Testing the Current Diplomacy Changes

[Dragar]

Had an excellent game last night (that I intend to finish tonight) where the galaxy fairly naturally fragmented into factions.

I did find it was pretty easy to 'pick my battles'; I might have had to go to war with one faction to keep another happy (rather than, previously, stay friends with everyone) but I could choose to side with the stronger faction pretty easily. That way I was rarely in any real danger.

Still, I've been enjoying these improvements.

[zolobolo]

Make sure to finish the game

The new ruleas sometimes lead to a pretty interesting scenario:
1. Player allies with strongest faction and together they conquer others
2. Optionalyl some other factions also join the alliance
3. Strongest AI is actually stronger then the player
4. Due to the allies voting mechanic, the smaller empires all vote to for the largest AI ally
5. Player stands alone against the whole alliance during GC vote and needs to beat all of them

Thus the player does not ally with the strongest AI next time, or breaks up the alliance when one ally gets too strong to avoid the above which then leads to more interesting mid-game

[Dragar]

Ah, right! It was actually close at one point, but I managed to take the lead and get the votes. Let's see if I can wrap it up!

(On hard, by the way.)

[Dragar]

Phew. There was an error when the Phidi offered to merge their empire with mine, so I had to play out the game with two allies rather than one empire, but victory was finally mine. Ashdar Colonial carriers are excellent craft.

[zolobolo]

AI does not get offer for merger from another empire or does not accept the offer

When I switch to the bigger AI empire in the alliance I can see the offer from the tiny ally of theirs to merge with them but the two empires do not merge afterwards when I switch back to my own faction and carry on

If they do merge at one point, please have a notification displayed to the player (and all) that the two have merged)

[zolobolo]

AI tends to spam player with pleade to declare war on their enemies if the player is friendly but not allied to either side: the offer is rejected but the AI asks every turn again to attack their enemies (they are loosing so the desperation is understandable but of course pointless). A counter is advisable for each offer type to prevent such spaming

AI now offers peace when on hte brink of annihaliation. A bit too late as it was already obvious a couple of occupied planets earlier but a very good sing is that they offer a considerable amount of coins (50 coins/per turn) even thouhg looking at their finances they cannot afford this expense for long. Still, the offer needs to be tempting, just plase have them offer it a bit earlier when they still have some more colonies to pay for it

Alternatively, the side offering peace could offer Metal and coin mixed making the deal even more tempting in all cases as metal is generally more vastly more valuable and even small dosis of it can be a great deal

[zolobolo]

Please note that the AI can be very liberal in sending all of its ships to a new region of space when it becomes available via an alliance even when fighting a war on its borders on the other side

Since there was no enemy empire on that side of the galaxy I would assume one fo the below three reasons for the behaviour:
1. Securing my defensless borders against a warry neighbour: as I was playing Haduir all of my combat ships were in the home system where the Acient Stargate is located but was not at war with the Gremak evne though diplomatic relationhip was slightly tense. In this case its onging war with its direct neighbour should have higher prio for the AI due to the immense travel time
2. Scouting systems now in range after the alliance declaration with combat ships/fleets as no more scout ships were available to the AI - I guess that allies should share exploration though so this option might be disregarded
3. Trying to attack Star Harpies located aroudn the systems they were heading to: here, its onging war on its borders should have higher prio

Generally I would usggest that beyond 3-6 Turns, the willingness of the AI to send ships for whatever reason should exponentionally decrease. Sending a combined fleet to a destiantion >6 Turns away has devastating effects even on a mid-game empire in war

[nathanebht]

Please note that the AI can be very liberal in sending all of its ships to a new region of space when it becomes available via an alliance even when fighting a war on its borders on the other side
...

Also seen this same behavior. AI sent all of its ships across half the map to help its new ally.

There also seems to be something coded I'm seeing with the AI on Hard difficulty. The AI could easily take one of my planets they have a huge ship stack 1 turn away. They declared war recently. Instead of squashing my very poorly defended planet they send 1 or 2 ships and the huge stack goes somewhere else. They are also haven't built nearly enough troop transports.

This has happened 3 times in my current game.

[nathanebht]

Didn't fully describe what happened in my current game.

I'm in between to empires that then allied. Empire 1 had already declared war on me. Was beating that first one up. Empire 2 allies with empire 1 and to to rescue them. #1 sends its ships to #2's planets. #2 sends its numerous ships to #1's planets. I'm in between crisscrossed by dotted movement lines.

After many turns I took out 30% of empire 2's ships. #2 had done an excellent job defending #1 but guess the cost was too high. #2 offered peace which I accepted. Left its ships defending empire 1's stuff. #1 is still at war with me and still allied to #2. I attack #1's fuel station which has large numbers of #2's ships at it. Massive battle starts and we are still at peace afterward.

These diplomacy changes are terrific!

[sven]

After many turns I took out 30% of empire 2's ships. #2 had done an excellent job defending #1 but guess the cost was too high. #2 offered peace which I accepted. Left its ships defending empire 1's stuff. #1 is still at war with me and still allied to #2. I attack #1's fuel station which has large numbers of #2's ships at it. Massive battle starts and we are still at peace afterward.

Could you upload this game (under Options -> upload game logs)?

[nathanebht]

After many turns I took out 30% of empire 2's ships. #2 had done an excellent job defending #1 but guess the cost was too high. #2 offered peace which I accepted. Left its ships defending empire 1's stuff. #1 is still at war with me and still allied to #2. I attack #1's fuel station which has large numbers of #2's ships at it. Massive battle starts and we are still at peace afterward.

Could you upload this game (under Options -> upload game logs)?

Upload game_7485. The system the big battle takes place in is Arcusi. Its towards the lower, left of the map. I attacked the Phidi outpost around 2nd system. The Tinkers join the battle as they are allied with the Phidi but recently went to peace with me. Thought this made sense and was kinda neat.

By the way, ships get arranged really badly in battles that are more than just 1 vs 1.

[nathanebht]

Started another game. So fun!

An allied race joined/merged with my empire. When this occurred I didn't get all of their technology. They had been building fusion missiles on their ships but this tech is still locked for me.

[nathanebht]

New end game graphs look good. Just finished a game I had in progress.

[Arioch]

We are debating whether or not to make the graphs a normal UI option during the course of the game. The concern is that it might be too much information while the game is still going on.

What do you think?

[zolobolo]

New end game graphs look good. Just finished a game I had in progress.

What have you done to produce that high increase of military power in one turn?
Did you rush a lot of ship constructions or bought merc ships?