(Newbie) Why the galaxy is so hostile to me?

[chomwitt]

In my first turn i see the messages from my other 6 AI coplayers and i dont understand :
1: how do they know me , who i am and where i am ?
2: Why 5 of them are Maniacal and want to send my to the other world! (one offers me an alternativy to become
slave!!) ?

[Oberlus]

When you start a game, you can set overall aggressiveness of AI players. I think default is Maniacal, the maximum. Change it to your convenience.

The messages of each AI at start depend on that aggressiveness setting, but they are irrelevant, just scripted text.
AI don't know you, or where your planets are until it finds them with a scout.

Note that aggressiveness is not exactly difficulty. Except for "beginner" level, all AI aggressiveness levels play similarly good, they just change their tendency to attack/invade.

[chomwitt]

Thans for the explanations.
But i think since at the start of the game others dont know you its doesnt make sense to send you messages.

[Geoff the Medio]

But i think since at the start of the game others dont know you its doesnt make sense to send you messages.

There's no really a "have we made contact yet" mechanism in the game. All players can chat with all others at any time, even if you've never detected any of eachother's planets or ships or seen eachothers supply networks, and you can also engage in (the limited form of) diplomacy from the start as well. You can assume that every empire has discovered FTL communications and can talk to anybody in the galaxy using it, from the first turn, and that nobody is worried about (or able to avoid) being detectable on that system.

More practically, this is due to AI players not being treated differently from human players. And generally if one is in a multiplayer game, one knows how many players there are in the game and what their names are and such, so that info is also made available in-game and about AI players. And then somebody decided that it'd be fun to have the AIs send a message to the human player at the start, or in response to diplomatic messages. I'm not a huge fan of the AI chat messages, but don't care enough to object or try to change it.

[chomwitt]

Thanks for the analytical response.
I understand .
I have thougth of similar issues when i was playing freeciv longturn.
People can form plans and hidden alliances even before the games begins!.
I was thinking.. Is there a way to enforce a policy so that you dont know .
Is there a way to enclose hidden diplomacy in in-game mechanics and vanish
the out-game diplomacy. In what point that two communications channels ruin
tha game and turn it into a cyber-social event and less into a game.

How do you reconcile an existing web of relations with an imaginary game world where there is fog in the map (when a friend in anothed edge of the galaxy would communicate to you secretaly his whereabouts )? Wouldnt be more coherent to play as teams in a full blown map?
And wouldnt need caution to protect a single player experience from game decisions that reflect multiplayer gameplay mechanics - issues?

So maybe the FTL communication multiplayer assumption-mechanics is less a mechanic and more of a covered difficulty to create a game world separate from the players real world.

[LienRag]

I was thinking.. Is there a way to enforce a policy so that you dont know .
Is there a way to enclose hidden diplomacy in in-game mechanics and vanish
the out-game diplomacy. In what point that two communications channels ruin
tha game and turn it into a cyber-social event and less into a game.

Only if you can rely on nobody cheating while not being able to detect who would cheat.
In Motion Twin's games, there was a way to note players after a game on a scale of "I'd gladly play with him again" to "never again".
But this works only with a big player base.

[Oberlus]

How do you reconcile an existing web of relations with an imaginary game world where there is fog in the map (when a friend in anothed edge of the galaxy would communicate to you secretaly his whereabouts )? Wouldnt be more coherent to play as teams in a full blown map?

You can do that, if you want. Multiplayer games can be arranged with fixed teams. I don't know if there is a no-fog setting when creating a game galaxy.

And wouldnt need caution to protect a single player experience from game decisions that reflect multiplayer gameplay mechanics - issues?

Sure, but those AI chats are irrelevant, and easy to disable in your local copy if you like.

So maybe the FTL communication multiplayer assumption-mechanics is less a mechanic and more of a covered difficulty to create a game world separate from the players real world.

I would say it is more of a open preference to allow easy communication between players. For example to ask questions when they are new or have difficulties, but also just to hang out with friends in the game while next turn hasn't started.
Since it is impossible to avoid out-of-game communications, it also makes little sense to forbid chat communications between players until they have met in-game.

[defaultuser]

This allows you to propose peace treaties with other players at the start of the game, although with Maniacals there's not much point in that.