Ok i did not see any existing threads specifically directed towards alliances and i thought i would make one with my own proposed changes as well as some additional benefits for being in an alliance.



First of i believe an alliance should be a pretty big thing. It is the official coming together of not only two empires but on the most part two entirely different species, and that's no small thing in the grand scheme of things.



Currently Alliances are working like this. ( if i miss something out or have missinterpreted the mechanics of something please please let me know and try not to be to harsh about it :-P)



Currantly.



*Alliance memebers have full LOS with all member races can see what all the other members see as well as now have all systems mapped that the other empires do.

*Alliance members are bound to the same diplomatic stances as the rest of the alliance members. i.e if one member of the alliance is at war with empire X and cold war with empire Y then every other member of the alliance is the same.

*Any Alliance member can make decisions for the entire alliance whether the rest like it or not and usually dont know about it with no information on what has transpired untill next turn and the rest of the alliance are dragged along with it

*Trade routes automatically opened up between alliance member worlds

*Alliance members can be invited to another alliance and when joined with another alliance will be sharing those diplomatic postures but there is no notification of who joins or leaves an alliance

*alliance memebrs leaving so soon after joining receive no diplomatic penalty or any negative effects so it can be briefly used as a spy tool to see everything going on in the enemy's empire before making an attack shortly after.



as you can probably see through just looking at those there are quite a few problems in there mainly the lack of information with what is going on with the alliance and not much in the way of benefits apart from a military point of view and only as long as the other members of your alliance dont get asked to another alliance and you not finding out about this until next time you check the diplo screen.

i did also notice alot of invites to alliances from various empires even when i was supposedly already in one with them, this i think should be addressed and alliances should be made so that there is more

control over what is happening in the alliance to the point where if someone wants to go to war there is a notification and a vote, if there is a draw int he vote it goes to whatever vote the alliances executor/chairman/founder voted, it would also be good to be able to give an alliance a name so rather than a spam of empires going to war against a faction you will get a notification that X alliance has gone to war against you that includes whoever is in the alliance listed.



i would also like to suggest some extra perks to being within an alliance for extended periods of time like some of the following.



*increased dust/science % income from trade routes within the alliance up to a certain cap that can be determined later.

* reduction or even complete removal of negative relationship modifiers from boarder tensions from strings or wormholes from growing friendship

*increase in Food and dust production from co-operation between the empires improving life for there citizens

*specific system or planetary improvements that can only be built while in an alliance for certain periods of time.

*increased ship HP repair per turn while in alliance territory ( can also be some alliance specific system improvement)

*additional increased invasion defense from being in alliance as well as having alliance fleets in system

*possible increased movement speed while in alliance boarders

*removal of score related relationship penalty's towards you



all in all being in an alliance should be rewarding and you should be rewarded for being in the alliance for extended periods of time and encouraged to help each other out as well as being kept in the loop to what is going on.



anyways this is what i have time to type down right now soooo, i shall leave it to folks for comments queries and flaming and feedback.



i will probably put down some more things later tonight.

Oy, good work here mate! Arrr!



Yes, your proposal is very good because everyone (like myself too) is asking for improved diplomacy making (unlike myself) poor or no suggestions how to improve.

Alliances are a pretty cool thing if they are handled propperly. I like to be the big Patron of an alliance, allways having the veto if i don't like the suggestions of my allied or know how to bribe my allied in a peace-treaty they actually don't want!

There should defenetly be a option, to vote on a decision, proposed to a member of the alliance or at least be no need to join into a war, if one allied doesn't insist to.



For example: Hisso want to make peace with my allied Sophons. The Alliance consists of: Sophons, UE (me) and Amoebea. After the proposal is accepted by the Sophons, the other two parties get a message the same. Now there could be two variants:

1. Choose for yourself only, thus giving the Sophons and Hisso the oportunity for peace without following to peace with the Hisso (but still be part of the Alliance!) or

2. Choose for the Alliance as you think is best. If the Amoebea choose like you to stay at war, the whole peace-treaty is denied and the Hisso stay at war with the Alliance.



This is the most important improvement for me right now, because its is complicated to to stay in an alliance, which accepts peace with your enemys, you just try to invade!





Your other improvements sound fun, too.



Another interesting improvement could be "Sanctions", thus if a factions commits an action you dislike (like declaring war to your peacfull neighbors) you start sanctions against them, limiting the trade (yes, for yourself too!) but building up presure on the faction. The faction under sanction will have to decide wether it wants to stop the commited action, or just leave the trade-treaty. Thus you would not have to leave a trade-treaty just to punish the other faction. Perhaps you could also blockade some trade-routes or systems (like in cold war) without braking the peace-treaty.

thank you very much for your feedback veers and im glad my post didn't turn out to be a ramble or giberish late on in that post, i tend to do that sometimes lol



as for your option to opt out of a war, if an alliance member declares war on another entity then i would say yes you could opt out and remain in the alliance however if an alliance member gets declared on i think that being in the alliance the rest should be required to help since they are an alliance member and they were not the aggressor, and thus the alliance should be required to help out if agressed, otherwise, then whats the point lol , but that's just me otherwise i like this option.



i did however like the suggestion for sanctions against other empires/alliances like trade embargo's and something smiler to civ V's denouncement system.

Yeah, well the point about deciding wether to join war or not is a more gamer-based problem, not so much a real-political one.



When my faction WANTS a war against someone, I sometimes don't need to ask my allied, because I can do it myself (and perhaps could provoke a member of the alliance to leave, because they don't want the war!).

But you are right. In an real-political Alliance, usually every member helps in case of war. Perhaps here would be the next interessting improvement:



Like seen in the "arabian spring", when Amplitude is adding more options for espionage and manipulation by heros, there could be somethink like a rebellion triggered by the heros. Your alliance (or just some members of it) could decide to side with the rebels and thus start war with the enemy faction without needing the whole Alliance to back it up.



Indirect actions and political decisons like this would really thrill me, since about every 4X Game is focused on war (which I like too, but could use alternatives), but few on politics, diplomacy and other ways to win. Right now, the diplomacy system of ES is as small as in other games, even a bit smaller (if you compare to big games like Shogun or Empire - Total War) and could be imroved a lot more. The diplomacy expansion of Sins of a Solar Empire really brought some new fun to the game, since I was so good in politics that I was friends with everyone and could terminate any enemy by hiring pirate-raids to weaken the systems and than invade without much effort or big fleets. No need for much direct action, just some backroom decisions and a small fleet and the Galaxy was mine! That's how I would like my ES.



But this would trigger another improvement I hope will come: A improved Pirate Faction, not to play but to use, hire and hate.

really no more feedback on this, i am supprised, at the very least throw me a flame post or something ...

Tiggy wrote:
really no more feedback on this, i am supprised, at the very least throw me a flame post or something ...

I'll get the pitchforks!



But really I like this idea, but only as far to prevent an alliance being overall better then simply getting a bigger empire.



Moderated benefits and bonuses good, ones that can overpower a single empire of the same size is bad.

Tiggy wrote:
really no more feedback on this, i am supprised, at the very least throw me a flame post or something ...

Huh, have you missed this?

http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/content.php?173-Q-A-Maxence-and-R%E9mi-on-the-Alliance-System