I was going to say what lo_fabre said. It'd be neat if a Diplomacy victory necessarily meant everyone "won". Of course I know that victory can seem meaningless if everyone gets it, so I propose that there is something similar to the influence thing but hide it from the player .  Everyone still "wins" in this special victory case in terms of the final result screen, but what  would change is a custom cinematic that would play which shows the empires coming together at a summit.

The player that did the most in making the diplomatic victory happen, spent the most influence points and was in the most alliances for as long as possible, would see their empire's ruler step out from the crowd, bow and light a ceremonial torch or something.

Of course, to keep this victory condition from being TOO attractive and with the game repeatedly coming down to snowballing alliances, perhaps the final phase of the victory involves everyone scrapping 80% of their military and building an exorbitantly expensive improvement on one of your systems. Or something else that would make last minute betrayal an attractive and interesting proposition.   (or even create a dynamic of mistrust between early mega-alliance members and newcomers)

EDIT: Gonna submit this as an idea.

Thanks NovaBlazer!  

Unique Diplomacy Victory Where Every Empire is in Alliance

MidnightTea wrote:

I was going to say what lo_fabre said. It'd be neat if a Diplomacy victory necessarily meant everyone "won". Of course I know that victory can seem meaningless if everyone gets it, so I propose that there is something similar to the influence thing but hide it from the player .  Everyone still "wins" in this special victory case in terms of the final result screen, but what  would change is a custom cinematic that would play which shows the empires coming together at a summit.

The player that did the most in making the diplomatic victory happen, spent the most influence points and was in the most alliances for as long as possible, would see their empire's ruler step out from the crowd, bow and light a ceremonial torch or something.

Of course, to keep this victory condition from being TOO attractive and with the game repeatedly coming down to snowballing alliances, perhaps the final phase of the victory involves everyone scrapping 80% of their military and building an exorbitantly expensive improvement on one of your systems. Or something else that would make last minute betrayal an attractive and interesting proposition.   (or even create a dynamic of mistrust between early mega-alliance members and newcomers)

EDIT: Gonna submit this as an idea.

Just a question, Who will agreed to stay in the alliance knowing that He/She didn't do the most for it and won't ever be recognize like the major winner? I think will be race to see who is the most nicest person in the galaxy and the agregaments, treats, etc... will be done really quick because everyone will want earn points for be the major winner so the win will be so fast once you make contact with other factions. So there is 2 things... or the players wants to be the diplomatic winner then will be a race or someone won't like the idea so the diplomatic victory won't ever be able to be done (Because really, if a faction join late to the alliance being like the last piece to complete the diplomatic win there won't be room for him/her to be the winner so if He/She agreed will be like a surrender)

I think it's fine if this condition I'm proposing is unattractive an option for latecomers.  If a huge portion of the galaxy does snowball into this mega-alliance and you refuse to join, you get the interesting drama of having the entire galaxy united against you. That can sometimes happen with or without this unique condition though. In general, I like the idea that only the founders of the mega-alliance have a solid chance of "winning" in the cinematic unless they really rest on their laurels after having formed it and that most other factions are only joining for the shorter term because comprehensive peace is more attractive to them than cold war. It's just a matter of getting everybody in and initiating the win-condition before they're too tempted to strike out and make a dash for their own individual victories. (or indeed, they leave because they don't "really" want this victory, which is yet more interesting drama)

Maybe the custom cinematic I'm proposing wouldn't just feature whoever did the most diplomatic work, but the second, third (etc.) leaders who did much of the legwork would be honored too in the resulting ceremony.

As I said, it's fine if this is a rare thing. It makes for a beautiful and unique story, though. It could even have an interesting place as part of another suggestion I floated in passing regarding the prevalence of military victories -- what if one faction's dominating the galaxy and this condition begins with the others uniting against them in the 11th hour? That's the topic of many a space opera.  (the Cravers were practically made for this kind of story)