[Talenn]

This is something I mentioned a while back but no one else seemed to notice. If you simply IGNORE a message, nothing happens. Request for treaties, demands from the AI etc seem to all be safely ignored without penalty.

Also, there seems to be NO enforcement or penalty for agreeing to something and then not following through. For example, race 'x' demands that you break your treaty with race 'y'. Well, first of all, if you ignore the request entirely, nothing happens. But even worse, if you agree, you seem to get the BENEFIT for agreeing, but even if you DONT BREAK THE TREATY, nothing happens. A few turns later they simply ask you again and are still 'Brotherly' or whatever they were..no worse for wear.

To me, this is a MAJOR stumbling block for the diplomacy model. There need to be still diplomatic penalties for reneging on agreements and for continually rebuffing allies.

Another thing I think would help would be a max level in 'friendliness' that can occur without at least a Trade Agreement. Currently, a race will tend to always like you by a set amount (3 points in the default) each turn until they are 'Brotherly'. So, in essence, from the time First Contact is made there is a set timetable until the other race 'falls in love' with you. As long as nothing else happens, they will eventually be 'Brotherly' and THAT is major reason it seems to be treaty-happy.

IMO, the relationship should NOT improve above 'Moderate' unless a Trade Agreement+ treaty has been signed. In other words, you should have to WORK to get the agreement and the attendant increase in diplomatic standing. As it is now, all you have to do is wait a few turns after First Contact without attacking them....not too terribly tough IMO.

Diplomacy and AI 'feel' is still one of the two weakest points in the game (along with the AI's ability) IMO. A few tweaks here and there could go a long way to changing that. Hopefully as soon as the AI is a bit better up to snuff, we will see items like Diplomacy (which should be a critical item) be worked on before addition of extra features.

Thanx,
Talenn