DIPLO: GoW comments

[alva]

Ask them to offer Lego to us for now, we can do the gold thing later

(have them sweat a little more )

[zeit]

alva- that's a lovely idea, since GF and UnO have offered two different things- save for contact with Lego, i'll tell them they can carry on with the turn, complete the deal with Lego, and send us the contact.
Any objections?

[Shiber]

Originally posted by zeit
We could tell them, OTOH, that we havn't decided yet, but we allow them to carry on with the trade with Lego?
Please comment ASAP.

IMHO, this is a bad idea. It'd be a lot harder for us to negotiate after they've completed the deal with Lego. Once the GoW-Lego trade goes through, they could come up and say that they were misunderstood, and they meant to propose a totally different compensation... and then we'd get dragged on and on with this issue.
I hope that we can come to an agreement fast, and accept their offer. Their compensation certainly sounds generous enough, and it yields a lot more than we could have made by selling CoL to Lego if this mishap would never have happened and we'd have to buy Lego's contact from GoW and then compete with RP and ND over selling CoL to Lego. Plus, if we settle this issue now it will improve our relations with GoW, whereas if we further delay them, the outcome would be the opposite.

[Aeson]

I agree with Shiber.

[zeit]

I agree on that we shouldn't drag this- but i ask again- what is their offer?
GF said one thing, and UnO the other- if i say to one of them that we accept one of them- there might be an additional drag. So, what do we prefer?

If you accept both terms, those of GF and UnO's, we can tell them any of the following is acceptable, so that from our prespective, it's a done deal.

I thought of telling something along the lines of: "There were two , a bit different, offers for compensation, one from GhengisFarb and one from UnOrthOdOx. Both shared one thing, and it's Legoland contact, but were different in the additional gold compensation. I do not wish to influence the debate on your team, if such one exists, on what sum of gold is appropriate.
Any of these offers is adequate, and will allow the GoW-Lego deal to be carried out without any reservations from us.

In short, either contact with Lego plus half the gold you got from trading their contact, or half the gold you got from trading with Lego is fine by us. You may carry on with your deal, but please send us their contact, and a sum of gold that reflects one of these two offers.

[zeit]

I'll send them the message. I think it is a sort of compromise- we give them the freedom of sending us a sum of gold to their liking, as well as making sure it is an adeuqate offer for us, and we also don't drag since they are the ones who fix this misunderstanding, and decide what sum is to be sent.

[Shiber]

Excellent message Zeit.

[zeit]

I got their reply- HotE's once again aplogizing, and GF's- he's details of what is the compensation are once again ambiguous, so i sent a thank along with asking for clarification.

[zeit]

Well, GoW's offering polytheism- they say they have closed deals with everyone save Vox and us...

Should we tell them we have already made an arrangement with Vox?

This is starting to get trickier and trickier, i don't if they'll pick up we have a tech alliance, by i'm sure they won't like hearing we have closed another deal with Vox.

Maybe it's time to tell them part of the truth- something like: "In light of the fast pace of tech trading on Bob, and the risk of deterioration in the relationship with Vox, given the fact that it's only the two of us on our continent, it was decided by both team that developing a closer trade relationship is a preferable path."

OTOH, we can just tell them we have closed a deal with Vox some time ago.

Or we could just tell them we are not interested in the tech right now.

What we choose to tell them now, might effect long term relationship with GoW- it's time to decide what we do with the tech partnership, and more urgently- what we tell, or not tell, GoW about it.

[DeepO]

We don't need to tell GoW were a certain tech comes from... if we have a deal for polytheism, and will get it like that, it should be fine for them. Let them speculate where it comes from, if they want.

What does surprise me is that lego said that they would get construction from GoW, I wonder if they researched polytheism themselves, and are now only starting on construction, or if there is another party in play here.

DeepO

[Shiber]

Hmm, you're right, it is getting tricky. I get the feeling that it would take more than that to blow the cover off of our tech alliance with Vox, since most people seem to think that Vox and ourselves are gearing up for war.
I propose that we tell them this: while we see GoW as our preferred tech partner on Bob, we're afraid that we have already closed a deal on this matter with Vox Controli some time ago, and Polytheism was part of that deal. Though we respect GoW much more than we respect Vox, a deal is a deal and we would be sorry to betray our word. However, if GoW has any plans to coordinate our mutual research in the next age, then we're all ears.

[zeit]

DeepO- according to UnO's note- which i didn't log (basically said the same thing) they popped a hut and got the tech- which means they're probably still researching whatever they were- unless he's bluffing- but why should he?

I'll just tell them we have other arrangement for acuiring Polytheism, without getting into too much details.

As they don't seem very stressed about it, waiting a bit won't hurt anyone- perhaps someone will come up with a brilliant idea on what to tell them...

[Shiber]

Re: GF's chat with Sir Ralph:
I understand GoW's anger. It's primarily based on frustration, since so far, their only dealings with us were MM for CoL + 30g, which turned into MM + contact with Lego + some gold for CoL, due to GoW's screw-up on the NDA. The deal for Polytheism is the third deal that we rejected, if my memory serves me well (the other two were HBR and Philosophy).
He talks about a GS-Vox alliance, and a Bobian alliance against us. Maybe it's time to spread a little disinformation... or better yet, actually strike a fair deal with GoW.
I suggest the following: we contact GoW, tell them that we understand from GF how they must be feeling regarding recent events, and offer to coordinate our research in the Medieval era, and raise the possibility of a tech trade that involves Feudalism. Let's not mention ideas like Monotheism for Feudalism though (in fact let's not mention the word Monotheism at all at this point, unless we have to), as this would make it very clear that we have deals with Vox that extend into the Medieval era.

Btw, Sir Ralph, if you're reading this: I liked the way that you handled GF in the chat.

[zeit]

Like i already said, this is the time to sort things out with GoW- we can tell them we had a deal with Vox, but this one soon ends, and that we are sorry for that.

We can also tell them that they're bottom prices also hurt our interests- as we are the #1 researchers, so there's no point in being upset- deals can always be strucked for the benefit of both.

I'll send a message to HotE, and ask him that we meet for a chat, to sort things out...

[Shiber]

I probably won't be able to participate in a chat due to timezone differences and RL schedule, but if and when you meet up, I advise that we mention Vox and our agreements as little as possible and focus on the future, and tech trading possibilities in the Medieval Age.