

Second of all most teir 3 loot sucks, shoes with +13 presence? what is up with this, let there be better rewards cause really after today i got so frustrated at this diplomacy in the game i jerked the cord out of the wall.

Let's start here, ok?

You don't need to let a game get you this upset! If you're having problems, stop, drop and roll!! Go to a site (like this! +25 for that!) and ask questions in a calm and respectful way. I'll give ya a dollar to donuts your responses will be just as good as the ones you got here without you having to use the Disrespect card. You might have to wait a couple of hours or even a day, but...there is plenty to do ingame!

We have some great people here who love to help the others! We're very proud of them (yes, you may all pat yourselves on the back now! +10 AGI), so feel free to ask and see if anyone has some ideas...like they did here!

So, thanks for the tips, gang! And, Skeptic...maybe you won't be for long!

[Skeptic]

Thanks all
I ended up traveing the different countries and bought some additional cards, basically made a off deck of green to counter the no blue situation.


And we need more bag space, i carry tons of diplo clothes with me were ever i go. cause trying to grind 450 presence woohooo dont think i could do that with out clothes. But interesting about the 9-10 versus the 1-2 cuase i have noticed this also when trying for presence.

thanks again

[Aredhel]

yup. Bag space has been the cry in the sky for a while now!

Grats on working thru this and coming out with a smile!

[Absalon]

Originally Posted by Skeptic

I have gotten to a skill of about 250, and i am a thestran human, mainly have alot of blue cards with little red and green card fillers.

So i start doing quest for presence gear, and low and behold (and i find this alot) im not gonna win the final parley to get the item because the chick doesnt allow me to play my blue cards.

I have run into this 2 many times and i really feel like i am being punished for being a thestran human.

Even skill has no effect do to the cards, doesnt matter if they start out with 40 points and i start out with 5 If i cant play blue i lose 90% of the time.

Now i have did a few quest to get some additional cards but really no matter how u look at no blue no win, I can understand no you cant play blue on other continants but not on thestria.

Really The developers need to look at this and make skill a more of a factor againt the opponents card than there starting points cause once u get locked in your done and you know what i mean.

Second of all most teir 3 loot sucks, shoes with +13 presence? what is up with this, let there be better rewards cause really after today i got so frustrated at this diplomacy in the game i jerked the cord out of the wall.

If any have any advise or quest that i can susceed with using blue cards let me know much would be apriciated.

There are 2 cards that would help you a lot, Poetic Truths and Subtle Word. Poetic Truths is a 6 influence assertion that costs 1 demand, 2 reason and 1 flattery. This card is ideal for Convince parleys. Subtle Word is a 3 influence flattery assertion. It is just like Enticing Whisper, except it gives the NPC 1 inspire instead of 1 reason.

Also, just in case you don't know this or someone else reading this doesn't know it, you CAN play inspire cards in Convince parleys. The only cards you CAN'T play are cards that cost inspire. So you can play Hand over Fist to give yourself a free 1 point of demand (could be helpful to fuel Poetic Truths), but you can't play cards like Loud Criticism or Slippery Slope because they cost inspire.

When you are doing parleys that prohibit your racial strength, you aren't likely to overpower the NPC. That's where rebuts can come in real handy. When the NPC plays an eval, use a rebut to take it away. Don't play cards unless you have to. If the marker is on your side, listen rather than give the NPC expression to use against you. In other words, play defensive rather than aggressive.

If you are still struggling with a particular parley, get yourself a card buff or two. Back in beta I played as a dark elf, inspire based. I couldn't win the parleys in the Wayward Husband quest line to save my life. At the time, civic was only in BC and Lomshir, so I headed over to Lomshir and raised the domestic gossip lever to get the card Courteous Mockery. Once I had that card I was able to win every parley. They were still challenging, but they were doable.

And lastly, if nothing else is working for you, try using some of the consumable items that are available from the informants. If you have a consumable that gives you 1 reason and 1 flattery to begin the parley, then all you need is 1 more reason plus Hand over Fist to play Poetic Truths. Odds are the NPC will provide you with that 1 reason, but if not use a reason eval if you have one (though I'm guessing you don't).

There are plenty of options.