Being evil doesn't always mean bad relations
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Well, my latest game is certainly my most interesting. I tended to go eveil (again) but I'm up around 25-30 and not totally demonic. I setup my game for a military victory for the first time. Took Universalists and racial picks in military production, hit points, weapons, etc. Morale has been a little problem but taken care of easily enough by loading up 4 billion on a combat transport. 
Started out just south of the center of the galaxy (large, tight clusters, common worlds, latest 1.03). Had *5* yellow stars in my starting sector and 5 more in the sector north. I thought I was in heaven but none of them had more then one 15 PQ or higher planet so it actually wasn't as good as I thought. I quickly pumped out colony ships like crazy, ignorning stars in my own sector but fanning out as far as I could to block out anyone else. Found the Drengin 3 sectors away to the right and pushed hard to get stars before them. Torians a ways to the left, Arceans to the northwest in a rather large cluster, Alterians in the southwest, Yor only had two systems in the far bottom right.
Anyway, so the Drengin have colony ships everywhere early. They start pushing them to my core systems that I ignored. So for the first time I'm going to go to early war because I can't let them get those systems. Pumped out the starfighters and destroyed all Drengin colony ships and moved in on their worlds but they were defended too well against lowly starfighters.
They wouldn't declare peace so I just let them be, killing anything that left orbit. Finally got trade and starting pumping out the trade routes. Finally the Drengin had enough and declared peace. Eventually I went evil but my relations with the Drengin were cool, Yor were great and the Arceans loved me (we had a ton of trade routes).
In previous games the Torians would have declared war just out of spite but in this game they have not. They have wavered from Hostile to Cool and even Warm. My guess is because we have a couple trade routes, my military could crush them, and I trade with them every 20 turns or so. The Alterians have been nothing but Hostile but have never declared war either and I do trade with them.
Recently I remember that I wasn't trying to win by culture or tech for once and made a beeline for combat transports. I got to say I *love* the Frigate now. It forms the base of all my fleets now. So's I go over and eliminate the Drengin and decide to take out the Yor and their 2 systems (almost felt bad because they liked me).
As my game stands now the Arceans still love me, the Torians are getting restless but aren't starting anything and the Alterians look to be next on my hit list.
So all in all I've been able to be evil and not have the goody-goody crusade join up against me. Perhaps it's because my military is so much better then theirs, I don't now.
But there is a price to pay: My economy is starting to take a hit with the weight of military maintenance. I was going to sit back and take a breath but if I do so my economy will collapse and I'll be in big trouble. So I plan to press onward as quickly as possible and take over as many systems as I can on my current military and then rebuilt once my economy recovers. This may backfire as the Arceans are making a military push of their own and can certainly out produce me at this point.
Man I love this game!
Started out just south of the center of the galaxy (large, tight clusters, common worlds, latest 1.03). Had *5* yellow stars in my starting sector and 5 more in the sector north. I thought I was in heaven but none of them had more then one 15 PQ or higher planet so it actually wasn't as good as I thought. I quickly pumped out colony ships like crazy, ignorning stars in my own sector but fanning out as far as I could to block out anyone else. Found the Drengin 3 sectors away to the right and pushed hard to get stars before them. Torians a ways to the left, Arceans to the northwest in a rather large cluster, Alterians in the southwest, Yor only had two systems in the far bottom right.
Anyway, so the Drengin have colony ships everywhere early. They start pushing them to my core systems that I ignored. So for the first time I'm going to go to early war because I can't let them get those systems. Pumped out the starfighters and destroyed all Drengin colony ships and moved in on their worlds but they were defended too well against lowly starfighters.
They wouldn't declare peace so I just let them be, killing anything that left orbit. Finally got trade and starting pumping out the trade routes. Finally the Drengin had enough and declared peace. Eventually I went evil but my relations with the Drengin were cool, Yor were great and the Arceans loved me (we had a ton of trade routes).
In previous games the Torians would have declared war just out of spite but in this game they have not. They have wavered from Hostile to Cool and even Warm. My guess is because we have a couple trade routes, my military could crush them, and I trade with them every 20 turns or so. The Alterians have been nothing but Hostile but have never declared war either and I do trade with them.
Recently I remember that I wasn't trying to win by culture or tech for once and made a beeline for combat transports. I got to say I *love* the Frigate now. It forms the base of all my fleets now. So's I go over and eliminate the Drengin and decide to take out the Yor and their 2 systems (almost felt bad because they liked me).
As my game stands now the Arceans still love me, the Torians are getting restless but aren't starting anything and the Alterians look to be next on my hit list.
So all in all I've been able to be evil and not have the goody-goody crusade join up against me. Perhaps it's because my military is so much better then theirs, I don't now.
But there is a price to pay: My economy is starting to take a hit with the weight of military maintenance. I was going to sit back and take a breath but if I do so my economy will collapse and I'll be in big trouble. So I plan to press onward as quickly as possible and take over as many systems as I can on my current military and then rebuilt once my economy recovers. This may backfire as the Arceans are making a military push of their own and can certainly out produce me at this point.
Man I love this game!