So in my last game, I was playing as Sophons and I was in a war against the Cravers at one point. They were also fighting with our mutual neighbors, Horatio who had refused to accept my offers of peace. Since I was in a Cold War with Horatio, I thought If I could nab systems before they did, they couldn't touch me. Lo and behold I was found WRONG when they took the system I had spend 14 turns invading in one turn after I had conquered it. They weren't even at war with me and are not supposed to be able to fight me in my territory, I thought that was the definition of cold war. Even worse, I could not take it back. The AI shouldn't be able to do stuff that I can't. Since I was in a simultaneous defensive war with UE and had a massive pirate problem in my backwater I couldn't go to war with them. I was so pissed that I would have liked nothing better than to burn their systems to the ground.



Phew.



Anyway, this is an issue. Cold War and War must be more well defined. The AI should not be able to attack a system that I have conquered without declaring war first, period. What do ya'll think?

Cold war differs from peace in that you can take enemy outposts, fight enemy ships, and cannot make trade agreements during cold war.



Cold war differs from war in that you can't intentionally enter enemy territory during cold war.

In a cold war, empires can freely attack and conquer outposts, but not colonies. Outposts have a 30 turn timer after initial colonization until they become colonies, at which point they become a part of the empire's territory. Also, colonies/outposts that are switching owners (after being invaded the population has to assimilate to the new empire) are also free to be invaded by those you have a cold war with.



This info is in the game manual (steam), FAQs, and the dev archives, which is a sub-forum of the design discussion forum.

Ghost73 wrote:
In a cold war, empires can freely attack and conquer outposts, but not colonies. Outposts have a 30 turn timer after initial colonization until they become colonies, at which point they become a part of the empire's territory. Also, colonies/outposts that are switching owners (after being invaded the population has to assimilate to the new empire) are also free to be invaded by those you have a cold war with.



This info is in the game manual (steam), FAQs, and the dev archives, which is a sub-forum of the design discussion forum.

I had the same problem as the thread starter in my first games. Its not so clear in my opinion. And I think

no one reads the whole FAQ before playing.

But maybe they should try the FAQ before posting a question in the Forums.. or the search function.

Brief search in the Endless Space FAQ thread will bring this result:

Question: What are the diplomatic stances at the beginning of a game?

Answer: All players (human and AI) start in a state of "Cold War". In this diplomatic state you can fight in neutral systems but if you want to attack a fleet at a player's owned star system or invade a planet you will have to declare war. The Craver race has the "eternal war" trait and cannot engage in diplomatic relations with other races.

People are just too lazy.

Virus wrote:
I had the same problem as the thread starter in my first games. Its not so clear in my opinion. And I think

no one reads the whole FAQ before playing.

You don't have to read the whole FAQ, you can simply use the Search feature to find what you need.

Slightly off topic, but it seems to me that the idea here is to give the feeling of each empire being somewhat more of a loose coalition of systems and planets than that each colony is solidly locked into the empire from the moment of colonization. I like this idea but it is very different from most 4x games where other factions come off as more neutral from the start. It seems Endless Space is just a little more cutthroat in that regard!

StK wrote:
But maybe they should try the FAQ before posting a question in the Forums.. or the search function.

Brief search in the Endless Space FAQ thread will bring this result:

Question: What are the diplomatic stances at the beginning of a game?

Answer: All players (human and AI) start in a state of "Cold War". In this diplomatic state you can fight in neutral systems but if you want to attack a fleet at a player's owned star system or invade a planet you will have to declare war. The Craver race has the "eternal war" trait and cannot engage in diplomatic relations with other races.

People are just too lazy.

Thanks for the clarification, but the accusations of laziness are not neccessary. I've been pampered by in-game tutorials and such...so I had totally forgotten that manuals exist.



Anyhoo, this wasn't PRECISELY my point. They took it, fine whatever. My anger came from the fact that I could NOT take the system back after they had conquered it. I could not move my ship to that system. I clicked and clicked, but the fleet would not move. It's a bug, methinks.

the FAQ isn't 100% efficient because some of the information it provides is misleading, due to bugs/glitches.



I had the Hisshu and UE flying through my territory (colonies, not outposts) like it was butter, blockading my valuable resources and picking fights with my defensive fleets, despite them being at Cold War with me. They shouldn't be able to do that, but they can because of some buggy AI. Taking this into account, I believe threads like this are valid.

Anyhoo, this wasn't PRECISELY my point. They took it, fine whatever. My anger came from the fact that I could NOT take the system back after they had conquered it. I could not move my ship to that system. I clicked and clicked, but the fleet would not move. It's a bug, methinks.[/QUOTE]



Maybe it was because 1. Your fleet was out of moves? and 2. You had to press shift and move (Common bug that is not really game breaking but quite frustrating lol)

Or the enemy territory expanded so the outpost fell in their national territory range umbrella, spread by a nearby planet. Can't enter the territory, even if the outpost isn't officially part of the empire yet.