If you are in need of a quick diplomatic boost, you can always just give them resources that you don't need more of. I have no idea if it matters how many to them though :/

Just throwing my two cents in... I find it ridiculous that your relations can be negatively effected, essentially from first contact, due to your excess or lack of military. To me, this is strategic information that you and the AI should strive for, and not to be an initial determining factor in whether a race likes you or not. Upon first contact it doesn't make sense that the other player gets a generalized idea about how strong your military is. This also plays in to the fleet CP's and total ship amounts as to the rankings. That should be sensitive information unless you have the abilities to gather such information. Maybe this is nit picky but I think removing the military power from the diplomatic process early on would help in improving the ability to gain favor instead of lose respect.



In my last full game I played as sophons. I started next to cravers and by turn 75 we were at war. The next civ over was the Hissoh who eventually went to war with me due to all of craver space becoming mine. On the far side of the galaxy was the UE. Because of the two wars I was in with Cravers and Hissoh, upon first contact, I had a +20 or so relationship with them. This then turned in to cooperation across the board until I knocked the Hissoh out finally. My point is, this is the only time in the dozen or so games I've done so far that I've seen positive relations with another faction that wasn't derived from my Military power or my expansion or close boarders. It required I be two civs away from them plus two wars to get a +20 relationship bonus that I could then build on. I've not had this opportunity with any other race in any other games I've played so far. It is far to easy to fall behind the diplomacy curve right now as there are too many negative aspects to meeting a new civ, and not enough to garner favor.

i completely agree with this. i don't think that you should be able to trade etc with anyone from the get-go. but the penalties are definitely too harsh and it is way too difficult to improve relations. i finished five games or so and diplomacy played in all of them a very marginal factor.

well that seems really difficult. Im not even near 2 of the 5 AI players and im already -30 and theres nothing for me to do to make them happy they just keep getting more and more suspicious of me