City Favour

Pecunia and shaun1 have provided detailed information of the city favor system.

• CITY FAVOR
  • Rival Special Favor Levels
  • Ally & Vassal Special Favor Levels
  • Executing a Rivals Emissary
• GIFTING
  • Cash Gift Favor Adjustments
  • Commodity Gift Favor Adjustments
• REQUESTs received from others
  • Money or Goods Request
  • Military Strike against a Rival
  • Military Aid Request
• REQUESTING from others
• DIPLOMATIC REQUEST
• CONQUER this City
• Breaking an Alliance

CITY FAVOR

Favor Levels and their Descriptions

How other cities in the Empire react largely depends on how high the leader of the other city thinks of you. If he admires you, you’ll likely get a gift from him sometime. If he hates you, he will invade you sooner or later if he’s your rival. There are some things you can do to improve favor with another city; see below for more information on that.

You can see a city’s favor towards you by going to the Empire map and clicking on a city. Favor is measured in ‘points’, which range from 0 to 100, 0 being absolute hatred towards you and 100 being absolute love and devotion. The city’s initial favor to you is set by the mission designer. If nothing is done, the favor level of a city will slowly drift towards a ‘stable point’, which is 50 for normal difficulty, with the rate of 1 point per half year or 2 points per year. However, you can’t see the actual points in the game, instead, you’ll have to do with rough descriptions like ‘apathetic’, ‘furious’, and ‘helpful’.

The following table lists those favor levels and their associated point range:

The last 2 rows of favor ‘levels’ are only displayed if you recently have greatly angered/pleased a city. This usually triggers them into some action. When you’ve pleased a city, that action will almost certainly be giving you a gift of goods in the near future. When you’ve angered them, you can expect an invasion of a rival, a broken alliance from an ally, and a rebellion from a vassal.

Opening Trade and forming Alliances

Before a rival city will give in to your request to open up a trade route or form an alliance, that city must have at lease a certain favor level with you. For opening trade, that level must be 51 or above. So any city with favor ‘respectful’ and above will immediately agree. If the city is ‘apathetic’ towards you, it may or may not open trade, it depends.

Forming alliances is usually not necessary, unless it is a mission goal. However, forming an alliance has its benefits: you will be able to request defensive aid and strikes on another city, the city will be more favorable to you when you request goods (you can ask more before the city becomes annoyed), and perhaps the most important benefit: it won’t attack you. To form an alliance with a rival, your favor with that city has to be at least 70, so an ‘agreeable’ or ‘admiring’ rival will always respond to your request for an alliance.

Rival Special Favor Levels

‘Docile’

Rivals can become ‘docile’ at very high favor, while they are ‘Admiring’ (favor points 91-99). They issue a notice message ‘cityname Respects You’ and are then docile. Each month while their favor exceeds 90 points there is a chance that they can issue a request to ‘Open Trade’, or become an ‘Ally’. ‘Docile’ may be displayed until there actual favor goes down to about 50 favor points. This can lead to problems unless the player keeps track of the actual favor.

Their ‘Trade Request’ will remove 5 points of favor so it is unlikely to get both requests without an additional favor boost. Accepting the request costs nothing more, but ‘Disagreeing’ will cost you another 10 points of favor.

Their ‘Alliance Request’ will remove 20 points of favor. ‘Joining’ their alliance costs nothing more, but rejecting the alliance offer will cost you another 25 points of favor.

Notes:
At lower difficulty levels than ‘Very Hard’ the favor points needed are lower and the chance of requests are higher. Request for alliance can occur from Chinese cities even if trade has not been opened. Non-Chinese cities may not go ‘docile’ but may offer a trade agreement under similar favor conditions.

‘Hostile’

A rival may become ‘Hostile’ due to very low favor or the player’s military strength is considered weak. It is possible to have an invasion launch, without going to ‘Resentful’, because your military is very weak/defenseless. This can happen when you send troops away from your city.

While Hostile, the city can send ‘Spies’ to the players city. They also have a chance each month to consider invading the players city (invade/wait/reconsider). If an invasion is launched or the ‘option of invasion’ is reconsidered their favor is set to 50 favor points.

