War or Peace

of course a little bit of fighting is going to happen but really what we want is to be proclaimed lord of master of the universe.

doing this through military is the obvious route, but it would add interest to be able to do this through economic, diplomatic and cultural means as well, instead of these just aiding military expansion.

fluff wise the factions are quite polarised so it makes sense that they're at all out war, but that aside i'd like to see more morale issue in play. we have alligence for planets, but ships having some sort of alligence as well may be fun.

i know we as players want our units to do what we tell them, but they should behave as people do, doing what they're told because:

a) they're being paid enough (TEC)
they've been sweet talked (Advent)
c) they have a conditioned social conscious (Vasari)

n.b. added brackets as an after thought as they seemed to fit

as master of the universe i should have a say in these matters, no matter which faction i happen to be playing.

e.g.

if i can sweet talk my minions i may be able to pay them less and/or fight with more conviction.

and of course if i get the balance wrong due to greed i should be diposed, or if i'm getting it really right then why wouldn't members of the other side sware alligence to me.

these are the things i think most people who are looking for 'peacful' (though think of it more as non-phisical aggresion) wins are talking about. really it's all war, it's just the field it's played on is different.

still waters run deep, my friend

good point, its true that the different factions all have differnt ways to control their units but still, most people i know would go for the war, and you still didn't answer my questin(although if you did sorry but i can't find it)whether you would rather fight or flee and use culture, or do you not really have a preference?
  

 so true, so true. but its just that all of the people who think that war is useless in this game and want it to be a happy, skippy, funtime game get on my nerves.  sure, it would be nice for them, but others just dont know, i've played games where you can win with culture, they just are not as fun and well, strategy oriented. quote me if im wrong but this kind of posts are just annoying and really its a useless idea
no self respecting RTS has a way to win with diplomacy or culture alone. so why this one?
(sorry for double posting)

ha, you're right, though i replied to your query, i didn't answer your question.

my preference would be to not be forced (through lack of options) to fight in the traditional sense.

if i see your home world open, i'll send my fleet and take it. if your well defended however, i like the option to attack you in less conventional ways.

i might see that your trading alot, so i'll choose to intercept your trade vessles, thus denying you income.

or the aliegence of a planet of yours is wavering so your forced to deploy a capital ship there to remind the people who's boss.

through actions like these i can force you to weaken your defences and find an opening to attack. the above examples are valid and possible in SoaSE, but are comparitivly under powered with regards to military might. this is mainly a balance issue though and i believe it's actually pretty good. i'd just like a few more posibilities along the lines of aliegence, especially ship morale.

e.g.

the WHOLE of the enemy fleet is firing at me, i better run!

or some such

All that you say is true, if you are fighting a defender, weaken his economy, if he keeps raiding you, most likely he lacks defense, and if he is just stupid, well, just kill him. i also like your idea of seeing a few more possible bonuses to ship morale and culture, like ships fight better, or strike craft move faster(to impress the ladies...whoot woo) and so on. but still, fightin all the way for me.

Me my self, I like war, and there for play Vasari, but I think that one of the biggest problems in the game, is how weak some of the "peace" routes to supporting your military are. Like culture, you can't use it as a offensive weapon to support your fleets in the game, and the Pirates at some point become so weak(unless you attack there base) that winning a small econ. victory, does not real help you military that much. On some level putting more resources into the fleet, is better then winning a small culture or econ. victory.

Peace will be best because you get to colonize more planets and stuff...

Uhhh okay but you still need to fight to get the planets  

I think that the main reason why people are complaining about how the peace portion of the game is...well...mediocre, is because they are tired of the grind of the same old "Boom Boom, Bang Bang, lay down your dead" kind of stuff. It IS awsome, but it DOES get boring after a while.

dude, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU   are you crazy(gasp) this game is an rts, IT IS MADE FOR WAR!!

Wait, does the game not end if everyone allies? I thought that was the case? I just kept killing people because I wanted their planets all to myself. Oh well.

the obvious comparison is galactic civ 2, where you can do an influence/cultural win, technological win etc as well as the pure military win.... some variety would be nice. yes, youd have to fight also, but having other factors in the win would make for a more varied game.

I think there would have to be some incentive to win through diplomacy. Otherwise, that's no fun. Or there would have to be some penalty to ally. Perhaps in order to ally you must meet certain requirements, for example you must

a) destroy a common enemy
both research some end-tier alliance ability (this should leave the two open to attack)
c) you get it?

This simulates the computer version, where you have to impress them to ally. Another thing, I think cease-fire should become alliance, and the lame 2:00 countdown should become cease-fire. Maybe make a third called "uneasy amistice" to replace cease fire.

Or at least make some serious penalty for breaking an alliance...