Difference between revisions of "User:Bigjoe5/Alignments"

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==Hierarchical==
 
==Hierarchical==
  
A Hierarchical empire will go around conquering and enslaving races, then use high-security measures to keep spies from infiltrating their slave worlds and wreaking havoc.  This empire will tend to be less dependent on the Passive empire for keeping happiness high, but will find it useful nonetheless, since basic security and active purgation are much less expensive on happy planets.
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A Hierarchical empire will go around conquering and enslaving races, then use high-security measures to keep spies from infiltrating their slave worlds and wreaking havoc.  This empire will tend to be less dependent on the Passive empire for keeping planets resistant to rebellions, but will find it useful for repelling other types of espionage, particularly since basic security and active purgation are much less expensive on happy planets.
  
 
The Hierarchical empire will not reduce the number of species in his empire if there are no Tolerant or Passive empires to give gifts to - instead, he will simply have to spend more trade on security to counter the effects of low happiness.  This is expensive, but worth it, since unlike the Hive Mind empire, his species with low allegiance to him will be enslaved, and therefore not be a significant threat in terms of rebellion.
 
The Hierarchical empire will not reduce the number of species in his empire if there are no Tolerant or Passive empires to give gifts to - instead, he will simply have to spend more trade on security to counter the effects of low happiness.  This is expensive, but worth it, since unlike the Hive Mind empire, his species with low allegiance to him will be enslaved, and therefore not be a significant threat in terms of rebellion.
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===Relationships with other Ethoi===
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====Warlord====
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If the Warlord is allied with the Tolerant empire and the Hierarchy is allied with the Passive empire, or if the Warlord is just looking for a fight, he will probably attack the Hierarchical empire.  If the Hierarchy has slave species which the Warlord doesn't, those planets will probably give militia support to the Warlord empire, which will make capturing those planets much easier.  The Hierarchical empire usually can't take the Warlord empire in a direct conflict, so employing espionage against the Warlord's slave worlds to decrease production can be a good strategy to defeat them.
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Warlord species can easily be integrated into the Hierarchy, especially if the Hierarchy has been particularly Bloodthirsty.
  
 
==Reclusive==
 
==Reclusive==

Revision as of 01:45, 3 March 2010

Contents

Paired Alignments

Paired Alignments are scales measuring imperial action in which one direction on the scale is not defined as any better or worse than the other direction. Specifically, in FreeOrion, Ethical Compatibility Alignments are paired alignment scales measuring the ethical implications of an empire's actions. A particular strategy will be likely to cause the player’s alignment to shift towards one end of the scale or the other, or be neutral. In this way, each empire has a particular character, that defines how it is likely to act. A species’ allegiance towards an empire is based largely on how well that species’ ethos matches the empire’s alignment. In this way, the player is rewarded for choosing a strategy that allows him to consistently make characteristic decisions, because such decisions will give the player allegiance bonuses. Because the player is rewarded for role-playing to a certain degree, empires will frequently be observed to have particular personalities, which will hopefully add to the character of FreeOrion itself.

Species-empire alignments, which are referred to throughout this page, are unpaired alignment scales which measure imperial actions taken for or against a particular species. The values of these scales are combined with ethical compatibility to calculate a given species' allegiance to a given empire.

Pacifism vs. Bloodthirstiness

Factors which Increase Current Bloodthirstiness

  • Declaring war
  • Planetary bombardment
  • Destroying ships in a combat which you instigated, or which you continued after the other side attempted to disengage
  • Exterminating the citizens of a planet under your control

Factors which Increase Current Pacifism

  • Ending a war

Factors which Increase Bloodthirstiness Growth

  • Being in a war

Factors which Increase Pacifism Growth

  • Natural decay


Strategic Tradeoff

Bloodthirstiness

+ Enhances a militaristic strategy and allows a player to gain higher allegiance by destroying planets and enemy ships

- The player must stay in a state of war or commit otherwise bloodthirsty actions, otherwise the Bloodthirstiness alignment will begin to drop, causing a decrease in allegiance

Pacifism

+ Increases allegiance as a result of inaction, so resources can be diverted to other areas while allegiance and happiness continue to increase.

- The player cannot declare war against an enemy empire without incurring a penalty, and even the enemy empire declares war on him first, thus absolving him of any bloodthirstiness caused by the war itself, the pacifistic empire will find it difficult to actively wage war against the enemy due to the effects on alignment of various warlike actions.