Ally & Vassal Special Favor Levels

‘Philanthropic’

If their favor is increased to 91 or above there is a chance every month, while the city favor is above 90 points, that it will become ‘Philanthropic’. Once it becomes Philanthropic, ally’s favor label will remain there until favor is reduced to ‘Sympathetic’ (50 favor points) or through some action that will reset the favor to a standard label.

While Philanthropic, the ally has a chance every month of sending you a ‘cityname Loves You’ message, which indicates that they are about to issue you a gift of a commodity that they sell. Once the commodity is sent the city’s favor will drop -30 points and normal favor level will be displayed. The gift will arrive within a few months based on the trade level of that commodity (see chart below for the number of loads to expect). In the case that the city does not sell any commodities, then no such gift will be issued. The player will have to wait for their favor to drop to about 50 favor points before the correct favor label is indicated. This disguised favor level can get very troublesome unless the player is keeping track of the exact favor points.

Philanthropic Gift (amount of commodity expected)

Notes:
At lower difficulty levels than ‘Very Hard’, the favor points needed are lower and the chance of a gift are higher. Vassals may have less of a chance every month, but can send a gift.

‘Resentful’ (Ally)

When an Allies favor is reduced to fewer than 50 favor points they MAY become ‘Resentful’, depending on the situation that reduced the favor. While resentful they have a chance every month to ‘Break the Alliance’, becoming a rival (+10[+20 if under 21 points] favor points to current favor).

‘Rebellious’ (Vassal)

When favor is reduced to under 30 points, a vassal may become ‘Rebellious’. While ‘Rebellious’ the vassal may choose to withhold tribute (+10 favor points added and the next tribute is withheld). Additionally, there is a chance each month that the rebellious vassal may enter into a ‘Rebelling! state.

If they become ‘Rebelling!’, flames will be displayed on the vassal city and they are no longer counted as a vassal. Trade and Tribute will be prevented while in the ‘Rebeling!’ state. Requests & gifts are unlikely to be effective until the rebellion is crushed.

Executing a Rival’s Emissary

Favor set to ‘0’ favor points
-20 favor points from all other rivals

GIFTING

Gifting will be your most common means of raising favor amongst your neighbors. You should be careful to only gift when necessary, as the recipient will become less ‘impressed’ if you give too often of the same type (cash/commodity). There is a slight benefit of gifting as much as possible (large vs. medium or small), which becomes more important when considering the number of gifts will be reduced for nearly the same favor increase.

Note:
Gifts which cause a city’s favor to exceed 99 favor don’t show up in the history of other allies/vassals. In the ‘Empire map’ when a city is highlighted, mouse over the city icon (upper right corner) and you will get the description “Review the history of your relationship with this city”. clicking the city brings up the “History of cityname”. When a gift exceeds the 99 points the phrase ‘you gave a gift to a vassal’ will not be displayed but the recipient listing will show ‘you gave a gift to this city’.

Cash Gift Favor Adjustments

Giving cash may your only alternative in raising your neighbors favor when you first start building your city. You may not have the manpower or industries to produce commodities the first year. It can be a delicate balance between raising their favor or building your city so you can gift commodities at a later date.

Player’s Coin Count
Coin count of the player city is figured from its funds at the time the gift is received:
1 – 4999 or less
2 – 5000 to 9999
3 – 10,000 to 19,999
4 – 20,000 to 39,999
5 – 40,000 or more

Causal-favor explained
‘Causal-favor’ is a term meaning an incidental adjustment applied to other members of the group (rival, ally or vassal) caused by an action to another city. Usually, the ‘Causal-favor’ adjustment is smaller than the favor adjustment of the reacting city (rival/ally/vassal)

Player Coin Count and favor boost (with Causal-favor ‘a’=allies / ‘v’=vassals)

Limitations on the number of cash gifts
First 2 gifts will be at 100%.
3rd and 4th cash gifts will be: integer(favor boost/2)
5th cash gift and beyond will be refused.

Causal-favor boost of allies and vassals
When gifting an ally or vassal, all other members of that group will receive a small boost in favor. A gift to an ally will not effect vassal favor, nor will a gift to vassal effect ally favor. In the above table (a=ally/v=vassal) reflects what group members will receive given the listed favor boost of the recipient. The following formulas are an alternative in case favor is not fully credited due to 3rd/4th gift or recipient’s favor exceeds 99 favor points.

