United Nations and other victories

[Malthis]

I'm worried...
I've only been through one complete game, which I lost, because of a diplomatic victory that came suddenly by my archenemy. I was slightly discuraged, but thought, "I'd just better make sure I've got enough friends by then". But the more and more I think about it I'm not sure there is any way around this "Diplomatic" victory. If the UN is built with 7 civs let's say, and 3 are for and 4 against, that's a win for somebody, right? All you need is a majority, right? Well....does that mean that unless you or your opposing AI can muster at least a tie EVERY time the UN meets, Diplomatic Victory is assured.
This bothers me ALOT. If the only way to win by other means is either build the UN yourself and click "No" every turn when it asks to meet, or make certain votes end in a tie (which isn't even possible if number of civs is an odd #), then I'm just gonna shelve the damn thing. The Civlopedia says all you need is a majority, so this should be the case, but we all know how reliable the civlopedia has been in this release...so I'm asking for everyone's imput on their victory experiences, especially how they got around this UN thing if they won by other means. I wanna believe this isn't a problem. Show me how I'm wrong!

[Robert]

you can deselect 'diplomatic victory' as a victory condition
when you start a new game.

[Malthis]

Originally posted by CyberShy
you can deselect 'diplomatic victory' as a victory condition
when you start a new game.

Whoa! Why didn't I think of that!
I guess It's just the fact that I don't like limiting my option just because it's an overwhelming one.

[Earthling7]

If the UN was but half of what the Planetary Councel used to be...

Guess the future is bright...

[RichM]

Do the votes go by population or is it one civ one vote?

[RickBlaine]

One civ, one vote. However, abstentions are possible, so I am unsure if victory is a majority of civs or a majority of those voting. I won my only completed game (warlord, large map, 8 civs) by diplomatic victory. There were 7 civs left when I built the UN, and the first voted ended 3-3 with one absention. If there had been two abstentions, would a 3-2 vote have ended the game? (Some years later, after the abstaining civ was eliminated, I won a 4-2 vote when Germany switched its vote after accepting my offer of a mutual protection pact.)

[jbird]

I'm not fond of the current Diplomatic Victory setting, so I turned it off. So, i'm not all that concerned with it.

That being said, i'd much rather have a system more like MOO2, where population was a contributing factor, and *during* the voting, you could contact someone to influence their vote. Also, a 2/3 majority of the population of the universe was needed to win, and I think that's more "realistic" than a simple majority.

With some tweaking to make the Diplomatic Victory more like MOO2 and SMAC, i'd turn it back on. Until then, i'll just uncheck that box.

[Pyrodrew]

I agree! Diplomatic Victory should be 2/3rd or 3/4th vote majority instead. Sure you can turn it off, but as someone else said I would like to have as many options as possible, without one of them being so quick & absolute compared to the others. Hopefully they will improve the UN in the next patch.

[RickBlaine]

I agree that the diplomatic victory seems somewhat arbitrary--and is quite unsatisfying even if you win. I was about half a dozen turns from completing the spaceship when China (my nearest rival) signed a mutual protection pact with France (the only civ not polite to me). As a precaution, I negotiated mutual protection pacts with the three remaining civs, and on the next turn, they all voted for me in the UN vote. It was an unexpected and very abrupt end to the game.

[MDA]

If you finish the UN first you can delay the vote indefinitely - It has the annoying habit of asking if you want to hold a vote every turn, though.

[Sarxis]

I have actually seen an 'abstain' vote. And in this same game, the votes were tied at 3 to 3. No one won the UN victory, and after the UN council was called the first time, it couldn't be called up again.

[nato]

So if that first vote results in no winner, there are no more votes? Then UN and diplomatic victory basically disappear?