What to disclose to Legoland?

[DeepO]

Maybe you've noticed, but Legoland has asked me for a chat with q_m (ambassador, sometimes), and redstar1 (FM, I think). On our side, I'll join, and if possible zeit as well.

The idea is to have an informal chat, as there is very little tangible to discuss, but I hope to find out something about their research, and their wonder plans. Also, it would us if we knew exaclty how large they can grow, so it might be good to ask about that.

What I want to find out from legoland might be somewhat obvious, but of course, if I get information, I'll probably need to give information as well. I don't know the extent of their diplomatic contacts with other teams, but most likely they already have a vision on the world, and want to refine it. So what can I disclose ('can' as in 'if neccesary are allowed to', not as in 'need to')?

The following are a bunch of question they might ask, I'm going to simply put a yes or no beneath it when I think I should answer it or not. Please give your view, and I'll count the votes, editing this post. Of course, you're free to further discuss it in more detail, or to suggest other questions...

1. How is our power compared to others?
Yes

2. How is our military strength compared to others?
Yes, but not in detail

3. How are relations between us and other teams? (special mention: how's the tension between Vox and ourselves?)
Carefully yes

4. How many cities have we settled?
No

5. How fast is research going?
Vague idea, but only after they tell what they heared from other teams already.

6. what are we researching?
No

7. What are our goals in research? (as far as I understand, get to rep asap)
Yes

8. How do you see the war on the continent?
Yes, but not in too much detail. Mentioning that ND and RP are going to profit from this most would be the fartest I'd go

9. Are you building a wonder?
No

10. Are you going for a GL?
No

11. Are you actively seeking to send a galley our way?
Yes (answer: is there a reason why we should?)

12. Do you have NAPs with other teams
No

13. Do you have future tech deals planned
No

14. Would you be interested in trades with us?
Yes

15. Would you want a full minimap trade?
Yes (Answer: maybe, must discuss generally)

16. How are you treating diplomacy
Yes, in full. With a brochure if needs to... PR all the way

17. What are you short / middle / long term goals in this game?
Yes (not known yet, winning seems to be one of the goals, having fun another)

18. How is the atmosphere in the forum?
Yes

19. How active are you?
Yes

20. Do you have much trouble with disease?
Yes (reason I state this question is that they have been talking about having loads of jungle near their cities, even so much that some of their workers long for that other country, where a river runs through the desert. They know, are heavily suspect our situation)

21....

More to come, if I think about it. Preparing for such a first contact thing isn't easy, I wouldn't be surprised if I need to answer to more question then posted here, while less then half are being discussed. But if I get some views on this, I can probably make an generalisation of what might happen.

My view on this contact is that it won't net us much if we disclose anything to them that is not already known to at least one other team. I don't want to put them in a superious intelligence position, so they can sell this info to others.
But many things are already discussed, or they can have deduced quite a bit (the floodplains e.g.), and I don't mind acknowledging what they already suspect.

Further, there is absolutely no reason right now to be overly friendly to the legos, so they will get some information after we got something first as well. Sure, they can tell me their problems, and I might reply with some of our concerns as well, but as long as I don't get anything from them, I'll be hesitant too.

DeepO

[Shiber]

Adding the first questions that pop to my head that you haven't already mentioned:

21. What luxuries / resources do you have?
Suggest: no.

22. Describe your homeland.
Suggest: yes, vague (floodplains, some grassland, some plains, some hills)

23. How fast does research move? Where in the tech tree is the rest of the world?
Suggest: no.

24. What do you know about the war with Lux?
Suggest: tell them everything we know (it's all in the public forums anyway, but even repeating freely-available information would make us look friendlier, IMHO).

[zeit]

Okay, let's go over the list:

1)Yes- no problem telling them about that- something like- we are do quite well in comparison to the other teams
2)As DeepO said- no mention of units, or mil resources or plans for the future.
3)Not the whole truth- we don't want that spilled to RP, for example. We can tell them we have a "tech trade" with Vox, but nothing more
4)No
5)Only vaguely, as DeepO suggested: something like: very fast, faster than usual in SP, and so forth
6)Better not, see #7.
7)We might want to keep that to ourselves and those who are closer to us- like Vox and RP. The less teams know about our research program, the better.
8)Like DeepO- maybe adding our concern that early wars might be bad for business, and risky as well...
9) No
10) NO!
11) Yes- ask for direction (obviously).
12) No
13)No
14) Yes, very much
15) Like DeepO
16) Perhaps tossing our codex as well?
17) Better not get into that- it reminds participants from both sides this is a competition, and that there is only one winner (as far as game mechanics go...)
18) Yes
19) Yes
20) Yes, but only after they have told us about theirs (and if they had any, we don't want to look weak, but sharing their pain- its another thing).
21)Luxuries- perhaps, Mil resources- no.
22) Yes, as Shiber suggested, and tell them we're on an island as well (like they are, only closer...)
23)this is just like #5

[DeepO]

I agree on all points, shiber. Except perhaps the luxuries, to see if they hold a monopoly to 1,2 or 3 luxs...

DeepO

[alva]

When and where will this chat be held excactly?

I saw a few different times so far, but no final one yet (if there is one yet).

[notyoueither]

I recommend not answering 3.

In chats with GF and Trip the subject of our relations with Vox has come up. In both cases I have given extremely vague and minimal answers.

I think my point is that no one has a clue how close Vox and we are cooperating and I think it is better left that way. If other teams think there is a medium to high probability of hostilities between Vox and us, they will see us as less of a threat and be more inclined to give us beneficial deals.

[DeepO]

nye, I agree... that was more or less what I meant: we can tell them in general how easy / difficult communications have been with different teams (e.g. ND is kind of a problem because of the language and different board), but I certainly am not planning on telling them of exactly how far our relation with Vox goes.

Plus, even if we haven't released the codex yet, I'll try to keep to it. I'm not going to mention any details on specific deals, as I consider these private between 2 teams, not to be shared.

Alva: Nothing has been decided yet. I thought on asking them again, as they have been postponing. But, OTOH, I'm quite busy the coming days, so if they postpone it to beginning of next week, fine...

Zeit: sorry, crossposted yesterday with you, and didn't notice it. I agree on all comments, and wrt to the Codex: maybe we should really push the discussion to the front again, so that this can be taken care of asap. We've been discussing it from time to time for the past 2 weeks now, let's get it over with.

DeepO

[alva]

DeepO, you do realise that on the first page of the posted log the poor guy didn't even had a chance to say something

[DeepO]

Nah... I was really keeping quiet from time to time, to make it clear it was his turn to type Sometimes, it really was embarrasing, I type 2 lines in 20 seconds, and then had to wait 3 minutes before he answered. Other times, when it was just one word, he was rather quick to ask for explanation, which made me suspect that behind the scenes, he was either discussing things with redstar1, or was under explicit instructions to keep me talking, while not saying anything in return.

And, strangely enough, when I was really getting bored, the moment I decided I wasn't going to give any new info before at least he said something back, redstar1 joined... coincidence? maybe.

DeepO