23a:Diplomat

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v50.12 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23.130.23a This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Diplomats are emissaries from different civilizations that visit your fortress. They typically arrive shortly before or after the caravan would normally show up.

Human

Human diplomats come when your fortress becomes important enough to rate a baron or better noble. This individual will only speak to your baron (or better), and generally says something inane such as "It's such a pleasant place you've carved out for yourselves." As the noble the diplomat wants to speak with never does anything anyway, you need do nothing to ensure the meeting occurs. If you're in a state of war with the human civilization, the diplomat may come proposing a peace treaty.

Elf

The Elves will eventually send a diplomat who meets with your head noble (such as the Duke) to talk about the "tree situation" at your fort. The Elven diplomat's first arrival will accompany the Elven caravan (subsequent diplomats will arrive separately with their own announcement) and will consist either of a stern warning (if you have cut down any trees) or a congratulation for not disrespecting the forest. Subsequent visits will be announced as usual and he will demand that you limit the number of trees you cut down before the elves return the next year. This count will be visible in your civilization list (view the Elven civilization and press Tab several times) and will decrement for each "Fell Tree" job your wood cutters complete, including tower-caps. If you stay within the quota, diplomatic bonds with the Elves will be strengthened depending on how few trees you cut, while violating the quota can strain relations and potentially lead to war. Outright refusing to accept a quota will also strain relations, though not as badly as violating it by more than 50%.

The actual size of the quota is based on your own noble's level of influence (which is determined by office quality, happiness, and rank), so you can maximize your logging allowance by keeping your top-ranking noble happy - should your top-ranking (based on eligibility) noble be dead, then diplomats will instead meet with your Governor (even if another lower-ranking noble is available), resulting in a significant penalty to your level of influence (office quality bonus is quartered, and happiness and rank bonuses are halved) and a subsequent reduction of your logging quota.

Diplomacy

In the world of Dwarf Fortress, diplomacy is ultimately based on math. Between any two civilizations, there will be a Happiness number and an Anger number, and each of these start at zero and go up or down based on recent interactions between the civilizations in question.

Happiness determines whether a civilization will send you a Caravan, and for Dwarves and Humans (but not Elves) it determines how large that caravan will be:

• Below -30, the civilization will not send a caravan
• At 0 or below, caravans will only bring 2 mules and/or wagons, each carrying a modest amount of trade goods
• At 1-5, they have a chance to bring 2-3 of each
• At 6-10, this increases to 3-5 of each
• At 11, this increases further to 3-6 of each
• At 12-15, they will bring 4-7 of each
• At 16 or higher, you can expect 4-8 mules and/or wagons, all packed with trade goods

With Human caravans, Happiness also determines which merchant noble will accompany the caravan:

• At 4 or below, the Guild representative will meet with your Broker
• At 5-9, the Merchant baron will meet with your Trade minister, if you have one
• At 10 or higher, the Merchant prince will meet with your Guildmaster, if you have one

Anger determines whether a civilization will send you a Siege, and with the Elves it determines how large those sieges will be:

• At 10 or higher, you will be attacked instead of receiving a caravan
• At 9 or lower, they will send their Diplomat to visit your fortress and potentially negotiate a peace treaty

Depending on how you interact with your neighbors, their Happiness and Anger numbers will increase and decrease as follows:

• First contact failed (Elves only): -5 happiness, +20 anger
• Diplomat killed: -5 happiness, +20 anger
• Voided agreements upon diplomat death: -10 happiness, +10 anger
• Merchant visit
  • Smooth trading: +5 happiness, -2 anger
  • Caravan destroyed with no survivors: -25 happiness, +12 anger
  • Merchants injured but caravan survived: -10 happiness, +5 anger
  • Trade goods seized or otherwise lost: -15 happiness, +7 anger
  • Merchants offended (Elves only): -10 happiness, +5 anger
• Elven lumber quota refused: -1 happiness, +3 anger
• Elven lumber quota agreed upon: +1 happiness, -1 anger
• Elven lumber quota concluded: -5 to +5 happiness, -5 to +5 anger
• Peace treaty accepted: +10 happiness, -20 anger
• Peace treaty rejected: -5 happiness, +10 anger
• Recent offerings made to caravan: -1 to -6 anger
  • 1☼ - 999☼: -1
  • 1000☼ - 2499☼: -2
  • 2500☼ - 4999☼: -3
  • 5000☼ - 9999☼: -4
  • 10000☼ - 19999☼: -5
  • 20000☼ or more: -6

Happiness and anger are only applied for events which occurred during the past 10 years, and once they are more than 2 years old their strengths will be reduced by 1/8 per additional year.