I have to say i too am curious about the Diplomacy, moreso as im a little perturbed by having heard people say the other factions will generally always declare war on you early on.

I was hoping the Ai would allow for now expansionist or martial type opponents as well, so that we could meet a neighbour who doesnt want to fight they just want to trade or have peace at any costs...so that you get a mix of AI personalities not just one type, one approach to the player etc..

Going back to GalCiv my preferred play style always used to be the influence method, focusing on diplomacy early on so that you could effectively keep the neighbours passive while you could then play the long game and build up strength and influence in relative safety while the other opponents fought amongst themselves..and then when the time was right because i'd had that long period to build up in safety, sweep across them with relative impunity.

Not everyone likes to go full combat approach and Im hoping diplomacy and the enemy AI's in this game will also provide for that style of approach as GalCiv2 did.

These quotes are from the recent GameShark interview:

Let's move on to diplomacy. It seems like the particular beta I’m playing in (beta 4) - and I’m sure that it's improved - that diplomacy is bare bones…

Oh it is. The diplomacy just got in. I write the AI for the game and the diplomacy was the part that I just really started getting into because I had to wait for a bunch of stuff. In the latest version you can gang up on players, trade items, trade champions back and forth, there's a lot more arranged marriages than what's in the version you're playing, etc. One of the things that's a lot more fun now is that they'll talk to you and say "let's gang up on so-and-so" or they'll gang up on you, or they'll message you and say we have to look out for "such-and-such" - and all of that is such a big part of the game experience.

 

and

 

When you're dealing with an AI controlled Sovereign, what situation, personality trait, or other factors can make them react negatively or even "crazy" towards the player?

There are a lot of factors. One, it looks at what race you are: if you're Man and they are a Trog, that's going to affect how they react to you. Then there’s the relative military strength of both sides, your current relations, what trade routes you share, what treaties you are engaged in with each other, character traits, and if you have any arranged marriages together, do you have any children or grandchildren together.. So those kinds of things all get put into a pot that the AI then stirs up to determine how it should react to you.

This should put you at ease.

I don't expect this to be in by release (or with including the 0-day patch) but please expand the diplomacy to something more than: (a + b + c) / (d - e) = relation ship.

Give us a more personalized, sand-boxy system that allows us to do more complicated things with opponents. Allow us to deceive the AI (as well as be deceived by the AI). Let us coordinate invasions by selecting targets and the like with allies.

Is there espionage? If not let's get that AI worked out..