Diplomacy

from Stardock Forums
A couple of things...

If I negotiate a peace on behalf of two warring races, does that make either of them like me more or less? I often do that when I need to keep a lesser power alive for long enough to become a threat to the bigger guy.

It would be good if there was a way of demanding that other empires remove their warships from my sectors. Nothing annoys me quite so much as having huge scattered fleets of Drengin ships moving through my home sectors on their way to crushing someone. It really tempts me to send one or two Excaliburs to say hello.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
It would be good if there was a way of demanding that other empires remove their warships from my sectors. Nothing annoys me quite so much as having huge scattered fleets of Drengin ships moving through my home sectors on their way to crushing someone. It really tempts me to send one or two Excaliburs to say hello.
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I agree with this. I think this would be a great idea, like in Civ III, to be able to kick others out of sectors you control through culture.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
If I negotiate a peace on behalf of two warring races, does that make either of them like me more or less?
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I don't know that it does any more than a normal trade situation would.

It would be good if there was a way of demanding that other empires remove their warships from my sectors.
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I agree entirely. :)

Is that all you need?
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Pretty much at the moment, thank you :)

It'd be great to see some really advanced diplomacy abilities like establishing buffer zones or having to ask to establish a star base in other empires' sectors.

I'm in a later stages of a game at the moment and the Drengin have just planted a starbase right outside my homeworld! They like me and all, but I control about 95% of the galaxy at this point and my military outranks theirs by about 20:1 - you'd think they'd be a little bit more careful before annoying me...

Just as another point, I'm not entirely sure why starbases seem so weak compared to late capital ships (well - Overlords and Excaliburs at least) as well. If I were building an important giant mining starbase, I'd certainly arm it to the teeth! I think starbases and planetary defences ought to be able to attack ships right next to them.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Sector ownership was discussed a long time ago and Brad stated that you don't OWN space. Therefore you have no right to demand other ships to leave. Your culture is not the same territory. The only thing you own are the planets and starbases and AI ships can't move onto those squares. It also makes the AI control much easier!

As for late capital ships being far more powerful that starbases that has also been heavily debated. Various arguements about manouverabily suggest that a starship would be more powerful. This also makes end game quicker as super starbases would be impossible to destroy.

Also remember that a sector is a huge area (contains entire solar systems) so if you consider your starbase sitting in a sector there is no way it could attack a neighbouring sector (imaging a starbase above earth attacking a ship at pluto).

Paul.

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Yup, but if the ship can fire at the starbase, the starbase can fire at the ship. In order for the starship to take down the base, it has to come within range. I'm not suggesting that they attack neighbouring sectors, just ships in adjacent squares. I'd just like my planetary defence grids to actually be useful :)

I may not own space, but my 80 Excaliburs say otherwise LOL It's the same as putting lots of weapons within striking distance of my planets. Think Cuban missile crisis. At the moment, there is no way to even ask them (politely, of course!) to remove their ships.

Plonking a starbase just off my homeworld's starboard bow is just...well, rude :)
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Ships move into the same square as a starbase to attack (note the loss of 1 movement point). A starbase however can't move. Unless you can come up with weapons capable of attacking something a light year away then attacking the next square is impossible.

As for enhanced diplomatic options such as 'keep your military ships >5 squares from my planets' they have been often discussed, but again would be like territory and make the Ai path finding algorithms far more complex. Would require lots of new work to implement.

At the moment there is 'a keep your ships >1 light year from my ships' rule as no other ships can enter the same space.

Paul.

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Supralight speed missiles for one. Any technology that involves the transmission of information at greater than light speed involves the transmission of energy = a potential weapon. A defence grid would probably involve emplacements not just on the planet, but also on the outer reaches of the star system.

A combat transport has to move up to the planet to land its troops. Why can't the planet's direct orbital and ground based defences try to shoot it down before it lands?

Territory is not a bad thing. It would certainly make strategy more interesting, as you could create real buffer zones or control choke points.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Totally agree that territory would be a nice addition, I argued for it over a year ago in beta. But the level of extra AI programming involved and the ease at which it could be abused by human players are both problems with implementation.

Paul.

~SDC~
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh, I solved it by building a wall of Excaliburs all the way around the sectors that they controlled so they couldn't actually send any ships out into my space LOL

I'm not sure why it would be all that difficult though - most of the ships that annoy me are just sitting there not moving from turn to turn (guarding, I guess). You could have an option to "Please remove all of your ships from sector x,y", and they'd set a course back to a nearby sector - although I suppose there'd have to be something in there as well to prevent the AI from sending the ships straight back, say a counter that prevented them from setting ships to guard/sentry in that sector.