Nope, but this is a known issue, hopefully it will be fixed in a future patch.

Until then, locked teams is the only way to get the AI to be on teams with each other.

That's a shame indeed. I find it odd because some of the a.i actually have very good relations with each other but if their fleets meet they attack each other.

I found diplomacy to be a little bit to easy as well, i mean almost all of my allies were due to the a.i offering me them. I know this is probably because i have spent so much time on one map but i have made a very huge map with many,many planets so the a.i not ever allying with each other is a bit of a shame... but hopefully one day they will patch it. 

Although i have read there is another addon coming out perhaps they will fix this issue in that version. 

Cheers. 

By the sounds of it i am guessing there are many bugs i am yet to discover? Do the devs have a good record with patches or are they the sort to abandon their games? 

Like i said before i'm new to this game and so far i am enjoying it. 

This game doesn't have a track record of bugs. I've been playing now for around a year or so and worked with the Beta of 1.2 before it came out. There are a few minor issues like every game but these guys have been very good with listening to the community and fixing issues (including some balance stuff).

The fact that this game is a couple of years old and still receives patches is proof of that. 

The pirates are good in any non-1v1 game now.  The raids are quite manageable.  To get the most out of them though you need a balance of 3 sides.  That adds layers of uncertainty and tension just not present in a 2-sided skirmish.

Yes, though if there are multiple pirate bases you have to take them all out, otherwise they will just spawn at a different base. That said pirates can't travel between stars, so if you eliminate the pirate base in your solar system and you get a pirate raid they won't be able to reach you. The pirate raid still forms though, they just stay and guard their base, so if you see a pirate base with hundreds of pirate ships this is why.

Also while you only need to make the pirates lose control of the base (even with novaliths) to prevent them from spawning, they are worth colonizing as all pirate bases have a bonus that give an extra 3.5 tax income. Its also an achievement.

Glad that you like it, though you are only just getting started. Once you've gotten bored with vanilla, there are still mods and perhaps multiplayer for you to explore.

This is why I continuosly request AI improvements. Now AI players can not manipulate their relations because they have no tool to do so since they can offer missions only to human players. The other diplomatic factors are only indicators of actions a player takes in game (military actions, military strength etc.). They usually attack a player having lowest relation towards them. This leads to worst relations which makes the latter one a more potential target.

This system is unefficient to raise friendships between AI players.

Ask DirtySanchezz, or go on when there are more people on. Of course, I don't play multiplayer, but from what Sanchezz has been saying it gets pretty bad.

Well, I just go by what I see/read.

From what I understood the problems with the AI relations and the diplomatic victory were supposed to be addresed in a patch to be released before Rebellion.

What both systems need are a few fixes and then an extensive beta test to tweak them out.  I've written about the problems before and I'd be quite happy to beta the patched versions until they were done.

Finally Sins seems to be moving in the right direction, with the most glaring issues getting some attention.  I had given up on multiplayer because even after the balance patch that dealt with the Skirantra, too much lag had been introduced and the game was unplayable.  However, I've had a couple of games recently and I'm happy to say that they were lag-free, so I can play multiplayer again.  Singleplayer isn't viable without locking teams, as the OP has observed.

Unfortunately we might have to wait for Rebellion for a proper online multiplayer game.  When I began playing online it was before the 5s PUG plague and most games were 2s and 3s, which are a great way to play. The very best Sins games I've had have been best-of-three 2s and 3s between balanced teams who know each other.  I doubt that there has ever been a best-of-three 5s. 

The matchmaking aspect of Rebellion could be another huge step forward for Sins.  I hope that it can be set up right from the beginning, with one set and balanced map for each of 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s, enough of the random map nonsense that also plagues multiplayer.  Telescopes not 'scouts'!  Premade teams not PUGs!