Diplomacy

Not every game ends in conquest. Some end with the galaxy voting you onto a throne, and getting there starts with diplomacy.

Status: the framework is in place; full treaty types and the council vote are on the roadmap. What follows describes how diplomacy is intended to play.

Managing diplomacy

You handle all of this from the diplomacy panel in-game. It opens to a relations list — every civilisation you’ve met, with its current standing (anywhere from open war to a full alliance), your relation score, and a trend arrow showing which way things are heading. Tap a civilisation to open its detail view: a shared-history timeline, the treaties currently in force between you, and any standing offers.

From there you can:

• Propose a treaty — choose a non-aggression pact, a trade agreement, or an alliance, set how long it should last, and send the offer.
• Answer an offer — accept it, reject it, or counter with your own terms.
• Declare war or break a treaty — both ask you to confirm first, and spell out the relations cost before you commit. Declaring war also clears any unanswered offers between you and that civilisation: you can’t accept an old peace offer from someone you’ve just gone to war with, and they can’t accept yours.

The panel adapts to your screen: a bottom sheet on a phone, a slide-in panel on a tablet, a docked rail on desktop.

Relations

Every civilisation tracks a relation score with every other, from -100 (war footing) to +100 (allies). Relations drift toward zero when nothing’s happening; events push them up or down:

• Border closeness: small negative drift (proximity breeds tension).
• Successful trades: positive drift over time.
• Won battles against them: negative drift.
• Shared enemies: positive drift.
• Faction-specific bonuses: e.g. Vanguard Nomads have +15% passive relation drift in their favour.

Relations gate what you can propose. You can’t sign a defensive pact with someone at -50.

How rival civilisations judge you

Computer-controlled civilisations don’t all think alike. Each one has a personality that shapes how it reads the galaxy — and how it reads you.

What makes you look threatening

Every rival leader is constantly weighing four things about your empire:

• Shared borders. Colonies pressed up against theirs are the oldest cause of war in the galaxy. The closer and more crowded the frontier, the more nervous they get.
• Military muscle. A fleet much stronger than theirs is a threat even if it never moves. Rough parity is tense; overwhelming force is alarming.
• Diverging research. Civilisations that research the same fields feel familiar and trade well. One whose science went a completely different direction is unpredictable — and unpredictable reads as dangerous.
• History. Broken treaties, declared wars, and attacked fleets are remembered. Honoured deals and steady trade slowly buy that history back — but never at full price. Betrayal is always remembered longer than kindness.

Personalities

How heavily each of those four weighs depends on who you’re dealing with:

• A warlord watches your borders and your fleets, holds grudges for generations, and assumes the worst about everything in between.
• A recluse mostly wants space. Stay off its doorstep and it barely notices you; settle next door and it never relaxes again.
• A merchant cares about your track record above all. It forgives quickly when forgiving is profitable — but beware: the friendlier a merchant acts, the more carefully you should count its warships.

Postures

Based on that judgement, each rival settles into a stance toward you: friendly trader (seeks deals, avoids conflict), cautious competitor (trades with one hand, garrisons the border with the other), or hostile aggressor (openly preparing for war).

Stances shift gradually. A single tense turn won’t flip a friend into an enemy — but a real invasion fleet on their doorstep will, instantly. And climbing back down is always slower than escalating: once you’ve made a rival hostile, expect to spend many quiet, well-behaved turns earning your way back to civility. Distance heals, trade heals, time heals — just not quickly.

Influence

Influence is the resource you spend to make diplomacy happen. It’s produced by:

• Faction bonuses (Vanguard +10%; others have smaller bonuses).
• Specific buildings (Embassy, Council Chamber).
• Tech (Galactic Charter unlocks bigger influence pools).
• Treaties themselves (some treaties pay influence as long as they’re active).

You can stockpile influence and spend it in bursts, or run a steady budget.

Treaty types

Five core treaty types, low-cost to high-cost:

Non-aggression pact

Cheapest. Both sides agree not to attack each other for N turns (default 30). Breaking it costs influence and a relations hit.

Useful when you’re focused on a different border and don’t want a second front.

Trade agreement

Both sides exchange a defined volume of resources each turn. The amounts are negotiated when you sign.

Useful when one of you has surplus minerals and the other has surplus energy. Win-win deals build relations passively.

Defensive pact

If a third party attacks one of you, the other joins automatically. Costs more influence than non-aggression.

Useful for protecting a long border. Risky if your ally is aggressive — you’ll get pulled into their wars.

Open borders

Each side can move fleets through the other’s territory without triggering combat. Often paired with trade agreements.

Useful for fast travel through a friendly empire. Dangerous if relations sour — your fleet inside someone else’s borders is exposed.

Federation (late-game)

The ultimate alliance. Federation members share map visibility, coordinate attacks, vote together in the council. Highest influence cost; hardest to leave.

Useful when you’re committing to win or lose with this partner.

The council (planned)

When the diplomatic-victory mechanic ships, a galactic council convenes every 30 turns. Each civilisation gets a vote weighted by influence stockpile and number of treaty partners.

Votes can pass:

• Trade embargoes against an aggressor.
• Joint research projects.
• The crown vote (the one that triggers diplomatic victory).

You don’t need to win every vote — you need to be seen as the consensus pick when the crown vote happens.

Strategy

Three principles:

1. Open with non-aggression. First contact is the cheapest moment to lock in peace. Spend the influence early.
2. Ladder up. Non-aggression → trade → defensive pact → federation. Each layer raises relations and unlocks the next.
3. Don’t over-extend treaty count. Five active treaties is manageable. Fifteen creates obligations you can’t honour, and the broken-treaty penalties compound.

Faction notes

• Vanguard Nomads are the diplomatic faction. +15% relation drift, +10% influence production, starts with Xenolinguistics. If you want a diplomatic victory, this is the faction.
• Nyx Collective can build relations through tech-sharing once high-tier research lands.
• Orion Hegemony takes a small influence penalty per active war. Fight one war, not three.
• Terran Directorate is balanced — no diplomatic bonuses or penalties, but strong economy means they can sustain influence buildings.