Clarify hero and diplomacy campaign rules (#8660)

* Document hero recruitment eligibility * Document low-loyalty hero departures * Document diplomacy resolution outcomes
2026-07-28 21:35:42 +00:00 · 2026-07-16 17:46:48 -07:00
parent 3ecb665709
commit a6641d5eb1
4 changed files with 46 additions and 4 deletions
@@ -72,7 +72,9 @@ Most command phase actions spend the acting province's turn.

 <b>Available when:</b> a diplomatic option is valid against another faction and an eligible messenger hero can be sent.

-<b>Effect:</b> Send a hero to another faction with a diplomatic proposal. The target faction receives the offer at the end of the current round, after any battles this round have taken place. Truce, invitation, alliance, break-alliance, and ransom options create [incoming diplomacy offers](/factions/#incoming-diplomacy-offers) for the target faction and story-generation requests. Most diplomacy options spend gold, remove the messenger hero from the acting province, and cost the messenger vigor.
+<b>Effect:</b> Send a hero to another faction with a diplomatic proposal. The target faction receives the offer at the end of the current round, after any battles this round have taken place. Truce, invitation, alliance, break-alliance, and ransom options create [incoming diplomacy offers](/factions/#incoming-diplomacy-offers) for the target faction and story-generation requests. Most diplomacy options spend gold and cost the messenger vigor.
+
+For truce, invitation, alliance, and break-alliance missions, the envoy leaves the acting province immediately and is unavailable for the rest of the current round, including its battles. The envoy normally returns during **Diplomacy Resolution** near the end of that same round and can act again next round. If the origin province has been lost, the envoy returns elsewhere in the faction when possible. An imprisoned envoy does not return.

 <b>Selection:</b> choose the diplomacy option, target faction, and sent hero.

@@ -385,12 +387,14 @@ Ordinary prisoners cannot be returned this way. Faction leader prisoners cannot

 <b>Vigor cost:</b> None.

-<b>Available when:</b> the ruling hero is visiting town and unaffiliated heroes in the province are willing to join.
+<b>Available when:</b> the province is ruled by one of the acting faction's faction leaders, that ruling faction leader is visiting town, and at least one unaffiliated hero in the province currently qualifies to join that faction. The visitor may be any faction leader; it does not have to be the faction head. Vassals cannot use this command.

 <b>Effect:</b> Recruit available unaffiliated heroes in the acting province. Recruited heroes join the faction at starting loyalty, move from the province's unaffiliated hero list into its ruling faction heroes, and receive a recruitment backstory event.

 <b>Selection:</b> choose the heroes to recruit.

+See [**What `WOULD_JOIN` Means**](/factions/#what-would_join-means) for the recruitment status, traveler exception, and separate **Please Recruit Me** behavior in vassal-ruled provinces.
+
 ### Return

 <b>Hero requirements:</b> None.
@@ -569,7 +573,9 @@ Gift success is probabilistic. The chance is based on the province leader's Char

 <b>Available when:</b> another faction tries to break an alliance.

-<b>Effect:</b> Respond to a faction attempting to break an alliance.
+<b>Effect:</b> Respond to a faction attempting to break an alliance. Accepting the break replaces the alliance with a 12-month truce; it does not make the factions immediately hostile. The truce remains active through its reset month and changes to **Hostile** when a later **New Round** advances the date past that month. For example, a break accepted in January has a January reset date the following year and becomes hostile when February begins.
+
+Imprisoning the envoy ends the alliance without a truce and makes both relationships **Hostile**. See [Diplomacy Outcomes](/factions/#diplomacy-outcomes) for the other imprisonment consequences.

 <b>Selection:</b> choose the originating faction and the resolution.

@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ Moving armies arrive at their destinations, supplies move, and incoming hostile

 ### Hero Departures

-Heroes who are ready to leave unaffiliated states or temporary situations may depart.
+The game checks affiliated heroes for [low-loyalty departure](/heroes/#loyalty-departure). Any hero with loyalty below 50 may leave at any time, and lower loyalty means a greater risk. A departing hero becomes an unaffiliated traveler in the same province and does not take the province's supplies.

 ### Unaffiliated Hero Actions

@@ -60,6 +60,22 @@ The common states are:

 Some free heroes are effectively unavailable until circumstances change. For example, a province without one of your faction leaders cannot recruit from the Free Hero panel, and a hero may refuse forever if they have a permanent reason not to join your faction.

