Diplomacy in general and also minor resources

from GalCiv3 Forums

I was wondering how other people played in comparison to myself. In other games with diplomacy i'm always using it and paying attention to it. When it comes to diplomacy in GCIII I never try to negotiate anything. I never attempt to create treaties. I never trade for major or minor resources. These things do not seem to matter. The only time I ever used diplomacy is so I can buy a colony ship about to colonize a world I wanted to colonize. The open borders treaty does not seem useful to me, not to imply it is or is not, since ships do not seem to care about borders and the diplomatic negative is not noticeable. Non-Agression seems pointless since the AI just sends ships where ever it wants regardless of cultural borders/planet vicinity/starebase vicinity/etc. Research/trade treaties never seem to matter for me. I'm always behind in research because I out build the AI very easily, tons of ships with decent weaponry beats one or two ships with high weaponry. Since the AI doesn't use much in the way of defensive equipment my ships can outlast the AI's. I do concede I do turn of tech trading, but mostly because its annoying that the AI seems to(I could be wrong) trade them without much strategic 'thought.' Lastly I never trade for major or minor resources. Major ones do not seem to have a large enough impact to matter and minor resources even less. Which was my other thought, does anyone bother paying attention to what minor resources they have(besides tile placement) or what other races have and what you or they might want? I will make a decent effort to mine major resources for early game ships, but that's about it.

So I'm interested in how everyone else plays. I'm not looking to say what is good or bad in the beta, what needs to be improved, etc. I've already posted about that in my own and other people's posts. I'm more interested in how you play using diplomacy. How you use what and what you do not. As well as what you do with your resources, particularly minor ones.

12,751 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I use the open borders treaty against my enemies as they are loathe to break a treaty to start a war but it doesn't stop the Drengin who proverbially don't give a ....

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I use diplomacy a lot. My game play is to have fun, build an empire, and win the game, in that order. I play on Normal most of the time. When the game is released and scores get competitive, I may or may not play on higher difficulty. I did a little with GCII, but not much.

Diplomacy and all the resources are a big part of the game for me. I trade with every AI major and minor. I don't put a lot of value on borders since the AI is not going to observe them anyway, so I frequently trade with open borders and I find the AI values them at 500-1000 BC, depending on who,when, and where. I frequently trade for resources. If a minor builds a resource base near me I will either trade for the base or trade for the output. I often trade for over half the planetary resources in the galaxy. I sometimes take 15-20 minutes to play a turn I win some by conquest and a lot by influence, diplomacy, etc.

It is not difficult for me to win the game on normal, but while I am an average, at best, player, I have been playing the GC game for years and I know my way around the game. From reading this forum, I can see that what I get out of the game, is way different from what many others like. Basically, I want a game that does not crash. After that I take what they give me and play it until my interest wanes. It is very likely that I will play this one as long as they are releasing expansions.

At some point I will lose interest like I did with GCII but that's a long way out at this point.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The minor resource bonuses stack. Those little bitty 5% can quickly turn into 135% in size of ship, hit points, Economy, Range, Ship speed, Morale and Research.....I trade all my stuff just to get them from all the AI, it will about mid game make you the most powerful player on the map. 

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Echillion, reply 1

I use the open borders treaty against my enemies as they are loathe to break a treaty to start a war but it doesn't stop the Drengin who proverbially don't give a ....

 

I never bothered because in the early game the AI may declare war, but does nothing otherwise. Later in the game if they do declare war the AI sends barely guarded transports and no real fleet to speak of. Do you feel you need the treaty? Has AI ships attacking been a difficulty without a treaty?

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 3

The minor resource bonuses stack. Those little bitty 5% can quickly turn into 135% in size of ship, hit points, Economy, Range, Ship speed, Morale and Research.....I trade all my stuff just to get them from all the AI, it will about mid game make you the most powerful player on the map. 

 

I understand that, but do you find that without them you won't win or have a very hard time winning?

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting TheBirthdayParty, reply 5

Quoting Larsenex,
reply 3

The minor resource bonuses stack. Those little bitty 5% can quickly turn into 135% in size of ship, hit points, Economy, Range, Ship speed, Morale and Research.....I trade all my stuff just to get them from all the AI, it will about mid game make you the most powerful player on the map. 



 

I understand that, but do you find that without them you won't win or have a very hard time winning?

 

Depends on the resource. +sensor range, while nice, won't do much for you most of the time*. +capacity, however, can give you a slight boost needed over enemy ships. +food is good, as it means you get more raw production. +morale is also good for keeping people happy. Alone, any one of the boosts won't do much, but they can add up. Get enough +morale resources and you don't need any approval buildings - a free tile for something else. Etc. Not everything needs to be a "if you don't have this, you'll lose".

*In colonization-stage, +sensor range might give you the edge over the AI in spotting where the nice planets are. This isn't obvious in Beta 5 since the AI cheats, but in Beta 6 it's (supposedly) fixed, and will become more apparent.

