you had this right in the last beta and now in 1.0 its screwed up. when I start a game it automaticaly at maximum against (-3) with all factions and though I have a bigger fleet than another faction it stays at -3 or close too it. In the last beta (.95 i believe) it was possible to go for more civ labs at first becuase you could use the diplo tree to keep many of your oponants off your back and have a moderate fleet and defences to survive against the couple that wouldnt play ball. This was a refreshing new way to play the game and I enjoyed it. In that last beta you had smartly move much of the diplo research to allow for early use of diplo is you wanted to go for that option. In 1.0 even with late diplo research your relations with other factions suffers greatly from that ever present -3. and unless you want to play on very large maps (I dont because my framerate drops like a rock) the diplo cruisers only help a little.) The bad irony is that diplo victory is way too easy to achieve. With 3 ceasfires I gained enough diplo points to win in very short order. In short Heres what I think needs to happen. reduce the sevearety of fleet strenth as a modifier and make the diplo victory choice more robustor at least give options so that you can make it more robust (like having a low, medium, and high point victory option. I should have to have 3 or 4 full on peace treaties or 2 factions with pacts before I get diplo victory...my 600 cents