Diplomacy System
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With enemies on all sides, it will take a strong foundation to build an empire that will not only survive, but stand the test of time. Doing so will require diplomatic skill, a profitable economy, a powerful military, research & development, and occasionally dealing with less than reputable elements.
Faction Disposition
The Relationship slider tells you how friendly you are with another faction at a glance. Many factors - shown in detail via an InfoCard - go into determining what other empires think of you, and this overall level will be the deciding factor on whether you’ll make allies or enemies. Empires you have good relations with will be more likely to accept your invitations for treaties, pacts and joint attacks. On the flip side, those you have poor relations with are almost certainly guaranteed to ignore you and will actively seek your demise.
You can also see an overview of the relationships between the factions in the game using the Relationships screen, located to the right of the Diplomacy button on the main interface. By hovering over the portraits for each faction, you can see details on the factors that are affecting their relationships.
Increasing Faction Disposition
- Donating resources to another faction
- Completing missions and offering missions
- Research
- Culture towers
- Trade
- Envoys
Decreasing Faction Disposition
There are two primary actions that will cause your Faction Disposition to go down:
- Failing to complete a mission within the allotted time
- Opening fire on a ship, planet, or structure
Missions
Main article: Missions
Sometimes other empires will seek your assistance in some matter, such as a request for resources or to attack an enemy. When a mission comes in, you can choose to complete or reject it within the time limit shown (note - you won’t be able to reject the mission once the countdown passes the halfway point). Failing to complete a mission or repeatedly rejecting missions will hurt your standing with the empire making the offer, while accomplishing the mission will raise your standing with them and possibly provide some other reward.
You may also offer missions to other factions once you’ve researched the appropriate technology from the Diplomacy research tree. To issue a mission, select the faction you want to work with and then click the Offer Mission button. Select the type of mission you wish to offer, the target faction and the other required details via the Change Level button.
Gifts
From time to time, you may want to persuade an enemy of your good intentions (whether legitimate or not!) or send aid to an ally. Both can be accomplished by giving gifts of credits, metal or crystal once the appropriate diplomatic technology is researched. Giving gifts will endear you to the recipient and improve your relationship with them for a period of time.
Treaties
Treaties are your primary political tool in Sins of a Solar Empire. Using them you can shape the future of your people – for better or worse. The various types include:
Go to War
As the name suggests, by declaring war against another faction you are terminating all existing accords with them and giving your military units permission to open fire on their ships and structures. Earning back the trust of a faction you‘ve declared war on may not always be possible and will definitely take time should you decide to sue for peace later.
Cease Fire
Cease fires are essentially states of non-aggressive neutrality with another empire. Neither side will fire on the other, but either may decide to do so with no explicit ramifications.
- Minimum Relationship required: 4.50
Peace Treaty
Peace treaties are formal accords of friendship and alliance. To establish one, you must first have a cease fire agreement in place. As with cease fires, neither side may attack the other and to do so will require formally breaking the peace treaty – an act not viewed well by your partner. If you and your treaty partner are on very good terms, you may be able to coordinate assaults on enemies (using Pings or Missions). After breaking a peace treaty, neither nation will be able to attack the other for some time.
- Minimum Relationship required: 9.00
Trade Alliance
There‘s an old saying that credits make the galaxy go around and trade alliances are key to that purpose. Empires in a trade alliance will consider each other‘s planets for optimal trade routes by their respective freighters. A side bonus of the trade alliance is a steady improvement in relations between the two empires. Trade ships are immune to enemy fire when a trade alliance is in place.
- Minimum Relationship required: 2.50
Ship Vision
This is an intelligence treaty that will give each empire sensor information from one another‘s ships.
- Minimum Relationship required: 8.00
Planet Vision
This is another intelligence treaty, but instead of granting the sensor data from ships, it does so for planets. With a planet vision pact, each faction will have complete views of one another’s territory.
- Minimum Relationship required: 9.50