Sorry if this has been covered before. I'm slowly digging my way through the forums for those little gems of information but I haven't seen any info on this yet.



Is there a way to capture occupied systems other than military invasion? I know there's a barter option to buy/sell systems, but the AI has always held fast to, "over my dead body."



I really like the amoeba and sower races. I'd love to be able to play the economic/industrial power house that conquers without physical threat. I'd even be happy with some sort of influence take over. Like if my radius of influence touches/engulfs a system not under my control, maybe the system suffers unrest and eventually decideds it would rather be part of my faction...



If there's already a mechanic for peaceful takeovers I'd really like to hear about it. Or maybe there's some trick to bartering for systems that I haven't caught onto yet?



Anyway, I'm turbo enjoying the game so far. Keep up the good work!

Presently the only way to capture a system is by invading. I highly doubt that diplomacy, no matter how friendly (or how powerful) you are, will result in the AI giving up any systems. Other games, such as Civ IV/V, do allow cities to flip due to cultural control. But ES does not do that today. You can keep a system or outpost completely inside an enemy region of influence, forever.

Thanks for the quick response, Captain.



Not quite the answer I was hoping for, but there it is

Would you be able to give me a bit of information on system bartering? Do I have to be in a cooperation agreement with another race in order for them to even be willing to sell me a planet? Do I have to be fully allied with them?



In my experience with trying to play non-violently, I tried to increase my reputation with other races through barter. I didn't have a whole lot of luck. How feasible is that? Specifically, the AI doesn't seem to value Dust very much. Even trying to buy a cooperation agreement with a lump sum of 10,000 dust didn't sway them in the slightest (slider didn't budge).



Any suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated.

My current 8-player game is the most diplomacy I've been able to do yet. I'm allied with Sophons and Amoeba, yet at war with 3 other empires. I feel the smaller games aren't good for diplomacy, mostly for attitude penalties from being close together and stuff... I haven't tried system trading yet, so if you have any success you can enlighten us all. As for other exchanges, strategic resources work wonders. Peace treaties are "free", accepted as is, when the empire attitude towards you is "friendly". It's the same for cooperation agreement and "close", and I think also for open borders / alliance and "warm". Something like that.



There's no guide on diplomacy yet as far as I know. It's bound to change before release too.

Sleep with the governor..if its Horatio..well you are a lucky dog..if its a Carver..bring a medkit..seriously though you might be better off just lurking above it with one of those heroes that can steal money/research.