+### What `WOULD_JOIN` Means
+
+`WOULD_JOIN` means the hero meets the normal recruitment threshold for the faction that rules their current province. It is faction-specific: another faction may not qualify to recruit the same hero. The calculation uses the ruling faction's prestige, its faction head's charisma, the free hero's power and ambition, the hero's current state, and any personal bias toward or against that faction. A hero who is permanently unwilling to join that faction does not qualify.
+
+The status means **willing, not recruited**. To recruit the hero with [**Recruit Heroes**](/commands/#recruit-heroes):
+
+1. The province must be ruled by one of your faction leaders.
+2. That ruling faction leader must personally use [**Visit Town**](/commands/#visit-town).
+3. Use **Recruit Heroes** while the leader is visiting town and select the hero.
+
+The faction head does not have to visit personally. Any of your faction leaders can recruit in a province they rule, although the willingness calculation still uses the faction head's charisma.
+
+Vassals may visit town for their own purposes, but they cannot use **Recruit Heroes**, so they do not automatically recruit a hero marked `WOULD_JOIN`. However, an eligible free hero in a vassal-ruled province with enough support to provide taxes may independently ask to join during the **Please Recruit Me** phase. That is a separate faction-level decision: a human player accepts or declines the request rather than the vassal deciding. AI-controlled factions accept such requests automatically.
+
+`WOULD_JOIN` is not the only status that can lead to recruitment. Travelers continue to display `TRAVELER` even when they would accept, because their willingness remains unknown until a faction leader visits town. Once the leader visits, the authoritative **Recruit Heroes** list shows which free heroes that faction can recruit under the current circumstances.
+
 ## Relationships

 Faction relationships have a visible diplomatic state and an internal trust value.
@@ -82,6 +98,20 @@ Trust is a hidden number used by AI diplomacy. Higher trust makes a faction more

 Incoming offers are unresolved diplomatic proposals from other factions. They become [special and conditional commands](/commands/#special-and-conditional-commands) such as resolving truce offers, alliance offers, invitations, ransom offers, or alliance breaks.

+## Diplomacy Outcomes
+
+An envoy sent with a truce, invitation, alliance, or break-alliance proposal leaves the acting province during **Player Commands**. The hero is unavailable for the rest of that round, including any battles, and normally returns during **Diplomacy Resolution** after the battles are complete. If the origin province is still controlled, the envoy returns there; otherwise the game tries another faction province and then a moving faction army. If none exists, the envoy becomes an outlaw in the origin province.
+
+Accepting another faction's alliance break replaces the alliance with a truce. Its reset date is 12 months after acceptance. The truce remains in force through that reset month, then becomes **Hostile** when **New Round** advances the date beyond it. Accepting a break therefore provides a protected transition instead of permitting immediate war.
+
+Imprisoning a messenger has concrete consequences:
+
+- The messenger does not return. They leave their original faction and become a prisoner held in the imprisoning faction's senior faction leader province.
+- The messenger receives a -100 faction bias toward the imprisoning faction, making later recruitment much harder.
+- The messenger's original faction loses 150 trust toward the imprisoning faction.
+- Every third-party faction loses 40 trust toward the imprisoning faction.
+- The incoming offer is removed. If the message was an alliance break, the alliance ends immediately, both sides become **Hostile**, and no transition truce is created.
+
 ## Focus Province

 A faction can have a focus province. The focus province helps direct [province orders](/provinces/#province-orders) and AI attention toward a particular province.
@@ -66,6 +66,12 @@ Loyalty measures a hero's attachment to their faction. Feasts, events, captures,

 Loyalty is not faction bias. Loyalty describes an affiliated hero's current attachment; bias helps determine whether an unaffiliated or imprisoned hero will join a particular faction.

+### Loyalty Departure
+
+Any hero with low loyalty (below 50) may leave at any time. The game checks for departures automatically during the **Hero Departures** phase of each strategic round, before players and vassals issue commands. Lower loyalty means a greater chance of departure.
+
+When a hero leaves, they stop belonging to the faction and become an unaffiliated traveler in the same province. They do not take gold or food with them. If other faction heroes remain, the province and its supplies remain with the faction. If every affiliated hero leaves, the province becomes unowned and its stored gold and food are lost.
+
 ## Professions

 Professions give heroes special command access, bonuses, and tactical identity. Some effects are Eagle strategic effects, while others apply only when the hero is attached to a Shardok battle unit.