The better I get, the faster I lose...

I know that the AI civs love to attack whatever military rates as weakest. If you tend to focus on research early on (as I do) and don't bother putting a fleet or two out there, they will always attack you. And while I haven't played long enough to say for sure, I'm pretty sure you're right about a well-balanced economy making everyone else angry.

become good enough and often no one will declare war on you! When that happens along with an ability to build most projects, it is time to up the difficulty level.

In DL i would avoid using espionage just so i could get the random event wars because no one would declare war on me!! Although i would still often be weaker in the very early stages of the game,,,, If an AI gets planitary invasion early enough, sometimes they will attack me.

Depending on how many civs your playing against, try and keep yourself in the top 3 or 4 in military rating. The big fish always go for the little ones first, also getting an alliance with one of the more powerful civs is a good tactic, even if you intend on wiping them out eventually.

I too go for a economic and research route early game myself, my trick to keep my military score up is, firstly do what ya can to get a military resource and max it out a.s.a.p, then get to about the 5th level of your chosen weapon type and load up a couple of cargo hulls with them and don't bother with engines. You won't use them for combat per se, but they will push your military rating up higher, even though it is a bit of bluff.

When ya done with those cargo ships and if they have seen action and lived, turn them into armed freighter's, especially if they have leveled up a bit.

Another little theory i have and yet to prove either way is that whomever manages to build Tri Quon Training seems to not get attacked as much, at least early in the game. This is yet to be proven but it certainly helps out regardless.

Hope this helps

Combine with Spin Control Center (gained from Total Majesty) and early on everyone will love you and send you presents.

- Wyndstar

The Spin Control Center is what makes it for me, like Wyndstar suggested. I also concentrate on developing a stable economy and a fast research pace early on. But if I wait too long on military development, I always get attacked.

So after about 30 turns, I'll fast research the whole Diplomacy tree, up to Total Majesty; then shift focus on my highest production planet to social production to build a Spin Control center; then just build Defenders on that planet until it's full. That usually puts me into second place militarily, and fairly often into first: no attacks after that. In fact, in 1.6, taking care of Diplomacy and Spin Control at this stage usually leaves me ready to get access to the other planet types in relatively short order: Extreme Colonization is relatively cheap by then.

The other races do take that as a challenge, and start building up their military, so with this strategy you'll have to return to military production at some point in the mid-game. But by that time, you'll have a solid economic base, are usually pretty far along in research and have a bunch of strategic options. The best thing about Spin Control is that filling up the relevant planet with medium ships (medium hulls, 10 or so weapons, 10 or so weapons) puts you far in the lead militarily, and can give you a breather until you're ready to do something decisive.

Just my two cents,

Alex

Your approach is fine. I play the same way. Social buliding and research. maybe a bascic ship in orbit. So i too get some civs declaring war on me, but as i usually have a greater economy and better planetary production, i can quickly get better ships against them and soon they're saying it was a mistake to attack me. And i get a bunch of new planets out of it.

one of the things i do first when a war is declared is research right up the tech tree to get the maximum soldering. you can set the sliders for onr turn to maximum research and have just about the entire line completed in one week. So even if you get invaded you'll be able to repel them. I've nticed the AI is very slow on researching up this branch.

somehow it bothers me to build all those crappy defenders early on, and I'd rather build up my planets or build colonizers or constructors. In my latest game as the Altarians on maso, DA1.6, large galaxy all abundant, I built a strong economy early, then bribed the other civs to go to war with each other. I also traded an economic treaty for a research treaty and a ton of crappy terran fighters. I was next to last or last in military strenght until the late game, but I was never attacked because everyone was "too busy" blowing each other out of space. They did ask me for money though, but I could easily afford it. I only built the spin control center late in the game, when a conquest victory seemed practically assured. That worked for me this time.

Depending on the difficulty level, the computer AI acts differently. Pay attention to the +'s and -'s on the diplomacy screens. If you develop good diplomacy, then this will be a "+" for you. If you are militaristic (i.e. researching military), then this will be put as a "-" for you. This can be a problem if you get a "-" for being militaristic, but not building any military. You are then the weak baboon (who is always attacked first) with a strike against you. If you build powerful military, then you will get a "+" on the diplomacy screen, and if your military is very powerful, you can get a "++". Your relative diplomacy skill and your relative military might with each race affects how each particular race views you.