Vassal Causal-favor is calculated as:
=integer (favor boost of recipeint / 5)

Ally Causal-favor is calculated as:
=integer (favor boost of recipeint / 6.6)

Notes:
One gift is removed from ‘memory’ each February, provided 6 months has past since that gift.

Example 1: (4th gift not fully credited)
2 gifts received in May01, 2 gifts received in Aug02
First 3 gifts will be 100% and the 4th gets reduced using above formula.
Example 2: (4th gift not fully credited)
1st gift received Apr01, 2nd gift received Jun01, 3rd gift received Jul02, and 4th gift received Sept02
First 3 gifts will be 100% and the 4th gets reduced using above formula.
Example 3: (4th gift not fully credited)
2 gifts received may01, 1 Gift received jul02 and 1 gift received Jan02
First 3 gifts will be 100% and the 4th gets reduced using above formula.
Example 4: (all gifts get full credit)
2 gifts received may01, 1 Gift received jul02 and 1 gift received Feb03

To get the full credit, only 1 cash gift per year can be made after the first 2 initial cash gifts.

Commodity Gift Favor Adjustments

It may take some time (months/years) before your production capability will allow commodity gifting. Initially you will need to balance your city’s consumption and/or export profits with increasing your neighbors favor. Commodity gifting may become very attractive once production exceeds your city’s consumption and export capacity.

A recipients gift may cause its favor to exceed ’99 favor points’. Only the amount to 99 points will be used to calculate the Causal-favor.
Favor increase is calculated as:
Favor increase = integer(sqrt(cash value of commodity)*(3*number of item)/25)

If the city does NOT buy the produce then the following calculation is done:
Final favor increase = integer(Favor increase/non-buyer var)
non-buyer var is;
Not trading commodity = 4
Seller of commodity = 8

Causal-favor boost of allies and vassals
When gifting an ally or vassal, all other members of that group will receive a small boost in favor. A gift to an ally will not effect vassal favor, nor will a gift to vassal effect ally favor.

Vassal Causal-favor is calculated as:
=integer (favor increase of recipeint / 5)

Ally Causal-favor is calculated as:
=integer (favor increase of recipeint / 6.6)

Limitations on the number of commodity gifts
Only 4 gifts of the same commodity will be accepted in a given year (12 months). Any attempt to give more will result in a refusal when the emissary leaves the map. Product and cost of emissary are lost without benefit of favor increase.

REQUESTs received from others

Money or Goods Request (scripted event)

A neighbor may send a request (scripted event) for goods or money. Fulfilling the request will greatly benefit you. Delaying (overdue) or refusing to fulfill the request will cause favor loss. The benefits and penalties are listed below.

Rival:
+10 Fulfilled within time
-10 Fulfilled but overdue
-25 Refused/Unfulfilled

Ally:
+18 Fulfilled within time
> +2 Causal-favor
-10 Fulfilled but overdue
> -1 Causal-favor
-20 Refused/Unfulfilled
> -2 Causal-favor

Vassal:
+22 Fulfilled within time
> +3 Causal-favor
-15 Fulfilled but overdue
> -2 Causal-favor
-25 Refused/Unfulfilled
> -5 Causal-favor

Military Strike against a Rival (Buggy Scripted Event)

This event may provide a huge favor boost if you provide just 1 troop. There is a catch in that your combined forces cannot win to get the favor boost. Only half of your ally/vassal force will be involved in the invasion. A win will only gain you weapons booty so ensure you have warehouse space allotted, if this is desired.

Sending troops on time:
Depending on the event timing the player MAY or MAY NOT get ‘Defeated warriors return’ or ‘Victorious Warriors return’ messages.

Combined forces defeat the defender
: No favor bonus or penalty. Player receives weapons booty only.

Combined forces unable to defeat the defender
+70 favor points to the requester
+40 Causal-favor points to other allies or vassals of the same status as the requester

Failing to send troops on time:
-20 from requester’s favor
-10 Causal-favor points to other allies or vassals of the same status as requester

Notes:
Postponing the request until you get this last chance message:

“Greetings, YourName. RequesterRulerName of RequesterCityName, can’t believe you’d let an opportunity like this pass! I am doing you favor by giving you the chance to participate in what is sure to be a great victory over the DefenderCityName. I need your troops now if you desire a portion of the glory.”

