Diplomacy is the method by which various nations resolve disputes, and is the main mechanic in Rise of Nations. In Rise of Nations your main task is to conquer other nations, and the diplomacy mechanics reflect this by being restricted to military alliances, aid, and declaring wars. Although it looks simplistic, it can show surprising depth and detail once you begin to interact with other players.
Wars[]
The gameplay in Rise of Nations revolves around warfare, and declaring war is the base mechanic which diplomacy is built on. To declare a war, you have to give a Casus Belli (Latin for a cause for war), and it will take variable amounts of time depending on your ideology. It also is dependent on your capitals distance from the enemy.
Visit main article: Ideology
You can do this by clicking Justify war on the targeted nation's screen in the diplomacy menu. To go to your target's diplomacy menu click any of your target's cities and then click on the flag in the city menu. This will bring you directly to the diplomacy screen. Justifications do not cost political power. Once you justify on an opponent, they will receive a notification that you justified on them.
It will take longer to justify on countries that are ranked higher and are farther away than you. However, the formula behind this is unknown.
There are Three war goals for justification available in the menu:
- Conquest: takes a shorter time to justify but you must conquer most or all of the country's territory, and it will allow you to select the term "Annex occupied cities" in the peace terms menu.
- Subjugate: takes a longer time to justify but you only need a significant amount of the country's territory, and it will allow you to select the term "Make puppet" in the peace terms menu. You can control a puppet's foreign policy (joins wars you declare and they can't declare wars and make alliances),receive around 40% of its income, and traveling on their territory will not cause attrition, but you cannot make units and buildings in their cities and it will not count towards any formables.
- Liberate: Takes the longest amount of time (unless the ideology selected is Liberalism or Democracy, in this case it's the shortest) to justify and allows you to select "Liberate all Countries" in the peace terms menu. This term lets you select which nations that were conquered by the target nation ot releasables freedom.
Declaring a war[]
To declare a war, go to the target country's diplomacy menu as instructed above and click "Declare War". AFTER you justify a war goal. Stability goes down by 1%-3% (depends on your ideology and modifiers , some ideologies and modifiers increase stability by declaring war and can further go down if you begin to lose territory and war exhaustion will go up steadily with casualties. By turning on Healthcare or Security spending, you can reduce war exhaustion. And you can increase stability by enabling Security, Healthcare or Government spending. Once you have declared a war, you can call in any allies you have available. This will give them a notification which they can accept or decline, which will end your alliance immediately if declined. If you are on the defensive side, all of your allies will immediately be called in. In both cases, any ally that has a truce with the other nation cannot be called in unless they are in a faction with you.
Peace Terms[]
Peace terms are conditions that will end a war. To access the peace menu, click on the flag that appears in the bottom right corner of the screen after declaring war. The flag of the nation that declared war on you or declares war on you is the only one that will be shown. Peace terms can be accepted by the other side but more often then not you have to push them past a surrender limit, typically by taking over 90% of the target nation's to cause them to collapse. There are seven peace terms:
- Annex occupied cities
- Force puppet
- Pay war reparations
- Seize up to 75% of the nation's Treasury
- Liberate Countries or releasables
- Seize up to 75% of the nation's Resources
- Force ideology change of the target nation
- Disarm the nation's military for up to 2 years
If you don't select any of these options then there will be a white peace, with no territory lost or gained. War reparations will give you up to 25% of their income for up to 2.5 years.
If you enter a war with co-belligerents, you and your enemies' allies, then you can click on their flag at the bottom.
Annexing a nation allows you to decrease its unrest.
Forming an alliance[]
You can form an alliance by clicking the Form alliance button in Diplomacy section. You will be allied with your target once they accept your request. After breaking ties, you and the target nation will have a truce for 2 years. If your ally joins a faction then they will automatically break ties with you. If a nation is AI then it won't form an alliance with you.
If you choose to invade a nation with an ally, as long as the country doesn't have a truce with you, that country will be called to arms, or in other words, they will be called into the war against you.
Making a puppet[]
This option allows you to ask another nation to become your puppet. If it's an AI it won't accept that proposal until you take over 90% of the target nation's cities with the casus billi subjugation. If it accepts your proposal then the target nation becomes a subject under you with your flag appearing on the target nation flag's upper left corner.
Sending aid[]
You can help another nation by sending it aid by clicking the Send Aid button. You must wait for 580 seconds after becoming a country to be able to send Aid. It is possible to send money and manpower either one time or monthly.
Forming a Non-Aggression Pact[]
You can form a non-aggression pact with a nation for either 3,6 or 12 months. If you do, you and the target country will enter in a truce for a set period of time, which depends on the option you chose eariler.
Rivals[]
This feature was removed from the game. (Go see Rivals Here)
Truce[]
During a truce, you and the target nation can't declare war on each other for 2 years. It can be made by signing a peace treaty, breaking an alliance, leaving a faction or signing a non-aggression pact with them that lasts either 3,6 or 12 months.
Funding Rebels[]
Funding Rebels decreases the target nation's rebel suppression, which can give nations under their control a chance to increase unrest or gain independence. Funding another country's rebels is usually expensive, but the cost is determined by the size of the country. For example, it costs $4,448,266,612 to fund rebels in China for a period of 12 months, and it costs at least $350,000,000 to fund rebels for smaller countries such as Kuwait.
Espionage[]
Soon to be added feature to the game. Espionage will be in the diplomacy tab as we saw from the leaks by Hyperant.
Stability[]
Visit main article: Stability