I have been playing Endless Space 2 for a little while now, and I am still trying to get the hang of it. But when ever I play as Unfallen, the Sophons start attacking me for no reason. Any ideas for how to deal with them?

Barf wrote:

The AI on harder difficulties is hyper aggressive due to the fact they have a system loyalty bonus(flat bonus based on difficulty level. Goes as high as +30 on Endless Difficulty if memory serves me correctly) along with a FIDS bonus to all systems(+3 FIDS to planet base yields on Endless Difficulty). This means that they're able to produce things faster and are hyper expansionist because the Overcolonization penalty doesn't harm them as much from the Loyalty bonus. Even if its not the Sophons, the AI will be aggressive towards its neighbors and the only way to counter it is to effectively beat them with your stick. Even though you're Unfallen, its time to give them a taste of your Militaristic side and build some ships. Once you get a fleet, the AI will start respecting you more but often it will take kicking them in the teeth to get them to stop attacking you.

Just to give you an example, I started a game with a custom Gene Hunter and had Hissho spawn in my constellation. They declared war on me on Turn ~40 I want to say and spent the next 60 turns beating them back, invading their systems one by one all while building up a respectable fleet that the other factions feared. So much so that they banded together into an Alliance and it still wasn't enough. Game's still ongoing but the Vaulters are about to fall with Vodyani and Lumeris coming next. Ironically Unfallen were the last faction left and opted to request an Alliance when the other Alliance declared war on them. So being the good guy I am, I accepted and proceeded to help them kick the opposing Alliance's @ss. Game would have been over by now seeing as I have all 4 Endless Research done for a Science Victory but I have all but Conquest and Supremacy disabled. I'll get to the Conquest mark eventually, although I may just opt to grab Supremacy since its much easier. I just have to find Vodyani capital first... they started plopping Arks far from where they started and I dont know why...

Alright, thanks chief. I have already won the campaign after putting a mass force peace on everyone, then putting everything into economy and getting an easy economic victory.

WeedAussie wrote:

Barf wrote:

The AI on harder difficulties is hyper aggressive due to the fact they have a system loyalty bonus(flat bonus based on difficulty level. Goes as high as +30 on Endless Difficulty if memory serves me correctly) along with a FIDS bonus to all systems(+3 FIDS to planet base yields on Endless Difficulty). This means that they're able to produce things faster and are hyper expansionist because the Overcolonization penalty doesn't harm them as much from the Loyalty bonus. Even if its not the Sophons, the AI will be aggressive towards its neighbors and the only way to counter it is to effectively beat them with your stick. Even though you're Unfallen, its time to give them a taste of your Militaristic side and build some ships. Once you get a fleet, the AI will start respecting you more but often it will take kicking them in the teeth to get them to stop attacking you.

Just to give you an example, I started a game with a custom Gene Hunter and had Hissho spawn in my constellation. They declared war on me on Turn ~40 I want to say and spent the next 60 turns beating them back, invading their systems one by one all while building up a respectable fleet that the other factions feared. So much so that they banded together into an Alliance and it still wasn't enough. Game's still ongoing but the Vaulters are about to fall with Vodyani and Lumeris coming next. Ironically Unfallen were the last faction left and opted to request an Alliance when the other Alliance declared war on them. So being the good guy I am, I accepted and proceeded to help them kick the opposing Alliance's @ss. Game would have been over by now seeing as I have all 4 Endless Research done for a Science Victory but I have all but Conquest and Supremacy disabled. I'll get to the Conquest mark eventually, although I may just opt to grab Supremacy since its much easier. I just have to find Vodyani capital first... they started plopping Arks far from where they started and I dont know why...

Alright, thanks chief. I have already won the campaign after putting a mass force peace on everyone, then putting everything into economy and getting an easy economic victory.

Yeah forcing Peace is another way to buy time from them declaring war since the AI is hesitant from declaring war when you're at peace. They tend to go to Cold War before doing so, hence if you keep forcing peace thanks to your Pacifist Government, then you got little to worry about. Now try and play without an Economic victory and see if you can win. Ironically I've never had Economic Victory checked. Should do so at some point :D

BTW, you didn't say whether the Sophons were attacking you during Cold War or if they Declared War on on you, so I'm going to assume #1.

Pretty much any AI will attack you in neutral territory or in their territory during a Cold War. It's a fact of life. You're pretty lucky if they don't actually.

However, after they do this, you should see a little red dot next to your Diplomacy icon.  Click that.  Now you should see a little red dot next to the diplomacy icon for the faction that attacked you. Click that. Now you should see a red dot next to the last icon that looks like a speech bubble.  Click that.

You have now found the "hidden" demands screen :) This is a pretty cool menu, and I didn't know about it until dozens of hours of playing the game (maybe it was added in a patch at some point though, IDK).

From here, you can demand that they stop attacking you in Cold War.  Sometimes they will agree, and they cannot attack you for 10 turns.