Freakin' Altarians...

Genocide is the only solution.

If they deserve it, it's not genocide, it's just good housekeeping.
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I usually find the Altarians to be very good business partners. I do my housekeeping on the Yor and Drengins most of the time.

I always like pitting the other empires against them or just destabilizing the crap out of them.

Umh, I think the Altarians are just as nasty as the Drengins!

Both races are equally prone to extortion and violence. I see messages such as "the Arceans are paying tribute to the Altarians to survive" although they are allied. Also messages that "the Altarians have a campaign to destabilise the Torians" even though they are allied.

The only thing either AI understands is brute force. If you got more than them they leave you alone. If you have less both will bully you. Alignment does not seem very important, its' the strength graph that counts.

Given the choice, I'd rather wipe out the Altarians first.
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GalCiv doesn't allow mixing of populations, does it? When you invade and conquer a colony the alien population is completely wiped out and replaced by the invasion force, correct?

Ozar yes that's right. Not like moo2. I tend to go for the Drengins and Arceans first, they are the biggest threat in the early game. Alterians are a threat in late game (IMO). Yor and Torians are just not threats in my games. I like to buddy-buddy with the Torians because they will actually ally with me, with my alignment pure evil. Alterians are good trade partners but will never ally with me. (Maybe they would, it would be very difficult i think). Once you get to dreadnaughts, drengins aren't a threat usually. Use the opportunity to absorb their empire, however you wish to do so.

Well, that's actually disappointing. It actually had some meaning when you had to choose between subjugating the aliens or wiping them out in a genocidal act of racial purity.

What happens is everyone in the system fights, I believe...

If you use information warfare, then some of them don't, and will count as your population...

~SDC~

Counts as your soldiers even.
And there is that strange information warfare bug.

Well, to borrow my own line from another thread, the only great thing about genocide is its simplicity. Everybody fights, nobody quits, winner takes all. (Unless you can pull off the info warfare on a low morale planet, of course. Then some of them may defect.)

Back to the original topic. Altarians are simple animals to understand. To oversimplify it: If opponent alignment is less than 50, the Altarians want to kill him. If opponent alignment above 50, Altarians tend to like him. If opponent has superior military rating, Altarians dare not attack even if they hate him. There are, of course, certain things that modify this.

The most evil opponents tend to get picked on first. If they run out of evil guys, then anyone not considered good enough is be a potential target. Altarians will honor alliances and defend strong trade partners if that trade means a good deal to their economy. But they are basically a paper tiger if you got the military to back it up, or if you play real nice and do not provoke the Altarian's allies.

So true. I find it strange (and amusing!) that I may pick one or two "evil" choices and I'm on the Alts pooplist. The Torians invariably end up as their ally and my best partners (for the moment) become the Yor & Dregs, with their evil tendencies and all!