Culture should impact diplomacy.

As to allying with a planet?  Maybe culture could work there as well.  Neutral worlds would have a alligience meter somewhere and the first person to reach 100% gets the planet.

The only problem is the militia themselves.  Giving these ships to the player with the planet would be a huge problem, so maybe have these ships exit the grav well and attack a random planet once they have become homeless?  (Any planet but their own)  They will be enemies to any ship not from their faction, even attacking other militia.

-Twilight Storm

We aren't saying get rid of that, just make Diplomacy more...real.  We can strike alliances and deals with other empires, why not neutral worlds too?

My idea would also give another aspect to the game.  The guardian fleet of the planet is pissed cuz we brainwashed their people so they go on a killing spree against the other factions to avenge them.

-Twilight Storm

well, i was kinda thinking that if you ally with a neutral world, well its not yours. so you dont get the ships. but you could trade with them and other things. I was also thinking that if you give money to the planet, they would produce more ships, making it harder to take and making the planet act like static defense. and seeing as it is neutral, you have to weigh the risk of a hostile take over (possibly breaking your empire in two) with the cost of your own invasion and subsequent planet building

But that is another idea.... to be able to win a neutral planet purely through culture and diplomacy. To work right, it would have to take both, not one or the other. I'm not sure what to do about the militia either. maybe it just always stays there and is neutral. or... missions! Hey, i have this little expendable army that i dont entirely control, but have strong influence over.

so to put it together:

• you can have limited diplomatic relations with neutal worlds (at least non-aggression, at most everything but pacts)
• culture makes diplomacy easier
• with enough diplomatic relations under cultural influence over a prolonged period of time, you can acquire a neutral world peacefully
• after aquiring a planet peacefully, any militia left will guard the planet or perform strike missions (at a cost)

how it changes things:

• gives a reason to go with a civil start other than to feed another player
• being able  to bypass a world without a fight to get to another (preferably a point of strategic interest) could add some interesting strategies while being self-countering
• with diplomatic victory turned on, maybe dealing with neutral planets helps you win
• gives another reason to setup culture networks, and possibly a cause a dramatic shift when you start winning planets peacefully
• gives you diplomacy mechanics in 1v1 games, and makes more mechanics relevent more often.

alright, now im thinking about making this idea into a mod (only the 40 zillionth project im working on. sleep being the 40 zillionth-and-one).

I have some balancing ideas too. @ game start you should be able to quickly ally with a neutral world (so you could bypass it freely), but should take time to acquire (which, researching and setting up culture centers and envoys might be enough, im not sure) as that is trade off for being able to do that. on the other hand, once you start acquiring planets this way, i kinda think you should have some sort of diplomatic momentum (Im imagining a burst of culture from the planet you just acquired peacefully, not unlike being hit by the deliverance engine)

It would be kind of cool to see a whole swath of worlds come under your control through diplomatic acquisition, but I also see that as unbalanced. I also think that for a civil setup, this is not costing enough money to be fair (you setup the culture centers, do some research, build 1-2 envoys and just keep moving them from world to world), but it also might be to slow to be effective. So how precisely to balance it will be the tricky part