Diplomacy is one of the three main spheres you can specialize in while playing Vanguard. Truth be told, Diplomacy is not something that you'd try out right away. In fact, some players put this sphere on hold until they decide that they have had enough of adventuring and crafting (temporarily, of course). In Vanguard, Diplomacy pits a player against NPCs (non-player characters) in a verbal combat of some sort. As a diplomat, you can influence the course of politics in certain areas. At higher levels, you can resolve disputes or investigate rumors floating around cities.

STRATEGY AND PARLEY UI

The exchange of verbal wits is called a Parley. The parley is represented in a turn-based card game between you and your NPC opponent. To begin training in Diplomacy, you should first speak with a Diplomacy Instructor. If you happen to be inside the Tursh Academy Dormitories, you'd find Marcus Remniol, the in-game Diplomacy Instructor.

Since Diplomacy is presented as a card game, you'd naturally need to have an initial hand of cards, or Strategy. These cards can be found on your Abilities book (click on the book icon on your taskbar). Once you click on the Strategy button, it will open your Strategy Tray. Five gray card slots will appear. They are initially empty. You can only use your cards if they are in the Strategy Tray. So, you'd have to click and drag your chosen cards to an empty slot on the Strategy Tray. Initially, you'd have two cards in your Abilities Book: "Snippet of Wisdom" and one other card, "Good Point". You will gain more cards as you advance in the game. But keep in mind that only cards placed in the Strategy Tray can be used during Parley.

To begin the Parley, click on the card "Snippet of Wisdom". It will then appear on the Parley UI (or Gameboard). To play the card, click on the green Speak button. This will move the Parley Indicator, progressing the dialogue (represented by dots of Expression appearing on your opponent's side of the Gameboard). The Parley Indicator is like a scale that moves to your favor depending on the Influence score of your card. If you look at the upper rightmost corner of your "Snippet of Wisdom" card, you'd see that the Influence score is 2 (more on that later). After you play your card, you'll see in the Gameboard that your opponent will start making his turn. At the bottom of the Gameboard, you'd find a Speak and Listen button. You will use the Listen button if you have no cards available to play (or you simply dont wish to play a card). Basically, pressing the Listen button is your way of saying "Pass".

On the far right side of the Parley UI, you'd see two speech bubbles with numbers next to them. There's one speech bubble at the top, representing your opponent, and one speech bubble at the bottom, representing you. The numbers are your Dialogue Points. To win in the Parley, the Dialogue Points should reach zero. If your opponent reaches zero Dialogue Points before you do, you will lose.





Now that you've familiarized yourself with the Parley UI, it's time to learn more ab0ut:

EXPRESSIONS AND STATEMENTS

Expression represents the four ways you can influence someone. It is represented by small dots on the Game board, which you can spend as Statements. Statements, are your diplomacy abilities (or cards).

The colored icons on your cards and on the game board represent Expression. Expressions are basically the "fuel of your cards". The color code is as follow:

DEMAND - Red
REASON - Green
INSPIRE - Blue
FLATTERY - Yellow

Card cost is labeled in the middle of the card. Any card with a cost will display a number within the colored icon to represent how many points of that Expression type will be taken from your side of the Game board when you play that card. Expressions are spent to activate some abilities. If you build up your Expression, you can play Assertions.

There are five Types of Statement. Each Type represents a different way of interacting with an opponent.

COMMENTS - these are considered low powered Statements that move the parley progress in your favor but usually give Expression to the opponent.

ASSERTIONS - high powered Statements that move the parley indicator more in your favor; they are quite expensive to play in terms of Expression

EVALUATIONS - these are Statements that give Expression to you for use in Assertions, Repeals and Rebuts

REPEALS - statements that take a type of Expression from you, but in return, you get a much higher type of Expression

REBUTS - these are statements that steal an opponent's Expression

CONVERSATIONS

There are five Types of Conversation. They will affect your Strategy building greatly because there are conversations that might prohibit your preferred method of Parley. Early in your career as a Diplomat, you will find yourself with a very limited number of cards to play, and as such, you might not be able to play those cards based on the conversation.