Your troops will get permanently stuck at the defenders city if you dispatch them. The player will need to delete the affected forts and replace them. Postponing or refusing will cause the event to be unfulfilled, which lowers your favor, but is better than having to rebuild the forts.

Military Aid Request (Buggy Scripted Event)

The event is very success oriented, if you fail to provide enough troops to succeed your favor will plummet. When in doubt of your ability to succeed in defending your ally/vassal it may be prudent to refuse the request. Half of the military force from the attacker will be involved. It is your task to send enough troops that your combined forces will repel the invasion. A success will gain weapons booty so ensure you have warehouse space allotted.

Ally:
Successfully defending your ally
+40 favor points, may gain weapons booty
+10 Causal-favor to other allies

Not providing the troops in time
-20 favor points
-10 Causal-favor to other allies

Unsuccessfully defending your ally
-70 favor points
-30 Causal-favor to other allies

Vassal:
Successfully defending your vassal
+40 favor points
+15 Causal-favor to other vassals

Not providing the troops in time
-20 favor points
-10 Causal-favor to other vassals

Unsuccessfully defending your vassal
-70 favor points
-40 Causal-favor to other vassals

Notes:
The thumb up/down messages, in the city history dialog, incorrectly reports; ‘You requested troops from a vassal’ when refusing to send troops.

REQUESTING from others

Making cash or goods requests of other cities generates a negative adjustment to their favor towards you. The adjustment is accessed at the time the envoy making the request leaves the entry point of the city map. The severity of the negative adjustment depends on the other city’s status, as follows.

Rivals:
If favor is below 81 points then the ‘demand’ MAY be refused.
-20 favor points
-5 Causal-favor points of other rivals

Vassals:
Items listed are restricted (red) based on current favor.
-15 favor points
-5 Causal-favor points of other vassals

Allies:
Items listed are restricted (red) based on current favor.
-10 favor points
-2 Causal-favor points of other allies

DIPLOMATIC REQUEST

Defensive Aid requests of other cities generates a negative adjustment to their favor towards you. The adjustment is accessed at the time the envoy making the request leaves the city map’s entry point. The severity of the negative adjustment depends on the other city’s status, as follows.

Vassals:
-30 favor points
-5 Causal-favor points of other vassals

Allies:
-40 favor points
-5 Causal-favor points of other allies

Military Strike request involves two negative adjustments. The first when the request leaves the city map entry point. The other when the troops are dispatched from the ally/vassal. Military strikes are when you desire the ally/vassal to attempt a conquest alone thus the reason for the high penalties. It is a strategy that may knock down the shield count of a city you expect to make a vassal. The city that is attacked will consider the attack coming from you. It is no secret who is the real aggressor (the player) is when using ‘Request for Military Strike’.

Vassals:
-35 favor points
-10 Causal-favor points from other vassals

Allies:
-50 favor points
-5 Causal-favor points from other allies

CONQUER this City

‘Conquer this City’: Rivals & Vassals
The option to invade a vassal may only be available when they become ‘Rebelling!’. A rival/vassal that is invaded will have its favor reduced to ‘0’ points if invasion is unsuccessful. A bribed invasion is considered unsuccessful.

Rival successful invasion:
Becomes a vassal with 30 favor points.
+10 Causal-favor points to other rivals

Vassal successful invasion:
Becomes a ‘Loyal’ vassal with 50 favor points.
+10 Causal-favor points to other vassals

‘Conquer this City’ with help
A minimum favor of (81 points for allies/51 points for vassals) is required for the options of ally and vassal military forces being available for invasion. If more than one ally or vassal is available, then you may only select one to be sent. The benefits of this over ‘Military Strike’ are the favor loss is only applied once and the chance of successful invasion is increased due to your added military strength.

Vassals:
-35 favor points
-10 Causal-favor points from other vassals

Allies:
-50 favor points
-5 Causal-favor points from other allies

Breaking an Alliance

-10 favor points and becomes Rival