Although it's important to develop your research and improvements, you really shouldn't neglect the military and military techs. Build ships without engines, sensors or range just to boost your military rating enough to make the AI find itself an easier target.

I rarely pay tribute to anyone. They'll just use it to build more ships and then come and ask again

complete agreement - do NOT pay tribute; it only encourages aggression. I generally go for getting my research and economy up and running first so I often get tribute 'requests'. I refuse and then switch everything to military production; even early on in the game you can have a pile of small ships ready to go quite quickly. That dissuades any attack unless you're just simply outclassed in all respects, not just military.

pnich of the hapless Terrans

complete agreement - do NOT pay tribute; it only encourages aggression. I generally go for getting my research and economy up and running first so I often get tribute 'requests'. I refuse and then switch everything to military production; even early on in the game you can have a pile of small ships ready to go quite quickly. That dissuades any attack unless you're just simply outclassed in all respects, not just military.

If you are substancially weaker militarily (never mind anything else) the AI will see you as any easy target and over time your standing with him will decline, up untill the point that he is hostile towards you. Once this happens its only a matter of a few turns before he declares war. Now paying tribute to him wont prevent a war but it is a good stop gap measure to prolong the period of peace before the war. Depending on how much money you give him (and other factors which probably play a role, like how easy that amount of cash is to some by, ie if its early in the game or not etc) then his relationship with you may improve (or not, if at all) quite significantly thus giving you more time to prepare. Obviously its a gamble, which is better pay him now and have time to build up your assets or purchase your assets now and risk war next turn (depending on how much a decent ship costs to build of course and your income per turn). So youve got to weigh up the pro's and con's.

The above being the general rule when talking about militaristic races like most commonly the Drengin, Yor, etc, some races being more inclined to be militarily stronger than others depnding on the race and a host of other factors more specific to the game your playing currently.

well, if you give in they;ll come back for more.

however, you "could" just bully the minor races into givin u the cash

but yeh, NEVER give in.

just keep building ships. blow up transports everywhere, and cons.

Yeah, don't give in. If you have outclassed them, then conquering the outlying planets shouldn't be a problem, and then they tend to shut up fairly quick. Or beg for mercy. Any time those irritating Altarians demand tribute from me (I'm normally Drath, so it happens a lot) I just remove Altaria from their possesion and they make feeble excuses. Then I tell them to stuff it, and attack them until they flat out beg.

Research race up the diplomacy tree. At Total Majesty you get Spin Control Centers. Build a Spin Control Center, quickly make a new ship type crammed full of nothing but weapons. Buy one, then another and leave them in orbit on the world with the SCC. Keep it up until your military is ranked 1st.

Presto!

No more threats!

Once I've completed the exploration and settling stage, I head into a research emphasis. Diplomacy is the first thing I get, then Trade... which I trade to the other races for cash. Then I usually fill out the diplomacy tree, with quick diversions to get more trade techs to sell to other races, or to just get more frigates moving. Finish out Total Majesty, get your Spin Control Center, then get Master Trade and get Galactic Bazaar early. Then you can trade crud techs (Sensors, anyone?) for all the low level techs your opponents have, and all their cash too!

At higher difficulties, the AI won't let you get the Diplomacy tree finished before picking a fight, but the sooner you can get a Spin Control Center and a ton of weapon filled ships in orbit, the sooner the AI will start thinking twice about picking on you.

I agree on not paying tribute to a point. I do not go to every screen every turn and frequently I miss when a race goes to war with another race, especially if I am busy doing ship design.

What does this boil down to... if the Torian or Yor or whomever are kicking someones butt that I need them to kick and they ask me for some cash I may provide that to them despite whether or not I am ahead or behind miitary wise just because helping them is easier and cheaper than starting my own war or attrition.

I guess its just a matter of perspective.

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

Thanks for the advice folks. I quick researched diplomacy and super built my starbases. After 1000+ weeks the defense I could muster was some kick ass starbases. I can't seem to balance the defense ships with my maintenance costs. I think next round I will increase my freighter activity and mange it more getting rid of low trade routes. Just like Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri, I'm getting my research down to a routine, I just need a big layout of the research tree to help me.

I would like to see a threaten button on the foreign dialogue screen. When I extort minor races, they don't give into me. A full run is taking me about 8 hours now until I get my ass handed to me for going to war with someone. We'll see this time. By the way, I substituted alot of my music with Resident Evil soundtracks and Star Wars clips. It's pretty sweet but my wife is getting annoyed with it.