Been trying it out and all very good, I like the ideas that have been brought in but... AI players are still forming cease fires with one another despite a mutual 0-20% approval rating. Within 5 minutes of starting the game.
Also, although offering missions still needs to be researched (which is fine by me) the AI doesn't seem to need to. Sure, in order to make it so they do offer missions and you can increase your standing with them, I see the logic. But they do it within the opening moments of the game! I.e. whilst I'm still trying to claim neutral planets and don't have the time to go haring off across the map after an enemy which will probably turn out not to even have any tactical structures to destroy etc. Maybe some kind of delay is needed? I can reject the offers, of course, for a lower (almost nil) disapproval rating, but I have to keep doing that, and more than once I've rejected an offer only to have them make another within seconds. Again, a delay/'cooldown' may be needed.#
I like the fact that envoys need to stay in a gravity well for a while for the approval bonus to increase but with the diplomatic immunity ability so short, you need to have a cease-fire. I found that was difficult to get since (and this goes back to my first point) the 3 AIs I was facing all signed cease-fires with one another, making me the only target (even though I was hovering around 2nd/3rd place in the fleet ranking). As they kept attacking me I kept incurring penalties due to military action, and their starbases stopped envoys from being a viable counter-measure. Besides which, at this point, they'd have needed to make up about half of my fleet to have a decent enough effect.
I like the ideas and the direction, it's just with a hard-level AI and the weird cease-fire utility I was without allies and fending off attacks of three fronts, against opponents who wouldn't get distracted by one-another. There was little diplomacy, mostly fly-swatting at enemy fleets.
