Alliance Quests and Events

TL;DR down below, before the bullet points.

The Problem

I find alliances best left avoided. They drag me into wars, waste my time and resources, and they make my former trade partners call me a traitor when they declare war on my ally The Unfallen because they couldn't keep their stupid vines in their pants.

But there are enough ideas floating around here about vetoing and voting and such and I don't want to parrot too much. The issue I'd like to discuss is that, while I avoid those unholy concordats when possible, the AI factions... love alliances. They love alliances so much that they never seem leave once established, no matter what happens to their empires or what opportunities they might reap from breaking it.

I see this as a stagnant aspect that can be vastly improved upon. Now I want to admit, maybe I'm ignorant. Maybe pure AI alliances can fall apart and I've just been unlucky. But a couple dozen games of perfect AI alliance harmony have convinced me that the scope of the conditions for AI factions to bail on each other, if they exist, could do with some broadening. And while we're at it, a little more for the player to do with alliances wouldn't hurt either.

"...A proposal, then."

While I would like to see the AI better recognize opportunities that it would reap from ending it's alliance with another AI, or a system of conditions that nudge an allied empire towards breakaway or outright betrayal, I'm unsure of how unreasonable it is to ask for a full rework of how AI diplomacy works. So perhaps a more interesting suggestion would be to create a series of events and quests for any faction, player or AI, that randomly fire while a member of an alliance, to encourage alliance stability or instability.

For the player, this could provide typical quests or quest chains that offer empire benefits, typical events with good, bad or mixed outcomes, and untypically, possibilities to weaken relations with allies. This could mean, for example, if certain quest or event conditions are met, the alliance kicks a member out, the player is kicked out, or the alliance shatters completely and leaves the former members as bitter rivals.

For the AI, it would serve the same purpose as to the player, but also to create simulated diplomatic debacles independent of player action.

The purpose of all this would be to change diplomacy so that alliances might last, but they might not. As power shifts around, new challenges and opportunites hopefully present themselves to the rest of the galaxy. A diplomatic landscape and power structure that shifts over time could create a more interesting late game and encourage at least temporary alliances to the more neutral or xenophobic among us.

TL;DR: Alliances can suck. I propose we make the whole diplomatic landscape more interesting with alliance quests and events that can make your alliances and also AI alliances break apart and stuff.

A few categories and example ideas:

•AI Faction Specific Quests/Events: The Lumeris want to build a chain of casinos across your worlds, or the Riftborn want to establish a science cooperative to study the catastrophe in Coroz. Cooperate for benefits, refuse for diplomatic problems.

•Empire-Empire Event Chains: Maybe certain factions could react to allying with another specific faction, positively or negatively. The United Empire and Vaulters have issues over their common heratige, or Horatio and the Riftborn debate on what beauty is. Alliance stability could be bolstered or chipped away.

•Generic Alliance Events: Your political climate might shift towards pacifism because your people aren't as worried about being attacked, or alliance members might throw a united festival across all worlds. Plenty of possibility here.

•Wartime Events: Speaking of being attacked, maybe your allies lost a fleet and ask you for some assistance for the sake of the alliance. Refuse for instability. Nothing shakes the foundation of comradery like a fair-weather friend.

•Academy Catastrophy: You ever find it odd that everyone splits into teams to decide if it's okay to revive C'thulu and Friends or whatever the weird ghost wizard at the Academy is up to, but... it's evidently so inconsequential that alliances comprised of different teams don't mind sticking it out together? The future of the galaxy is supposedly at stake! How about instead, shatter alliances or kick opponents out and give team members an opinion boost for each other for the duration of the quest. Except for the Cravers because they probably just want to eat the Lost either way. (If only one thing from this post is considered for implementation, please let it be this. The quest fix that is, not the Cravers eating the... Actually... Nevermind, please proceed.)

If you like the idea, share your ideas for an alliance quest/event. If you don't like the idea, you're probably right, and I'm very sorry. I had to try.