The five types of Conversation are: Interview, Gossip, Entertain, Incite, and Convince.

Rules:
Gossip prohibits Reason
Entertain prohibits Demands
Incite prohibits Flattery
Convince prohibits Inspire
Interview prohibits nothing.

FAVORED EXPRESSION FOR RACES AND CLASSES

DEMAND RACES
Dwarf
Vulmane
Varanthari
Wood Elf
Orc

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

DEMAND CLASSES
Warrior
Dread Knight
Necromancer

REASON CLASSES
Ranger
Monk
Sorcerer
Disciple

INSPIRE CLASSES
Paladin
Druid
Cleric
Shaman

FLATTERY CLASSES
Rogue
Bard
Psionicist
Blood Mage

Early in your Diplomacy career, it's normal to have a limited Repertoire of Statements. Later on, you'll have access to Repeals and Rebuts, which will improve your chances of beating tougher opponents. It will also give you flexibility in building new strategies for the next Parley. 

What makes Diplomacy more appealing to players is the chance to achieve large bonuses and effects after successfully manipulating citizens and rulers of certain cities. The manipulation game is called the Civic Diplomacy. In Vanguard, each city can be likened to a series of levers. A lever represents one combination of NPC and Conversation Type (as discussed in Vanguard Diplomacy: Start The Parley). Villages and towns only have few levers, but large cities can have as much as 35 levers (or even more).

Every city has 8 types of NPCs, but not all cities will have the same type of NPCs. In some cases, cities will have more of one type, and as you progress and work with one type, another type of NPC will spawn so you can interact with it. Inversely (in other cities), speaking with one specific type of NPC may reduce the number of NPCs of another type (it's a crazy world out there!).

The type of NPC is commonly known as NPC's Station. Each of the 8 Stations represents the type of citizens in the city. They are:

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)

To refresh your memory, the 5 Conversation Types are:

Convince
Incite
Entertain
Gossip
Interview

So, a lever could be a combination of one NPC Station and one Conversation Type. Some examples would be: Entertain Soldiers; Convince Soldiers, Domestic Incite, Domestic Gossip, etc.

Each lever, when active, would have a specific effect on anyone in the city until it goes away. These effects would have to be determined by a community of players so they'll know when to bring them about. An effect (say, a bonus in harvesting) will only take place when a particular meet a threshold. So if a known threshold for a particular lever is 50, then you must work on a lever by winning parleys left and right. It would be much faster to get to the threshold if you get friends or pick up group to work together. If the threshold is finally met, not only the people who worked to win parleys get to benefit from the effects, the people in the city get to benefit too (ex. they all get bonus to harvesting skill).
Keep in mind that the effect is not permanent. This means that all levers will have to reset (i.e. back at starting points). This applies to both levers that moved up previously, or moved down. Yes, levers move down too. This is because they oppose each other based on the following rules:

1) Most Conversation Types oppose one another in the same NPC Station
2) Gossips never oppose any Conversation Type
3) Merchant Conversations are a special case and follow the rules of Regional Trade.

So, when trying to build a career in Civic Diplomacy, you'd have to carefully choose which type of NPC you'd want to influence to get a really great effect. Tied to that is the way you want to influence that particular NPC Station using specific Conversation Type.

Civic Diplomacy is challenging but with the individual rewards you get after successfully winning parleys would prove to be worth all the trouble. Individual rewards include coin, prestige faction, regular faction, diplomacy clothing, diplomacy abilities, adventuring items, crafting items, and recipes. But the best part of it all is the group effect. Some of these effects include run speed buffs, new diplomacy abilities, endurance regeneration buffs, and many more rewards. Remember, adventuring doesn’t have to be about brute force all the time. You can make use of your Diplomacy skills to get some rewards and benefits you wouldn't normally get by killing hordes of creatures.

Forumlink

Discuss about this article by following the address below :
http://www.skryer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=2478


Print Article
Send to a friend
Save as PDF