What's up with the diplomacy?

[darcy]

Ok, so I'm allied with the Trilarians. They absolutely love me, we have all kinds of treaties and a Full Alliance.

Then I go to war with the Meklars, because, well, just because. Now I want my Trilarians to honour the alliance and help me. Too bad there is no way to do that. There is no "Declare War on 3rd Party" under Demands. I requested "Fulfill Full Obligations", no idea what it means, but the Trilarians happily accepted too, just like everything I ask of them.

But when I look in the matrix, they're still in a NA pact with the Meklars, although I am several turns into a a full war with the robots. Is an alliance really so worthless? Hell, I can't even get the "diplomatic channels" of the empires my ally has contact with.

The same weirdness happens when I'm part of the senate. The only empire that votes against a "praise" bill is the very empire that's about to be praised... sigh. No way to ask for votes from another empire. No way to get as much as a sanction against a non-member race that's waging wars of aggression against me. And all the really interesting bills are completely randomized "initiative of the people" stuff.

I grant you that diplomacy is hard to do right... but this is really disappointing, especially after all the promises how cool the senate and everything were going to be.

[Zanteogo]

In some ways I find diplomacy a major "downgrade" from other games.

(as most stated above)

-No way to "bribe" or threaten other races to vote/declare war/stop spying ect....

-The senate as a whole, though on the surface seems like a new and interesting part of the game.. seems weak and half done once you get into it. Many of the bills its up to the empire itself if they want to follow or not.. and if they don't follow, no one seems to care. Computer will never vote new empires in nor will they suport any of the "end war" bills.

-Once your at war with somone, you can NEVER improve relations. You will be at war with them for the rest of the game with very short periods of peace.

-The messages you get from other empires sometimes just don't make sense and read as if from a sub tittle from a badly translated movie.