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Niedzielan, reply 6


Depends on the resource. +sensor range, while nice, won't do much for you most of the time*. +capacity, however, can give you a slight boost needed over enemy ships. +food is good, as it means you get more raw production. +morale is also good for keeping people happy. Alone, any one of the boosts won't do much, but they can add up. Get enough +morale resources and you don't need any approval buildings - a free tile for something else. Etc. Not everything needs to be a "if you don't have this, you'll lose".

*In colonization-stage, +sensor range might give you the edge over the AI in spotting where the nice planets are. This isn't obvious in Beta 5 since the AI cheats, but in Beta 6 it's (supposedly) fixed, and will become more apparent.

 

I realize all this, but I am asking if you feel you need those bonuses or not? Or have you just always played acquiring them? I guess its a bit moot since when 6 comes out it will change things.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Do you "need" most things in most games? I doubt it. Why should you feel you "need" to do things? As long as you don't feel obligated to do so - that would be horrible.

I don't "need" to use diplomacy at all. Or Ideology. Maybe not research, after a while. But I can use them.

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting TheBirthdayParty, reply 4

Quoting Echillion,
reply 1

I use the open borders treaty against my enemies as they are loathe to break a treaty to start a war but it doesn't stop the Drengin who proverbially don't give a ....



 

I never bothered because in the early game the AI may declare war, but does nothing otherwise. Later in the game if they do declare war the AI sends barely guarded transports and no real fleet to speak of. Do you feel you need the treaty? Has AI ships attacking been a difficulty without a treaty?

I was playing Terran against the drengin and they were sending transports guarded by 2 battlecruisers so I had to have groups of 5 frigates/corvettes mixed to hit them and take them out during no part of this game were transports sent out solo either by the drengin or the altarians.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Diplomacy is a bit unbalance in Beta 5 so it will become interesting to see the changes to Beta 6, especially for technology trading or if I have to leave that of again. Unless the AI don't start trading amongst themselves more and start really demanding a high price for technology without you being allies I will leave that option off.

 

The AI really need to understand that trading technology is very dangerous with someone you don't know if you can trust and should not do it or demand a very high price for it.

 

The same is true for ships, the AI should not trade ships and bases unless given a very sweet deal. They should only sell military and colony ships if they are allied with someone or if they want to supply them to someone in war with one of their enemies. I really find it super abusive to buy colonizer ships from the AI, these should be super expensive to get.

 

I usually find it very hard to trade away minor trading resources, but buying them from the AI should be much easier.

 

I also think that one of payments should be very expensive in comparison with per turn payments, almost to the point where one of payment should ONLY be possible for about half the value of ANY trade deal.

 

Overall I like diplomacy, especially if it gets better balanced.

 

 

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Echillion, reply 9


Quoting TheBirthdayParty,
reply 4




Quoting Echillion,

reply 1


I use the open borders treaty against my enemies as they are loathe to break a treaty to start a war but it doesn't stop the Drengin who proverbially don't give a ....



 

I never bothered because in the early game the AI may declare war, but does nothing otherwise. Later in the game if they do declare war the AI sends barely guarded transports and no real fleet to speak of. Do you feel you need the treaty? Has AI ships attacking been a difficulty without a treaty?



I was playing Terran against the drengin and they were sending transports guarded by 2 battlecruisers so I had to have groups of 5 frigates/corvettes mixed to hit them and take them out during no part of this game were transports sent out solo either by the drengin or the altarians.

 

I've experienced the same thing. The threat seems minimal because the AI sends very few of these three fleet ships out. I just sentry ships to intercept. I guess our idea of barely guarded is different.(Not said in a condescending tone :) )

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting JorgenCAB, reply 10

Diplomacy is a bit unbalance in Beta 5 so it will become interesting to see the changes to Beta 6, especially for technology trading or if I have to leave that of again. Unless the AI don't start trading amongst themselves more and start really demanding a high price for technology without you being allies I will leave that option off.

 

The AI really need to understand that trading technology is very dangerous with someone you don't know if you can trust and should not do it or demand a very high price for it.

 

The same is true for ships, the AI should not trade ships and bases unless given a very sweet deal. They should only sell military and colony ships if they are allied with someone or if they want to supply them to someone in war with one of their enemies. I really find it super abusive to buy colonizer ships from the AI, these should be super expensive to get.

 

I usually find it very hard to trade away minor trading resources, but buying them from the AI should be much easier.

 

I also think that one of payments should be very expensive in comparison with per turn payments, almost to the point where one of payment should ONLY be possible for about half the value of ANY trade deal.

 

Overall I like diplomacy, especially if it gets better balanced.

 

 

 

Right, so currently how do you use or not use diplomacy?

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hummm... as I said... I trade resources and some other treaties so the other races don't go to war against me too often.

 

It also depends on what type of race or type of game I play... I role-play quite heavily and that means I DO NOT play very optimally. Min/Max is boring and make the game too easy... ;)