epic: Stage 29 -- Diplomacy

[abix-]

Stage 29: Diplomacy

Done when: a raider town sends a messenger offering a truce for 3 food/hour tribute -- accepting stops raids, refusing triggers an immediate attack wave.

Canonical Spec

Stage 29 in docs/roadmap.md. No standalone spec yet -- needs design doc before implementation.

Goal

Add a diplomacy layer between towns: reputation tracking, tribute/truce offers, trade routes, alliance behaviors, and betrayal mechanics. Transforms raider towns from pure enemies into potential trading partners or temporary allies.

Slice Issues

To be created when this stage becomes active. Suggested slicing:

1. Town reputation system -- per-town-pair reputation value (hostile/neutral/friendly), modified by combat history and tribute payments. ECS component on town entities. Foundation for all other slices.
2. Tribute offers & truces -- raider towns propose truces at reputation thresholds, player accepts/refuses via UI popup. Accepting starts food/hour drain, stops raids. Refusing triggers immediate attack wave.
3. Allied town behaviors -- allied raider towns stop raiding, may send fighters during large attacks on the player. Requires reputation >= friendly threshold.
4. Betrayal mechanics -- allied towns revert to hostile if tribute stops or player military strength drops below threshold. Reputation decay over time without payments.
5. Trade routes -- send food caravans between player-owned towns (surplus -> deficit). Requires Stage 28 conquest (multiple player towns). Lowest priority slice.

Dependencies

• Stage 28 (Conquest) for multi-town ownership and trade routes
• Existing town/faction system for reputation storage
• Existing raider AI for truce/attack behavior modifications

Current Focus

Not yet active -- waiting on earlier stages. This is a tracker issue.