-
Your compilation of suggested changes is useful. Thanks for assembling and posting it.
Your presentation that Treaties and Trade Agreements are separate things is correct except for the part that implies that you lose the benefits of a Trade Agreement when you create a Treaty. In fact, all of the benefits of a Trade Agreement (i.e. Rebellion modifiers, primarily) apply and are assumed if you have a Treaty.
The Trade/Treaty circumstance in Sword and the Stars is a direct rewrite of the same mechanism in Empires of the Middle Ages. The "Trade Agreement" in Swords is called "Diplomatic Ties" in Empires, while Treaties in Swords are called "Claims" in Empires. In Empires, a prerequisite to a Claim is the creation of a Diplomatic Tie, which is accomplished via the Diplomacy Endeavor (i.e. Operation), after which a Diplomatic Tie marker is placed. When a Claim is awarded, (i.e. a Treaty) a separate Claim marker is placed in the area under question, while still retaining the Diplomatic Tie marker. The Claim does not negate the Tie but is an addition to it.
I think the leaner, corner-cutting economy of the Swords production simply employed the use of two sides of the same counter to do the same thing, Trade Agreement becomes Treaty by flipping a counter instead of adding a new one, but the assumption is that all of the benefits and circumstances of the Trade Agreement are still in effect, just like all the benefits of Diplomatic Ties are in effect when a Claim is made in Empires.
-
- Edited Wed Jul 20, 2011 4:59 am
Posted Wed Jul 20, 2011 4:45 am