Egalitarianism vs. Elitism

Factors which Increase Current Elitism

  • Moving a species further away on the status scale from the highest ranking species in the empire. This includes raising the status of the highest ranking species

Factors which Increase Current Egalitarianism

  • Moving a species closer on the status scale to the highest ranking species. This includes lowering the status of the highest ranking species

Factors which Increase Elitism Growth

  • Having species in the empire which are more than one level lower on the status scale than the highest ranking species

Factors which Increase Egalitarianism Growth

  • Having multiple species sharing the highest which has been bestowed by the empire


Strategic Tradeoff

When enslaving an elitist species, the negative impact on allegiance due to decreased species-empire alignment would significantly outweigh the positive impact on allegiance due to increased elitism alignment.

Conversely, when promoting an egalitarian species, the negative impact on allegiance due to increased elitism would significantly outweigh the positive impact on allegiance due to increased species-empire alignment.

This is accomplished by having a large penalty to species-empire alignment for low ranking species, but only a small bonus to species-empire alignment for high ranking species. In other words, being elitist is only advantageous when the player has elitist species in his empire which he raises to a higher rank.

Elitism

+ Allows the player to have fairly productive multi-species empires, since slave races can be used for their bonuses without a significant amount of revolt occurring, and the higher ranking species will have a higher allegiance bonus, as well as whatever combat or espionage bonuses that might come from being at a higher rank; essentially, this allows the empire to have a specialized and fairly productive multi-species empire while only having to please one species.

- Unhappy slave worlds are prime candidates for espionage, which means that the elitist empire is an easy target for stealing resources, technology, ship designs, etc, and espionage could be used to cause rebellion in the otherwise very safe and stable slave worlds.

Egalitarianism

+ Allows an empire to have a very productive multi-species empire, without any worlds which are extremely vulnerable to espionage. There is less difficulty in maintaining high allegiance from newly acquired species due to the fact that they don’t need to be enslaved in order to keep the original species happy. Planets with species of citizen rank are more productive than any other planets.

- It’s not as easy to incorporate Elitist races into an Egalitarian empire as it is to incorporate Egalitarian empires into an Elitist empire, meaning that the ethos of species you can incorporate into an Egalitarian empire is limited if they are all to be equal. Also, if an empire attempted to be Egalitarian without having any Egalitarian species, he would still get an empire with a variety of bonuses and low possibility of revolt, but he would have no loyal races to use in his military, which would make it more difficult to wage war, and possibly to prevent rebellions on the slave worlds. Also, more effort must be expended keeping multiple species in the same empire happy.

Diplomacy vs. Isolationism

Factors which Increase Current Isolationism

  • Breaking treaties/alliances
  • Leaving a Multi-Governmental Body

Factors which Increase Current Diplomacy

  • Entering treaties/alliances
  • Giving, receiving or exchanging resources, information or other items
  • Creating or joining a Multi-Governmental Body

Factors which Increase Isolationism Growth

  • Natural decay

Factors which Increase Diplomacy Growth

  • Being involved in a treaty or alliance with another race
  • Being a member of a Multi-Governmental Body


Strategic Tradeoff

Isolationism

+ Isolationist species are the only species which can’t be charmed by the diplomatic empire. As such, having an empire comprised of only Isolationist species would put that empire in a unique position to wage a ruthless war against the diplomatic empire without incurring happiness penalties on his planets.

- There’s a lot to be said for the advantages of trading and entering treaties with other empires, and choosing to use a Isolationist race significantly reduces the desirability of diplomacy, which essentially means that the Isolationist empire is on its own.

Diplomacy

+ Encourages a diplomatic strategy and essentially adds a bonus to the player for all diplomatic negotiations, whether otherwise favourable to him or not. This encourages the player to use the diplomatic strategy and gain high allegiance from all (non-isolationist) species, so that empires containing such species will give him gifts to get the happiness bonus.

- Although the diplomatic strategy is dependent on pleasing as many races as possible, it makes it more difficult to actually incorporate those races into your empire while still pleasing elitist races, because doing so will mean that the acquired races will have to, on average, be 1 level below the highest rank in the empire to keep elitism and egalitarianism even. This means species-empire alignment for the newly acquired race will decrease as a result of having been reduced to a lower rank by that empire, and all other empires who have that race will be less inclined to give gifts to that empire. If the empire makes the new race the same rank as his original race, then empires which contain elitist races will be less likely to favour his empire. This forces the diplomatic empire to make a choice between pleasing elitist races, and maintaining a productive multi-species empire. Furthermore, in the early game, the player must try to reach out quickly to meet new empires before allegiance from his diplomatic races decreases significantly.


