That's the thing I'm not getting.... if they value my 'alliance' at all, they would be open to ending E./R. Treaties with races that are enemies of mine... or be open to attacking races I was interested in attacking.

The "options" are lacking in this arena imo.
There needs to be WAY more options in terms of communicating - not only with enemies, but esPecially with friends/allies.

What is the difference between "Ally" and "Team"???

THks,


Chr*s

Teams can't be broken.

Maybe a better way of phrasing the OP is to say: "How do I coordinate an attack with my allies?"

In Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, you could convince an ally to join you in conflict with another faction. Once you were both in "Vendetta" status with the same enemy, you could contact the faction leader and coordinate your attack on a specific city, or tell them to engage the enemy as they saw fit. Based on your relationship with that faction, and their own goals, they would either comply or refuse. Since the AI wasn't all that bright in that regard, it would often forge ahead with no consideration for how the attack affected them.

So, it seems in GCII, there should be a way, perhaps within the negotiations/contact screen, to suggest to an ally to attack a base, planet, or specific coordinate in space. And the ally could also supplicate the player, or other civs, for the same, since supposedly the AI sees human players and other civs as the same separate entities. Though put this way, I suppose this would require significant reprogramming, since we now have a new web of relationships to manage.

Another feature of SMAC that I liked, and added a certain amount of stress to the game, was that if you constantly contacted another faction leader for any reason, they would slowly become irritated with you.

"So, it seems in GCII, there should be a way, perhaps within the negotiations/contact screen, to suggest to an ally to attack a base, planet, or specific coordinate in space. And the ally could also supplicate the player, or other civs, for the same, since supposedly the AI sees human players and other civs as the same separate entities. Though put this way, I suppose this would require significant reprogramming, since we now have a new web of relationships to manage."

This is EXACTLY what I figured the game already 'came with'.

: (

"Bribe them to attack"

I tried to do that by placing money on their side, and choosing that 'attack' option - YET there were no races available in that slot to pick for my ally to attack..

That's kinda what I'm lost on here... figured I could at least pay races to get into it with each other esPecially since I'm being attacked routinely because 'some race paid them to attack me/etc'.

If they're not listed under "attack" that means your ally is friends with that race, and refuses to attack them. So you're on your own. Break the alliance with them if you're pissed at them .

My problem with this context is that so far we don't get nearly enough info about *why* an AI might not have another AI on its list of possible attack targets. I'm hoping future developments in the Diplo area will let us see a small report, kind of like the plus/minus stuff you see on your own Diplo screen.

That could at least let you know that possibly giving a batch of ships could help an ally work up the courage to take your next cash bribe and attack. I don't know of any other way to deliberately reduce an enemy's standing with an ally or other AI.

But this thread also reminds me of the various complaints about DA spies and/or the "boring" intelligence slider in DL. In addition to wanting an option to spend so I can know things like "they're not scared of AI-X, but they have been friends a long time and have strong trade links," I want to be able to apply my spys to a task like "Undermine relations between AI-X and AI-Y."

More involved diplomacy has always been something people have asked for a lot. There was big talk by Stardock of improvements in DA versus DL, but the only thing I've noticed is a couple new treaty types. Otherwise, diplomacy is pretty much the same minus the ability to trade whenever you want. I think there are lots of things that can be done to expand the diplomacy aspect of the game and sadly, we didn't see much in DA. In fact, I think diplomacy took a turn for the worse. Hopefully, we'll see something exciting in TA. And don't get me started on the abortion they call the new espionage system. Gosh, I hope I don't see that steamer in TA.

I think you meant 'aborition'?

Anyway, i have not yet played DA but i have seen allot of posts on the new espionage system. For those that use it, it just looks like cheese, and for those who do not use it, it looks like an intense irritant. Either way the word 'aborition' is indeed apropriate!

In terms of invasion, morale buildings are better targets than farms - when you hit a farm, you have to wait a turn for the population to die off. A morale hit is effective as soon as you reselect the planet (more on that below), but you have to wait a turn for the population to die off from a farm hit. But a farm is a much better target in terms of influence, or to weaken a planet for someone else.

One thing that has always bugged me is that an Orbital Fleet Manager can't be hit with a spy. I can see how it might be unbalancing, but it's such a logical target... 

As far as the morale building spy issue, perhaps one of the Stardock people may want to look into it. Putting a spy on a morale building does not affect morale until the planet is reselected. Likewise, if the population decreases (from a failed invasion, for example) the morale won't be adjusted unless the planet is reselected, allowing another transport to hit the planet and exploit the artificially low morale.

I can understand NOT being able to get an Ally to go to war with a race that it's also allies with... that makes sense, BUT why can I not get him to go to war with a race that's "stronger" than my Ally? That really ticks me off though, if I'm willing to take the plunge; there should definitely be a way to get him to take the plunge with me.

As of now, Allies don't really feel like Allies to me... dunno...

Sounds like a swell idea except for giving away planets... firstly, they're SO hard to come by, and 2nd, I need that income to sustain my military... Unless I owned well over 20 planets, I don't see how I could just "give away" a planet.

I'm definitely liking the idea of sharing a freshly made M. Starbase that was constructed in enemy territory.