Is there anywhere we can interact diplomatically with minors like we can with major factions via the diplomacy screen?

I was playing as the Sophons and went with the quest to gain 90 approval from a minor faction. I happened to come across a minor faction's ship a few turns later, which immediately put me in contact with them allowing me to dump a ton of influence on them to get them over halfway to my 90 goal. Unfortunately, I was never able to contact them again so I ended up wasting a ton of influence. I think their home world was on the other side of a Craver empire I couldn't cross safely but I'm assuming I would contact them by clicking on their homeworld if I could reach it?

I followed their ship around hoping to be able to click it and contact them again but no luck. It seems to only open the contact window upon "first contact" with a minor faction ship and never again after that. I also tried searching around the diplomacy screen hoping there would be a tab to view minor factions I could communicate with, but again nothing there. I didn't try hitting space bar on that screen so maybe that is hiding it? I'll have to check later.

I would like to see a sub-menu/tab in the diplomacy screen where I could keep track of minor factions and contact them as needed. If we truly must see a minor faction's home world in order to have continued dialogue with them, I would suggest you don't allow the player to actually initiate contact with them via discovering a ship only and wait until you discover their home world.

Anyone else run into this issue?

Yeah, that would be great if the could contacted via the diplomacy menu.

Just to confirm - you never discovered the minor faction's home system, right? They have an icon above it which allows for communication.

That being said, adding minor factions to the diplomacy screen would be a good idea

PANCZASU wrote:

Just to confirm - you never discovered the minor faction's home system, right? They have an icon above it which allows for communication.

That being said, adding minor factions to the diplomacy screen would be a good idea

Yeah, never found the home system because of some aggressive Cravers in the way unforunately. Just wish the game had not let me dump a ton of influence on them during first contact without finding their home system first to ensure continued contact. Really hoping we can see minor factions added to the diplomacy screen at some point.

Why do home systems start with minors on it.It's annoying.

Ashbery76 wrote:

Why do home systems start with minors on it.It's annoying.

Variety.

Their presence seems to be random. So far I've had either Epistis or Haroshem starting with the Sophons.

Ashbery76 wrote:

Why do home systems start with minors on it.It's annoying.

It should not annoy you but be seen as a benefit since they have passive bonuses that could help you boost another planet in your system by swaping pop from your home planet to another one in the same system

It does seem odd to me that we start with an integrated minor race, but as long as some backstory covers how that came about for each major race I'm fine with it. Just wishing there was a place in the UI where we could contact and keep track of the independent minor races we're run into.

I wonder what could happen if the major faction is gone from the starting planet and there's only the minor faction left. Do I lose the game or continue to play as the minor faction?

echo2361 wrote:

It does seem odd to me that we start with an integrated minor race, but as long as some backstory covers how that came about for each major race I'm fine with it. Just wishing there was a place in the UI where we could contact and keep track of the independent minor races we're run into.

Apparently it's random what other race you start with (I haven't personally observed this, but I haven't started too many games). If that is the case, that seems somewhat problematic, since it means there's a potentially unwelcome addition of variance (as those different populations have different bonuses and different political leanings). Variance isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the overall mechanics of the game don't actually support that level of variance right now; you have so little influence over what you do, thanks in large part to the new tech tree.

I also agree.

The minor factions should be under the diplomacy menu.

Anyone know why Vodyani don't start with population of other races? I assume only Vodyani live on the ships, and all their population is on ships, and was fine with it, until I saw the religious law that prevents other races than your starter in your empire from breeding, which seemed weird to me if you can't actually have any on your arks ever.

UnderDarkLord wrote:

Anyone know why Vodyani don't start with population of other races? I assume only Vodyani live on the ships, and all their population is on ships, and was fine with it, until I saw the religious law that prevents other races than your starter in your empire from breeding, which seemed weird to me if you can't actually have any on your arks ever.

Probably because the Vodyani "eat" other races to produce more of their own. At that point, they have basically become Vodyani.

Yeah, makes sense to me that the Vodyani wouldn't start with an interegrated minor faction. Makes sense in the lore so I'm always happy with design decisions that take such thing into account.

echo2361 wrote:

I was playing as the Sophons and went with the quest to gain 90 approval from a minor faction. I happened to come across a minor faction's ship a few turns later, which immediately put me in contact with them allowing me to dump a ton of influence on them to get them over halfway to my 90 goal. Unfortunately, I was never able to contact them again so I ended up wasting a ton of influence. 

Ran into exactly the same issue - no idea which system to find them in or how to check on my relations status with them.