As I mentioned in a earlier post, diplomacy is probably the one aspect of the game I rarely ever touch in VB so the idea of C# releasing with diplomacy bare bones would have little to no impact, as diplomacy has never really been a 'player engagement' feature in Aurora. Diplomacy has always been more of a passive system that exists in the background of Aurora that just happens by itself whilst I am busy playing the actual game.
The improved stability, performance and deeper behaviour to the various aspects of the C# release that are actually player engaging completely win out plus being able to kick the recurring bugs and broken aspects in the current public VB release to the curb is long desired.
Fed up with so many whole campaigns in VB becoming unplayable and need to be wiped because the game hits time progression stopping errors on orbital behaviour.
But is that, perhaps,
because diplomacy hasn't been very good so far? For me it's the fourth most important part of the software, after economy, movement, and space combat. It's MORE important to me than ground combat (although please note that I consider NPRs
ability to launch ground invasions part of Diplomacy). I'm tired of having all non-player controlled interaction be enslavement or extermination. Either I win the race to full alliance, or they get mad at me for existing in a system they consider theirs, and all-out war ensues. The only way war stops is if I run away from it, they exterminate me, or I destroy every last combat-capable unit they have so the remainder surrender.
It's easy to make another faction fight you -- start shooting at them. There's an infinite variety of non-fighting interactions, and VB6 Aurora models about two of them.
I want weak allies that are always pestering me for support, and strong allies that occasionally demand I help exterminate some spoilers. I want permanently neutral aliens that are happy to co-exist in the same system because they're methane-breathers and don't like my planets.
I want to sell minerals, and technology, and spare ships to other empires when I have a Corundium shortage. I want to buy their High-Powered Microwaves 'cause I've never researched any. I want conquered populations to slowly assimilate a few percentage points at a time each construction cycle, not jump 20% once every four years.
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In short, I'm more excited about a properly-robust Diplomacy system than I am about Chaos Rifts or spoiler races getting ground units.