User Question about Alliances

[Balthagor]

This question was submitted on FB, I'm posting the answer here in case someone else has the same question;

Why don't random alliances occur in the game?

I think random would be a bad idea. North Korea and the US should not suddenly become allies. Thailand and Guatemala are unlikely international partners. The AI regions will look at the relations they have with other countries and will offer alliances when the relationship with another region is very positive.

[Mohamed_King_x]

The United States and Korea will not become allies because the diplomatic relationship between them is still bad. I want random alliances between countries with strong diplomatic ties.

[Balthagor]

That's not really random then, and it does happen. I have seen lots of European countries make allies with each other based on relationships. In my current savegame, Algeria and the Bahamas are allies.

I'm not sure what you're suggesting we change. Alliance can only happen more often if relationships change more drastically. At what difficulty are you playing? Which map? What was your volatility set to?

[Mohamed_King_x]

I play in 2018 sandbox and high volatility and difficulty is very easy because I am a beginner

[Balthagor]

How far into the game have you gotten? I started as Belgium, 2017. I've played to 2041. I can see that the US as 3 allies; Canada, Slovakia and Czech Republic. Libya and Lebanon are allied. Ecuador and the Serb Republic.

Allied do happen. Did you have suggestions to change some of this?

[Mohamed_King_x]

I think that relations between countries have become very bad over the years, especially Russia and the West
I did not see any improvement between my relations with any country or any improvement between the relations between countries

[Balthagor]

Okay, what actions have you taken that should have made relations better? Have you been using the state department options to support the regions you want to ally with?

I hear that you are suggesting we make changes, but I'm still not clear what you are suggesting that we change.

[Mohamed_King_x]

I support governments to have a good relationship
I suggest that you make relations between some countries as real and that there should be international organizations that punish countries that declare war without reasons and that the relations between countries are increasing.

[Rosalis]

When war breaks out, relationships will be tested. Not stale like it is now. Trade and proxy wars should have a bigger influence on relationships. Good or bad. If US fight for Germany against France, US/French relationships should be influenced.

[Rosalis]

I thought i would give some room for others to give their opinion, but oh well. 5 years after relsease a clear direction should be there on the horizon.

In one patch you fight 3 units in proxy war and go from 0% to 100%. Now there seems to be no change at all.

The proxy war and relations being influenced should be spread against the whole alliance especially if they fight eachoter, from both sides. So you get blocks and less internal alliance wars. If in the example i gave above, US save Germany's ass, everyone allied to Germany should get better relations over time with US, especially those who helped, wether its trade or fighting on the side of Germany.

From trade what i would like to see, well not only for economy reasons this would make sence, but the hidden region that acts as the trading hub should be deleted. Then you can punish things like monopolise certain resources. For example if middle east falls in the hands of enemy of US, its unlikely that US and allies gonna sit back and watch all the oil being traded between their enemies. In return if player monopolise the rubber market, and isnt selling anything to anyone, crashing potentially the world market, its very unlikely the whole world is gonna sit back and let that happen. I guess this will give some exploits where players can negate the effects by either producing what they need or scrapping till they produce just enough for themselves, but those kinda exploits exist anyway, first you have to get to that point.

I think this is very important for this game. Player has to micromanage alot if he doesnt want to see stupid things, then you need to give very deep gameplay back. Things like this will make it harder to fully annex the world and makes it more realistic. I actually like the relation system right now, but i think with this it could be improved, so we see more alliances, more proxy wars, more troop losses, better game speed.

[Snowpig]

I played SR2020 a lot and the single most annoying thing I encountered there were alliances where virtually everybody was allied with everybody.

I think, alliances should happen as a result of certain map conditions:
- with neighbors when in vicinity of aggressive nations
- when attacking a common enemy
- after extensive economic exchanges
- government similarity (e.g. democracy with democracy)

But: alliances should also break up - especially, when these above conditions do not apply anymore.

[sparky282]

In My TR2018 Game Ireland Just Allied with China

Not random as such Ireland had a bad relationship with me and most of NATO but something I didn't expect and as the UK if definitely changed the dynamic of the game.

Alliances seem fine to me

[Rosalis]

In My TR2018 Game Ireland Just Allied with China

Jah that seems scary Im surprised China isnt dead in your game.

Anyway 2018 sandbox is a bad example, the AI is much more likely to form alliances if 80% of the world is allied. Just interested how many NATO nations left "NATO"?
The outcome can be pretty good right now, and maybe we should keep it like that, but its very specific to conditions in the game. Its very possible you will play the same GC2020 campaign for 10 games after eachother. If alliances were in all the sandboxes its all the better in my opinion, preferably balanced. If you put in custom maps like islands then show what the game can do.

[sulley]

How far into the game have you gotten? I started as Belgium, 2017. I've played to 2041. I can see that the US as 3 allies; Canada, Slovakia and Czech Republic. Libya and Lebanon are allied. Ecuador and the Serb Republic.

Allied do happen. Did you have suggestions to change some of this?

I'm surprised by the OP's question because I'm in the year 2039, U.K, normal settings incl volatility. I forget now which sandbox scenario. Countries frequently make alliances, even ones located in different regions albeit much less frequently.

This makes perfect sense:

Ireland allies with Japan. The Irish navy would have to cross the globe to deploy troops in defence of Japan in wartime and vice-versa. The delay, cost and reliability issues associated with this would not make an alliance between these two countries very compelling or useful. Just as in real life, nations tend to focus on building alliances in their neighbourhood. So, i'm ok with this.