Right now other factions call you up for favors, and realisticly after the 1st 1 or 2, it gets old. Currently the *requests* are 150 coin, 150 metal, or 10x10 food. How about trade deals? Alien race needs item X but can only offer a smaller quantity of y. And then you have the option of taking the deal or making it a gift for a higher boost to influence. Trade pacts could be done this way (you need food, I need metal, you get 10 food a turn I get x metal) with the pact generating more or less influence depending on how good of a deal it is for your side. And then you have the option set the length, or extend those trade pacts.

Chasm wrote:Right now other factions call you up for favors, and realisticly after the 1st 1 or 2, it gets old. Currently the *requests* are 150 coin, 150 metal, or 10x10 food. How about trade deals? Alien race needs item X but can only offer a smaller quantity of y. And then you have the option of taking the deal or making it a gift for a higher boost to influence. Trade pacts could be done this way (you need food, I need metal, you get 10 food a turn I get x metal) with the pact generating more or less influence depending on how good of a deal it is for your side.

I also suspect that moving in this direction is probably a good idea.

Events are potentially interesting because they put the AI in situations where it is willing to make significant trades with you (including but not limited to giving/demanding planets, treaties, or technology). And so I think it would be natural if many diplomatic events channeled you right into the trading interface, giving you a chance to negotiate a bit within whatever the constraints of that event might be.