Update the alliance and diplomacy of it, with AI personalities, thus making alliances and chosing an AI faction meaningful.


In summary:

  1. Alliances to work towards a joint goal which can change situationally (can link to quests)
  2. Votes for or against war/peace declarations (can be time or result limited)
  3. War goal options can be preset by the devs; suggest - expansion (if blocked by other factions), securing resources to share, securing safe intergalatic trade routes
  4. Penalties applied to alliance members that fail to help call to action requests
  5. Call to action requests to be limited per member and notification flags the player of request (mechanic in game needs fixing and updating as currently you need to search manually)
  6. Option in game set-up to switch off alliances


Why this suggestion:

My opinion on alliances to date is that they are only useful if you want a pacifist route to win the game, making sure you set the game victory conditions first (no conquest etc), as the AI alliance members constantly declare peace, otherwise they give no real benefit, that actually happens in game, you can't achieve on your own.


If you're in an alliance then it has to mean something diplomatically, like having a joint goal and a reason for declaring war/peace.


In a war setting the request for aid in defence or attack would be paramount to achieving a joint goal, be it expansion, securing resources to share, or securing safe galatic trade routes, and if missed there should be some negative impact on the alliance member/s. This then would tie the diplomacy with AI personality and agendas, making diplomacy meaningful in the game. 


Additionally an option to switch alliances off in the game settings should be available.


This also requires that the mechanic for viewing, requesting and being notified (missing/broken) for assistance is fixed as part of a diplomacy overhaul. Currently you are required to switch on the view and search manually for any such requests, thus easily missed and no real penality if ignored.


Finally for an alliance to make sense it would need a voting system for the action, where in a tie the casting vote is given to the member with the greatest score, tech, or CP depending on the action being voted on. Currently in an alliance any member can start a war or declare peace without the other members knowledge or consideration. In a solo player game the AI alliance members always declares peace causing a great deal of wasted time and expense.


I understand that this is not one single idea that the dev team can review in isolation, however the diplomacy and alliances in this game are tied, as they should be, and require both parts to be looked at rather than independent tweaks.