Diplomatic Capital isn't to conquer a city, it's to create positive political relationship bonus with other factions. I'm pretty clueless as to how to make them generate some. Oh well.

the tech is in the diplomacy line. I'm not sure which one (I only played empire in the beta so I can only confirm empire get diplomats).

Diplomatic Capital is a fudge implemented in GalCiv2 to account for the fact that computers can't discuss things like people would. In that game, it was weighted at around the same value as currency.

In MP, two humans chat and end up with a deal at such and such a value that both of them (this is the important bit) think is fair. Instead of chatting with the AI, since it's incapable of doing that, you provide a deal you think is fair, and then use Diplomatic Capital to make the AI agree. 

So it's a fudge, but as fudges go it's a pretty good one. I hope they bring it back and expand on it this time -- for example, it'd be nice if you could use it for various purposes on the map.

Having played a lot of Victoria 2 recently, I think it'd be extremely cool if the sphere of influence concept was grabbed and used in this game. Figure the top couple nations by power could include the other majors and minors in their sphere of influence, which would give them preferential relations, ability to intervene in wars started against the minor power, and the ability for the major to move troops through the influenced nation's turf. Maybe even provide a bonus to trade with sphere'd nations, or allow the player to move the units of minors in times of war. It'd add a lot to the diplomatic side of the game, that's for sure.

See, the issue isn't about what you can get from it, it's how you can destroy an AI's strategy by selling wind. Get a diplomatic resource, then drain the AI of cash, win the game. The AI can't do anything with that resource, so every time it accepts a deal with diplomatic AI in the balance, it potentially loses a lot of resources it needs to advance its own goals.

It needs a lot of refinement to prevent this abuse. A small idea would be to make the AI able to spend it in ways the players can't, so that every time the player uses it, the AI gets a compensation for being sold thin air.

Yeah, you can do that. I've done it too, it's pretty hilarious. Which is why I dedicated the rest of my post to adding value to the player for using DipCap in non-ai-screwing ways. Other solutions include capping the percentage of the deal's value that can be in DipCap -- words are nice, but only if they're the frosting on the goodies. 

Uhm,

Everyone, no one knows how to generate Diplomatic Capital in 1.1 using Empire?

I like how this is turning into a discussion about it. But no one is answering my initial question.

Expanding a bit:

Upon researching the tech:  Persuasion

It unlock the building: Consular Palace

Who's description reads:

The Consular's Palace allows us to train Ambassadors, which increase our diplomatic capital.

So I'm not 100% sure if it's when I reserached Persuasion or when I built the consular palace, but I ended up with 75 DC. Thing is, I don't generate any, I had a group of 5 ambassadors but with no apparent effect. Granted I haven't tried pushing the unit into an enemy city, anybody tried that? I'm getting the feeling it's a bug perhaps. Just wanted to get other peoples feedback, for those who tried to make some DC.

 Cerevos, please enough with the ranting about the game. If you don't know how to generate the DipCap, as you put it, then just refrain from posting something to the effect that you find the AI stupid. You've basically replied 3 times to the thread offering nothing useful. Your replies have nothing to do with the thread. I'm sure there are plenty of "AI is slow, AI is stupid." Threads, go and unload over there .

Thanks for those who tried. And those who will try.

Cheers,

V.