Goodwill Missions
Eight Ambassador undertakings, from cultural exchanges to state visits, confidential channels and humanitarian relief, replace a blanket Improve Relations button. Both governments make real decisions, and goodwill comes from what actually happens.
There is no button that simply improves relations. Instead, an Ambassador can be sent on one of eight specific undertakings with another government. Each occupies one diplomat and pursues a concrete programme. Starting the work, completing a routine cycle and even completing the mission give no automatic opinion gain: goodwill, disputes, practical benefits and political costs all come from the decisions the two governments make along the way.
Offers and replies
The initiating government chooses a programme. The receiving government may cooperate, propose narrower conditions, ask for reciprocity, or refuse privately; conditions go back to the initiator for approval. Neither government can spend the other's treasury or disclose the other's research by its own choice. The terms, publicity and current stage stay visible in the mission panel, which names whichever government owes the next decision, and the mission waits while a required reply is outstanding.
Routine progress and stalls are simply logged. Consequential incidents need a decision and may pass between the governments. Before completion there is a closing discussion; afterwards the host may acknowledge the conclusion, fund public thanks with political capital, or state reservations.
The eight undertakings
| Mission | Programme choices | Typical incidents |
|---|---|---|
| Arrange a Cultural Exchange | performing arts, exhibition, sporting tour | disputed content, demands for more performances, a rare asylum request |
| Organize a Trade Delegation | export showcase, purchasing mission, technical talks | conditions for access, competing delegations, documented unofficial payments |
| Establish Scientific Cooperation | conference, academic visits, civilian project | a useful disclosure, security restrictions, disputes over credit |
| Cultivate Official Contacts | working ministries, receptions, official liaison | a substantive introduction, controversial guests, an indiscreet remark |
| Arrange a State Visit | state visit, working visit, a visit tied to a public occasion | a calendar opening, honours and itinerary, mistakes or deliberate offences |
| Open a Confidential Channel | neutral embassy, discreet meeting, authorized intermediary | signals of seriousness, ambiguous messages, a public leak |
| Resolve a Diplomatic Incident | private explanation, joint inquiry, formal settlement | inconvenient evidence, the form of restitution, domestic opposition |
| Coordinate Humanitarian Assistance | local procurement, specialists, logistics delivery | blocked routes, disputed distribution, foreign cameras |
What each delivers
- Scientific cooperation can, with the source government's approval, transfer ten percentage points of research progress on a civilian project. Knowledge transferred survives a later quarrel.
- Trade delegations build willingness to talk commerce; lasting trade rights still need a separately negotiated treaty.
- State visits have no guaranteed progress: each cycle there is an 8% chance of a calendar opening the host may accept. An intentional snub is a government's deliberate choice and can leave a recorded grievance.
- Confidential channels are the one undertaking that needs no mutual recognition, letting enemies make exploratory contact. Accepting contact never imposes recognition or concessions.
- Incident mediation is bound to a real recorded grievance. Only the injured government's acceptance settles it, and settlement removes a stated share of that incident's original penalty without restoring what has already faded.
- Humanitarian assistance is bound to an actual Famine or epidemic. Each productive delivery spends $250,000 and shortens the emergency by ten percent; lost or blocked aid relieves nothing.
- Official contacts run open-ended, with periodic reviews, and produce introductions and incidents rather than a monthly opinion trickle.
Pace and results
Cycles last 30 days before Diplomatic Mission Speed; relief cycles last 14. Most undertakings are finite and reach a closing discussion at 80 progress. Each completed cycle earns one Ambassador experience, and success two more.
Goodwill and grievances are named, directional opinion modifiers that normally fade by 0.25 a month. Repeating the same contribution replaces it rather than stacking. A full endorsement at the close needs substantive progress and open access; one government can end warm while the other keeps reservations. A private refusal normally costs no opinion, but withdrawing from accepted public work carries a five-point penalty.
Rarely, productive work offers the diplomat a lasting personal lesson for an extra eight political capital and five progress (see Diplomats).
Eligibility
All eight require peace between the two countries. All but the confidential channel require mutual recognition. Only one instance of the same undertaking can run between a pair, whichever side started it; different undertakings can run side by side. Completion and refusal start a one-year cooldown for that mission between the pair, two years for a state visit.
The AI uses the same options and costs as a player. Détente and accommodation postures raise its interest, hostile postures lower it, and it prefers narrower access against strong counterintelligence.