"Civilization 7" is a strategy game and the latest work in the Civilization series. The diplomacy system allows you to interact directly with other empires and establish foreign relations according to your own strategies. From announcing alliances to establishing open borders, you can engage in a variety of diplomatic activities by negotiating with the world's great leaders.
Introduction to diplomatic information
Diplomacy
In the "Civilization" series, the diplomacy system allows you to interact directly with other empires and establish external relations according to your own strategies. From announcing alliances to establishing open borders, you can engage in a variety of diplomatic activities by negotiating with the world's great leaders.
In the previous games of the Civilization series, perhaps the most familiar form of diplomacy to players was trading. You can propose a deal using a combination of items such as gold coins, resources, agreements, or masterpieces, and the AI or other players may accept, reject, or propose renegotiation. Internally, we call this system the “barter table” because the back-and-forth process of accepting, rejecting, and modifying deal terms is much like market bargaining.
In Civilization VII, we want to elevate diplomacy so that it's no longer just about the details, but instead allows you to make decisions on a more macro level. For example, instead of figuring out how much gold to exchange for a horse, focus on improving the overall trade relationship with another leader and let your empire's merchants handle the specific transactions themselves. How can we make our foreign relations have lasting impact in the face of leaders across generations? How can we provide you with the tools to counter external aggression and influence the decisions of other leaders during conflicts?
To address these issues and achieve our core goal of making diplomacy more useful, we’re introducing a brand new benefit in Civilization VII: Influence!
Influence: Diplomatic Gains
Influence is a new income type in Civilization VII and the main currency of the diplomacy system. Influence works similarly to gold, accumulating on a turn-by-turn basis. During the game, you can use your influence for various diplomatic actions. Diplomatic actions that require influence between empires mainly fall into the following four categories:
Diplomatic Effort: This is a reciprocal action between two empires. For example, you can initiate a "research cooperation" request, allowing both parties to gain technology points every turn.
Sanctions: This is a negative action against another empire. If you choose "hinder military production", you will reduce the opponent's military output (and cause a relationship debuff).
Treaties: Long-term decisions with practical value, such as treaties to "open borders" or "improve trade relations."
Espionage: High-risk, high-reward operations that can give you bonuses or negatively impact other empires, but with the risk of exposure. Getting caught while spying lowers your relationship with the target and reduces the amount of influence you gain over a period of time. For example, "stealing technology."
Each diplomatic action requires a certain amount of influence to initiate, and can be initiated by you on other leaders and vice versa. After taking diplomatic action, as long as it is not espionage, the other party will have the opportunity to respond. There are three types of responses:
Support: Supporting an action will result in its successful execution, benefiting both parties. Supporting an action requires a certain amount of influence.
Accept: Accepting an action will cause it to execute successfully and give the leader who initiated the action more benefits. Accepting an action does not require influence.
Deny: Denying an action prevents it from being carried out, but costs an amount of influence based on the type of action you deny. Influence spent by the leader who initiated the action is refunded.
Influence can also be used to interact with independent factions. You can befriend these forces on the map, gradually deepen your relationship with them, and eventually transform them into a city-state with you as the suzerain. But other leaders can also use their influence to win over these forces, and may become the suzerain before you, causing you to miss out on powerful bonuses!
When an independent force becomes a city-state, you will have more diplomatic options. You can use your influence to promote border expansion and military buildup to exert regional pressure on your neighbors. You can also permanently requisition their units, or even take over entire city-states as settlements in your empire. If you want to play some dirty tricks, you can also incite independent forces to raid your opponents!
The way to obtain influence in "Civilization VII" is similar to other benefits, and can be obtained through buildings, social policies, attributes, leaders, civilization abilities, wonders, etc. Some story events reward influence, and specific actions in the game world may also lead to unexpected influence gains. Triggering certain events, such as building a city too close to another player's capital, can result in relationship debuffs and give your opponent extra leverage that can be used against you.
There are also factors that reduce influence gains. Some negative actions on the world stage, such as conquering or destroying settlements, negatively impact the amount of influence you gain each turn, which adds a new strategic dimension to the game.
Relationships, agendas and wars
Another key factor in diplomacy is relationships, which reflect the degree of good or bad relations between different leaders at the same time. There are five stages of relationships: beneficial, friendly.��Neutral, unfriendly and hostile. Your relationships with other leaders affect many aspects, including the types of diplomatic actions you can take with them. For example, a military alliance can only be established between two leaders who are in a beneficial relationship stage.
Also related to relationships is the leader's agenda. Similar to Civilization VI, the agenda represents a leader's specific likes and dislikes, letting players know what actions they should take to suit their needs. For example, the effect of Tecumseh's "World Suzerainty" agenda is: if you choose to expel an independent force, relations will drop significantly; if you do not take the initiative to be friendly with any independent force, relations will increase slightly.
*Tecumseh is part of the Tecumseh and Shawnee Pack, included in the Deluxe and Founder's Editions. If you get the standard version of the game before February 11, 2025, you can get this pack as a reward, and you can also buy it separately after the event ends (the specific release date is to be determined). Terms apply.
There are many actions you can take to change your relationships with other leaders. Initiating diplomatic efforts or imposing sanctions are the main ways to move relations forward or backward, but relations can also be affected by diplomatic events, such as building cities or establishing trade routes too close to another's territory. Catering to or going against other leaders' agendas is also a predictable way to influence relationships.
This brings up the topic of war. "Civilization VII" adds a new war support mechanism. The side with lower war support will be affected by War Exhaustion, which results in a happiness debuff in all settlements of that player and a combat debuff when engaging opponents.
Formal war can only be declared against a leader if the leader is in a hostile relationship, which does not bring any advantages or disadvantages. However, if you choose to launch a surprise war, that is, start a war before the relationship with the opponent becomes hostile, it will cause the opponent to gain more war support, and you will suffer debuffs. It is very difficult to win a war in a war-weary mood, but if you have enough influence, you can get support for the war and hopefully reverse the situation! In addition, you can also use your influence to intervene in conflicts between other empires and provide support for a certain empire. One side increases war support!
