Diplomatic proposal...what to answer ?

[bmills]

I'm still working out how to use diplomacy well, but I have learned a few things.

Like many strategy games, in SE4 it only really makes sense to trade with empires that are much smaller than you are. If somebody else is equal to you or more powerful, you don't want to give them an additional economic or research bonus.

Also, as I learned in my first game, you don't want to trade with somebody you are eventually going to fight. When my neighbor cancelled the treaty and attacked me I lost a huge chunk of my budget, and my navy just evaporated on the way to the front because I couldn't pay the maintenance costs. Ouch!

On the other hand, if you make a trade treaty with somebody you can get a lot of useful information about him from the "comparisons" button on the race information screens. You could always break the treaty again, assuming you can afford the happiness effects.

If you're worried about the trading partner wandering around your systems simply mine your border warp points. Strangely enough, the AI does not hold it against you if its ships are lost to your mines in peacetime.