Diplomacy is getting a pretty major overhaul in Firaxis' 4X sequel Civilization 7, set to launch later this month, but some balance changes were only approved because the game's director hilariously got his butt handed to him by some fellow developers.
The tidbit comes via PC Gamer Magazine's 405 issue where Civilization 7 director Ed Beach breaks down some of the sweeping changes coming to the diplomacy system.
In past games, diplomacy between civilizations didn't feel as 'grand' as you might expect - it essentially boiled down to trading resources in exchange for other stuff.
In the iconic strategy series' seventh mainline game, things are changing, though. You can sign treaties, join other civs on mutually beneficial initiatives, and spend 'Influence' to move the game in more dynamic ways than before. "It is a little trickier to stay on the fringes now than it used to be," Beach explains. "And I credit that pretty much to the new mechanical approach and rethink we've had on diplomacy.
It used to be diplomacy and multiplayer was sort of a non-event at all. It was just what you could do in terms of inner-talk between the players to try to convince them to help you.