Greetings commanders! Release day tomorrow! We’re in full swing, getting everything ready for tomorrow. Until then, here is another dev diary you can dig into while waiting! Today, we’ll cover the less confrontational aspects of a grand city builder, such as diplomacy, politics, and trade, and how they all fit together. Conquest is of course fun, and a lot (if not most) of us will go down that route at one point or another, but there are other ways you can spread your influence around the globe and that is forming alliances. Creating an alliance takes time and effort (and a nice sizable industry too) and there are numerous factors contributing to how fast your diplomatic relationship will evolve with another empire.

• Heritage - Certain heritage(s) influence this directly, by simply awarding you more "points" for your actions. Careful though, the points go both into the positive and the negative ;)
• Political alignment - Choosing social pillars as your city grows (and levels up) changes the political alignment of your city-state. Other empires may look upon your alignment favorably, while others won't. It mainly depends on their alignment.
• Actions - Actions taken directly on the world stage will have consequences. Staging your armies on the border with another empire is generally not looked upon fondly, especially by that empire. One might say they could consider that a threat ;)

But we mentioned earlier that your industry is important in diplomacy. In fact, it plays a vital role. Almost everything in Kaiserpunk is in some way related to the production of goods. Diplomacy is no exception. Exchanging resources with another empire impacts your relationship the most. Let's take one step back for a moment and consider the trade buildings that you can construct in your capital. These include the market, the tradeport and the airport. All three are used for trading, but not with other city-states. These local buildings are used for trading with passing merchants and smugglers. This can absolutely be utilized nicely and to your benefit, but in comparison with real trade, this is, as they say, peanuts. "Real" trading is done by signing trade deals with other empires. Trade deals are precise in what is traded, in what quantity and over what length of time. Arranging a trade deal can be initiated either by you directly or by another empire and you always have some leeway to negotiate better terms. And now we circle back to diplomacy. Signing and executing trade deals increase your standing with the empire in question. The more you trade, the better the standing, until it reaches a point where you officially sign a trade union. This brings 2 benefits:

• You've entered a trade union, fulfilling one of three prerequisites to become allies
• The other side now accepts your currency in trading. You no longer need to exchange goods exclusively

I noted it's one of three prerequisites. The second one is your military relationship. Military resources, like weapons, ammunition, military vehicles etc. are NOT exchanged via a trade deal. These are specific goods and trading them carries with it a special set of potential consequences.

• First: Military convoys carrying these goods (after a military trade deal has been signed), can be intercepted and pillaged. Both your routes and the AIs.
• Second: Unlike trade deals in which goods are exchanged on a daily basis for the duration of the deal, military trade is concluded only once the convoy reaches its destination
• Third: Successfully finishing a military deal increases your military relationship.

Be careful though. Selling or giving another state military resources could easily be considered by third parties as a threat. And in addition to that, be really REALLY sure that you can trust the empire that you want to trade military goods with. You are in essence boosting their military capabilities. Are you 'that' certain that they won't turn against you? And finally, the third prerequisite for an alliance is technological development. If, for example, you have a surplus of development points in the agriculture branch, you can exchange those for the points of another development branch by going into scientific cooperation with another empire. It's a simple exchange of 'points', but once you've "maxed" that out too, you're nicely on your way to making an ally. Once you've signed treaties in all three segments, you've officially formed an alliance with another empire. To make things simple, the other empire, your ally, is incorporated into your territory, but not entirely. You can be sure that not every region of that empire is pleased with such an accommodation. Some regions will break off and become 'neutral players' on the global stage. But hey, at the very least, you can then conquer just conquer them if you wish. That concludes today’s dev diary and tomorrow you’ll actually be able to play Kaiserpunk. It’s difficult to imagine after such a long time of development. We’re beyond excited for it and we hope you share our excitement. If you haven’t already, give us a follow on our social channels or join our Discord and Reddit where we get a chance to interact with you more. Until tomorrow - Stay well everyone! Overseer Games