Great thread, any input will be very appreciated ^^.

It is very much intended that the AI initiates contact with you, it is what we will be working on mainly (among other things of course) for Update 3 and up to the release.

Nice to hear about that :) I don't mind too much my lack of interaction in this early phase because it lets me tinker with the tech tree and other systems, but it's required to make the game work in the long run. 

One thing I really liked from FFH (and other games) was how some of your faction inner working influenced the competing AI into liking or dislinking you. You could either pressure them (or be asked) to change some of their politics. By the mid-late game, large alliances would emerge from this kind of aligned politics (and other consideration of course, such as frontier pressure, military actions,  etc) 

In this thread I talk about letting us pick different playstyles along several spectrums (spreading or upgrading, nice planets vs harsh ones, homegenous vs multicultural, soft vs hard gov type). These could work as input for the AI reaction and interactions with us. 

uriak wrote:

I know it's quite soon but I wanted to know  whether you've interacted much with the other factions when playing. So far I confess I didn't, because the diplomatic options are quite late, and the AI itself never initiate contact by itself. 

The only real way I've interacted with the AIs is through warfare. As you said, the diplomatic actions are quite late. I enjoy the slow burn of adding mechanics in as the game progresses, but I think this burn might be a bit too slow. That being said, the hardest part of the diplomacy will be providing the player with good reasons to engage in diplomacy with the AIs in a way other than warfare. As it is right now, and I know this will change, the only reason I need something outside my Empire is luxury and strategic resources, and the Marketplace provides those. I have nothing to talk with the AI about unless it's declaring war. 

dragons111888 wrote:

The only real way I've interacted with the AIs is through warfare. As you said, the diplomatic actions are quite late. I enjoy the slow burn of adding mechanics in as the game progresses, but I think this burn might be a bit too slow. That being said, the hardest part of the diplomacy will be providing the player with good reasons to engage in diplomacy with the AIs in a way other than warfare. As it is right now, and I know this will change, the only reason I need something outside my Empire is luxury and strategic resources, and the Marketplace provides those. I have nothing to talk with the AI about unless it's declaring war. 

Agreed, apart from trade agreements, resources, and systems (Which honestly they rarely give up), diplomacy is not too tempting (right now)...

Maybe they should give more options? Like agreement to jointly declare war to another faction? Agreement to share vision from exploration? Scientific research agreement? (If these options are already in the game, please correct me, as I haven't gotten that far in the game to see those options!)

Personally for me, sharing vision from exploration (Think like trading star-charts or something) is very useful for me, as I am always looking forward for systems to colonize more, cos' you know, expansion!

When I played the modded Civ 4, one thing that did happen (though it was part of my favorite game settings) was how you stumbled with your neighbourgs very quickly, and most often the competition for new city places was a thing almost from the start. That didn't mean war, but at the very least the AI couldn't be ignored, right from the start. 

Then of course, strategic resource trading, open borders, peace and commerce were all options pretty soon on the table. 

And in addition to that there were quite a bit of "random" notifications from the AI, based both on your actions (border pressure, military, etc) and who you were (political/cultural affinity). 

And finally you mentionned expansion. Since the game does reward expansion more than system upgrading imho (once you can colonize a system you'll eventually fill it up, whereas getting a megalopolis in a civ game requires quite the teching for this) you can't really just settle up against another buddy AI, you'll hopelessly fall behind if you're stuck in your little shard of space. THis is true of them too and they'll try settling anywhere. 

in my previous game, I managed to make peace with both of my immediate neighbours very early on.

it was a very chill corner of the galaxy.