Re: Best 4 X Game To Date
I don't have the time for playing against humans. I have two kids & a wife who is NOT supportive of this hobby, so I get in a turn or two whenever the coast is clear. For me, AI opponents are the only kind there are.
It is not necessarily that "the AI is bad at diplomacy". It is that the AI does not respect agreements and the rules of the game do not enforce it. What I mean by the later is, remember in Civ2 if you tried to move a combat unit into the city radius of another civ with which you were at peace and it would prompt you that doing so would break the treaty & start a war? That right there would solve the problem.
A more detailed resolution would look like:
1) If you are at war or in that first contact "no treaty" status with another race, any proposed deal that includes a treaty must address any conflicting system claims. The possibilities for that would be: (a) mine, (b) yours, (c) share [colonization/remote mining of any remaining unused body being "first come, first served"], (d) mine but you can pass through, (e) yours but I can pass through. Under Non-Intercourse, only (a) & (b) would be allowed. AI should never agree to a deal that leaves one or more of its systems cut off from the rest (i.e. with no path through systems it is allowed to enter).
2) "Giving" a system automatically transfers ownership of all colonies and anything else in the system except ships with at least one functional engine. Ships in a system which is "given" do not change ownership but automatically set movement orders to the nearest system retained (or shared) by their owner. Such orders cannot be changed until complete.
3) Once a treaty is in place between two races, if either attempts to claim a system already claimed by the other, it gets prompted with a message "Are you sure? This will break the treaty and declare war!". The AI would do this only if it really wanted to attack the other side.
4) Once the treaty is in place, if one party even enters a system belonging totally to the other, or attempts to colonize/remote mine in a system belonging to the other but through which it has right of passage, it gets prompted with a message "Are you sure? This will break the treaty and declare war!". The AI would do this only if it really wanted to attack the other side.
5) Individual deals to alter the status of a particular system would be allowed later.
6) Two levels of military alliance. "Mutual Defense Pact" (the lower level) obligates the two parties to go to war against any third party which attacks the other (if your ally is the aggressor, there is no obligation). "Military Alliance" (the higher level) grants each party right of passage and refueling rights in all the systems of the other, even while at peace.
7) Under Protectorate or Subjugation, the dominant partner automatically has right of passage in all of the weaker race's systems. Under Subjugation, the stonger additionally automatically gets refueling rights at the refueling depots of the weaker. Under both, the weaker is automatically at war with any third party that the stronger is at war with (no matter who is the aggressor), and any declaration of war against the weaker by a third party is automatically a declaration of war against the stronger (AI third parties should take this into account).
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