Declared wars pointless in multiplayer?

[Ed Kolis]

What exactly is the point of declaring war on someone in multiplayer? It won't affect their mood toward you, and you can attack them just as well with a treaty status of None... is it just a cosmetic way to publicly state "I hate you"?

[spoon]

It does affect happiness... For Peaceful and Neutral Happiness types, happiness drops by 10%. For bloodthirsty types, it increases by 10%.

[geoschmo]

There are two real game results that I can think of. First your allies can see that you are at war from the treaties page. If you have not declared war all they can tell is you have no treaty. This might mean you simply haven't met each other yet.

Second is that I do believe a declration of war has an impact on the happiness of yoru populations. Although it's probably a small effect.

Geoschmo

[Ed Kolis]

So if you're Peaceful you can dupe your populations just by not actually declaring war on the empires you're attacking... sounds realistic enough, the US does it all the time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
So if you're Peaceful you can dupe your populations just by not actually declaring war on the empires you're attacking... sounds realistic enough, the US does it all the time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of course that only works if you win the battles. Also a lot like real life. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo