Quote from eruth: “Patrolling aircraft attack everything in their radius at 25% strength every 15 minutes and all attacked units respond at 25% strength. If you can get at least 2 attacks per hour given refueling and flying times it is more time efficient for damage. Attack will follow a single stack, even if it moves (not sure if attacking aircraft will relocate to a different airbase if the target moves to far since I rarely use attack), whereas patrol will stay in place and attack any stacks …
I think that if you could choose diplomatic situations that would affect your economy, your morale or something like little advantages in military attack or resources producction depending on the diplomatic situation that you choose will be really nice and interesting.