The changes in version v1.2.0 of the mod caused quite a stir among our players, and I couldn't help but notice that a significant part of the player base turned out to be unhappy with them. In this regard, I want to share the considerations that guided the changes to War Exhaustion, the rules for making peace, and the pricing of War Reparations.

In my opinion, there were two key problems in the vanilla game related to the conduct of wars. The first of these was the absence of any explicit victory or defeat conditions. It could be technically considered a "victory" to capture all the fiefs of the enemy, but this did not happen too often in history. It was to solve this problem that War Exhaustion was added to the game at the time. It is an objective way to determine the winners and losers in a war without requiring the capture of all enemy territories. However, it did not solve the game's second key problem - the difference between winning and losing a war was so small and inconsequential that in the vast majority of cases it didn't matter at all whether you won or lost. Yes, there are daily tribute payments in the game, but they are barely visible to the kingdom economy, especially late game.

To solve this problem, a number of changes were made in version v1.2.0 regarding the conclusion of peace. Firstly, when one of the parties reaches 100% War Exhaustion, it not only loses the war, but may also be obliged to return to the winner some of the fiefs seized from them, if there were any. Secondly, the notorious war reparations were added. After a peace is made, they are paid by a kingdom with greater War Exhaustion to a kingdom with a lower War Exhaustion, but only if the former has reached a critical level. It was this part that caused the bulk of the negative reviews, since the numbers of reparations were very high.

First of all, I would like to give a little explanation regarding the implementation of war reparations payments. Reparations use the same payment mechanism as the daily tribute, but unlike tribute, they are applied only once - at the conclusion of peace. This means that in the first days all the clans of the kingdom will have to pay significant amounts to pay off reparations, but these payments will quickly (within 3-5 days) decrease to normal values that are based on daily tributes to pay. Do not be afraid that this monstrous item of expenditure will be present in the budget of the clans of the losing kingdom on an ongoing basis. But the very fact that war reparations devastate the kingdom's economy and drive it into debt, even depriving it of the ability to properly maintain an army for some time, is not a mistake or a consequence of insufficient testing. This is an intended effect. I consider it absolutely normal that the losing kingdoms may never recover from defeat and gradually wither away, be eaten by more successful neighbors. In turn, the victors will receive a significant influx of funds, be able to afford a better army and become a more prominent figure on the military board of Calradia. At the same time, they will be the more prone to internal unrest, which, coupled with the mechanics of Factions and Civil Wars, as well as the vanilla mechanics of Rebel uprisings, should hopefully keep the balance in terms of the number of active factions on the map.

Despite all of the above, I don't want Diplomacy to radically change the geo-political gameplay of the game. In this regard, the initial values of reparations were already significantly reduced. I'm considering reducing them even more, although I probably won't. Also, after some thought, I decided to add a counterbalance to the War Reparations mechanic in the game. If the debt of the royal treasury to third-party states exceeds a hundred thousand gold, part of this debt will be automatically written off daily (without requiring costs from the clans of the kingdom), due to a decrease in the prosperity of the remaining fiefs of the kingdom (if there are any). This change will be optional, and I plan to add it in one of the mod's next updates.

Finally, if you personally don't want to raise the stakes in warfare, you can always adjust the amount of war reparations in the mod's options. I wish you all a pleasant game!