silly question

[JimJack]

this is probably a really ridiculous question.
but i dont know how to establish embassies. where are the diplomats of civ 2 gone?
sorry i lay this civ the first time

greetz

[Arrian]

You need writing, first off all. Once you have that (and contact with another civ, of course), double-click on the little star-shaped icon on your capitol city.

On standard civIII, that will just bring up a little menu, offering you choices of civs to establish embassies with.

With PTW, it takes you to the espionage screen where, for some reason, you must select the civ by clicking on their little bar on the upper lefthand side, then select "establish embassy" and then select "safely" in the bottom right (only choice), and then select "execute" on the bottom right. Now you have an embassy.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Oh, and by the way, there are no civ2-style diplomats in civIII.

-Arrian

[statusperfect]

No questions are too silly for apolyton

[Laertes]

Originally posted by statusperfect
No questions are too silly for apolyton

In which case: What exactly do you get from establishing an embassy?

I think:

- Some knowledge of their best units (on the F4 screen)
- Advice on when they start building wonders (not sure if this is true)
- Advice on war/peace/alliance/trade embargos when agreed (not sure if this is true)

Are they worth the money?

The AI hardly ever seems to set them up (it has happened to me maybe 3-4 times in all the hundreds of games played (Monarch level mostly)

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Fergus Horkan
In which case: What exactly do you get from establishing an embassy?

Among other things, you also get immediately improved relations. This helps alleviate early anger by the more aggressive civs, and aids any trading efforts.


Dominae

[Arrian]

Bingo, that's the primary reason I build them - to try and avoid being attacked early on. Knowing their capitol location, production, and available resources are useful too.

-Arrian

[Tiberius]

You can also investigate their cities, to see how many military they have, how long until they build a wonder, and so on. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but until you make an embssy, you can't make RoP and Alliance against ... deals.

[fittstim]

Since no one mentioned it, I'll point out that instead of zooming back to your capital and clicking on the mysterious star, as pointed out by Arrian, you can simply hit ctrl-E (or is it shift-E? - it's definitely one of the two) and you'll get the same option to establish embassies.

The advantage of using this shortcut is, of course, that you can stay focused on the issue/location at hand when you decide to establish the embassy (I suggest doing it ASAP) instead of zooming back to your embassy and then trying to find that same spot that you were just at (a serious annoyance on a HUGE map)...

[lateralis]

Originally posted by Fergus Horkan
- Advice on when they start building wonders (not sure if this is true)

Are they worth the money?

The AI hardly ever seems to set them up (it has happened to me maybe 3-4 times in all the hundreds of games played (Monarch level mostly)

wonder initiation: This will happen, but you must have "show wonder initiation popup" checked in your preferences.

worth the money?: absolutely. Especially if you are less of a warmonger the improved relations help alot. there are some civs (germans come to mind) that ALWAYS start annoyed with you, but an embassy and a little diplomacy can go a long way.

does AI set them up: If you don't set up embassies as soon as you get writing or meet a new civ well after writing and forget to extablish an embassy, some AI's will. I always try to avoid this because they then get to see your capitol (and everything you have connected, what your producing...) but you don't get to see their's. You can always pay to investigate the city once you have an embassy (and are not in war) but I like getting the jump. It's always the first thing i do the turn I get writting. (which is often first as I am usually pushing for the great library.)

lateralis