Yes, I do agree that embassies need bigger roles. Providing a tiny relation boost isn't enough. Using all diplomatic options on the player or AI should require an embassy.  

Great post.  

I really like these ideas, and I would like them to be explored, and perhaps even expanded upon.  For instance another option to lessen the influence of the people on the economy funding an unpopular war could be through the use of media hubs/propaganda.  What if you could spread propaganda upon your own populace about a specific opposing faction, either positive or negative?  This could be included in the specific research you were suggesting.

Of course this could backfire as when you decide to accept a ceasefire with a faction you have been spreading negative propaganda about. this could also negatively affect income until you change the message in your "propaganda machine".

This would obviously require a more constant monitoring of your planets, your own communication with your populace and the opinion of the people regarding other factions.

I guess what it comes down to is that I think that propaganda should play a larger role in the diplomacy expansion and could be used as a "weapon" against the effects of embassies belonging to other players.

they... also alow some really cool pacts (that dont work atm iirc)

erm... new options appear (err... become not greyed out) on the diplomacy screen.... (assuming you also have required techs)

I think an embassy could be something like an star base, with levels to upgrade. The diplomatic ship would be consumed as well.

There should be also a requirement to build an embassy, like at least being at a truce. Once the embassy has been established, then it can be upgraded to perform certain acts such as the espionage and allegiance stuff. 

I think this is the best solution present. Since the previous add-on gave us these massive starbases to defend our sub-systems, having an embassy over a homeworld that you can customize and upgrade in various ways would be ideal and warrant the $9.99 purchase. Right now, the +1 bonus to relations is *extremely* weak.

Basically we came to the same conclusion and in the original design (the ones you guys have), the Envoy cruiser dead-ends itself pretty quickly. So we decided to axe the embassy as it is now as a "fire and forget" mechanic and instead have integrated that into the Envoy cruiser itself as a buff. In the next beta, you'll see/use the Envoy more as an active tool towards accomplishing your diplomatic/strategic goals. You'll be able to put it in opponent's gravity wells and use one of its abilities to slowly increase your relations over time with that faction (for as long as you maintain it), or research a new ability for the Envoy to accomplish some other task (each race's envoys will have different abilities in addition to the basics).

Yarlen: Hou about having interactions between the envoy cruisers? Since both have diplomats, the +1 buff could affect the empires of other envoy cruisers in the same gravity well(maybe to a lesser extent).

I also think abilities like armistice would fit in, at least as a race-specific, as an envoy cruiser skill. 

An ability specific to disable other Envoy Cruiser's abilities (Halt Negotiations) would also fit.

I think the Envoy cruisers should be able to engage in a 'warfare' of sorts against each other, only it's not with actual weapons. 

Unfortunately the game doesn't currently support modifying the abilities of ships/structures with researched buffs/debuffs. I'm not convinced that this would be advantageous even if it were possible.