The basic tools of parley failure are lockout from the NPC and faction loss. We do have situations in-game now (including in one newbie line!) where failure to win parley means (almost) certain death.

The lockout represents a "cooling down" period in which the NPC is likely too angry, apathetic, alarmed, etc. to interact with you. You will not be able to do any parleys with the NPC until this lockout timer is ended.

Faction loss is our main deterrent to loss as it is generally much more than you gain in a single parley.

We also have a situation coming into game where losing a parley causes a locked door to remain locked - you have to win to continue.

Finally, in one of our Diplomacy engagements we have coming post-launch, losing certain parleys in the engagement causes you to lose cards permanently.

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I'm on both of those issues. Thanks for the feedback.

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We're looking into this.

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Check the patch notes for tonight. Repairs are on the way!

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Gerec is correct, except the part "by launch." We're not guaranteeing that feature at launch, but I hasten to add that the entire system was designed around duelling and PVP, and this plan is complete and ready to go as soon as we can.

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Glen Cook's Black Company series. Read them. Love them.

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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all the other relevant assorted out there.

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It's like a blanket with many fine threads. Every day we lose a few, and some of us feel a little cold. The question is: at what point is the blanket no longer a blanket?

I'm still pulling for my Vancouver Island Marmots.

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Yeah, "space storms" happen all the time, though this one is going to be a fairly big one. Even though we're winding down from the cleverly named solar max of '01, there's still going to be solar flares from time to time.

Now that the mainstream media has picked up on this stuff though, it saves me the trouble of having to endlessly promote www.spaceweather.com all the time.

By the way, did anyone go see the Geminids last night? I pulled an artist and a couple designers out to the parking lot last night and we saw some decent ones.

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I liked the KoTORs, but hate them now because everyone comes up to me and asks me how our Diplomacy system is going to be like it.

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