Contact Queries

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Hercules
That 'informal truce' status change has just happened to me. The other player arrived by sea and moved away. Does that mean we can now communicate.

yes-- whether or not you can see the unit, your people met his people and communications are now open

[gwillybj]

Originally posted by MariOne (italics added)
You could "remotely" trigger Vendetta by hostile base-founding or by hostile terraforming. But I figure those two actions require awareness of the enemy borders, and I presume you can't have such awareness without prior contact, so that could be a comma-22 clause.

In all my games, all solo, faction borders were visible as soon as I encountered them, regardless of whether I'd seen any of their bases or units. I often purposely avoid crossing them, specifically to avoid initiating contact, usually in one of these forms (from Script.txt):

##GOAWAY0
#xs 440
#caption $CAPTION7
"Your forces have been spotted suspiciously close to BASENAME0. Do not further test my patience."

#GOAWAY1
#xs 440
#caption $CAPTION7
"Your troop buildup near BASENAME0 has not gone unnoticed. Withdraw your forces immediately or I shall annihilate them."

#GOAWAY2
#xs 440
#caption $CAPTION7
"Your incursions into FACTIONADJ1 territory have not gone unnoticed. I suggest you withdraw your forces at once."

I've seen all of these at one time or another in several games without first seeing any of their units or bases — and not by entering any base's production area (which is also visible as soon as encountered) — but simply by stepping across the territory boundary line.
While it is more likely to be (but not always) a faction with aggression set to "1" in the faction.txt, even they don't always complain, and often first diplomatic contact indeed occurs only upon moving adjacent to a base or unit.

[MariOne]

Hmmm.... that's an interesting contribution from direct experience, thanks.
OTOH I also am rather positive that, even when I *know* I have a neighbour (I see *my own* border dashed line *closer* to me than it should be), I do NOT see the *other* dashed line (i.e. my *neighbour's* border running alongside mine, in *his* color) until I also make contact.
IIRC just seeing him in the distance is not enough to make his border appear. For sure, founding a base well inside his territory is not a hostile action if I don't explicitly see his colored borders first. And that I keep well in mind in first encounters: avoid contact if this could give me time to plop a base before "realising" someone had already "claimed" that territory... (not easy to achieve, you often stumble in someone before you can avoid him).

I have to say that I sure have less accumulated experience than you against AIs and their behavior, having mainly played pbems.

I might thus be wrong, but this is for sure worth investigating in a more methodic way (for those who are really interested in the issue), putting particular attention on the commlink possession and on the appearance of the opponent's (not just yours) border.