Security vs. Freedom

This section involves some (perhaps premature) assumptions about espionage.

By default, anyone can have an espionage meter on anyone’s planet or ship, and nobody knows of the presence or value of anyone else’s espionage meter.

A special security project, which costs trade to maintain and even more trade to initiate (so that it’s not more efficient to just activate it for one turn, just to check, but implies a commitment to tracking espionage on that particular colony/ship), allows the player to see the current values - but not the max/target values and owners - of all espionage meters attached to the planet or ship. If this project is in place, the planet is said to have “basic security”. Most likely, planets in a state of basic security will be less productive than planets without basic security, which may or may not make it pointless to charge trade to maintain basic security on colonies.

If desired, additional trade can be expended to “purge” a planet or ship of enemy agents, which will gradually decrease all current espionage meters until they reach 0 (at a faster rate than the espionage meter can regrow - both this, and basic security should be cheaper on planets with higher happiness and on ships with whatever the ship equivalent of happiness is, eg. security). Any planet or ship on which this project is being enacted is said to be in a state of “active purgation”.

(This is all just an example - perhaps it won’t work this way at all - perhaps basic security will be a status that applies to the entire empire - perhaps basic security will make infiltrating your empire more expensive - point being, there had better be some kind of anti-espionage measures, and when there are, they can affect this alignment scale.)

Factors which Increase Current Security

Initiating Basic Security

Factors which Increase Current Freedom

  • Ceasing Basic Security

Factors which Increase Security Growth

  • Having planets and ships with Basic Security
  • Having planets and ships in a state of Active Purgation

Factors which Increase Freedom Growth

  • Natural Decay

Strategic Tradeoff

Security

+ Players with high security will have strong resistance against enemy spies. With the empire’s most essential planets and ships constantly in a state of basic security, it’s very difficult for the sneaky espionage player to get a significant upper hand. Because of this, such an empire need not waste significant resources trying to increase the happiness of his citizens - he can deal with significant problems on important worlds as they come up.

- Security costs trade, and the more population and ships you have, the more you’ll need to spend to maintain high security. Enemy spy empires will try to focus on eliminating your trade production, and if they succeed, they’ll have free reign over your empire due to the lack of focus on other forms of espionage prevention. Planets with basic security will be less productive than planets without, so Secure empires will be less productive. In addition, there may be some other penalty to active purgation aside from the cost in trade, such as a decrease in the population of the planet.

Freedom

+ The empire need not spend lots of trade on basic security and active purgation. He is free to use his trade for offensive espionage and propaganda. Furthermore, his Free planets will be more productive than the Secure empires planets which are in a state of basic security.

- Finding and eliminating insurgents will be more difficult, which will make the empire more prone to espionage. To counteract this, the player will have to be focused on keeping his planets happy, or preventing spies from entering his empire at all by staying geographically isolated.

The Diplomatic Strategy

I’m assuming for now that events which occur between Empire A and Empire B will have an impact on the happiness of planets in Empire A which contain species whose allegiance towards Empire B is higher than their allegiance towards Empire A, and vice versa. This effect is proportional to the difference in allegiance. There is no impact on happiness of planets in Empire A which contain a species with higher allegiance to Empire A than Empire B, and vice versa.

Actions which increase happiness include giving a gift (or being involved in any exchange which is beneficial to the other empire), actions which decrease happiness include accepting a gift (or being involved in any exchange which is beneficial to one’s own empire) or taking military action against the empire, such as the actions which would increase current bloodthirstiness.

The Diplomatic Strategy is essentially to keep allegiance from all species very high so that other empires will have an incentive to give you gifts in order to gain happiness bonuses on their planets, and will be deterred from attacking your planets and ships, which would cause a happiness penalty on their planets. Propaganda is employed to increase species-empire allegiance and to compensate for necessary deviations in other alignments.

Because of this advantage, the diplomatic player also has a degree of control over other empires, in that he can cease to accept their gifts at any time, so they’d better listen to him. He can use this advantage to play other empires against each other, cause unnecessary wars between other empires, and just be generally manipulative. He might make considerable use of multi-governmental bodies to achieve his goals as well.


Pacifism vs. Bloodthirstiness

The diplomatic player has two main options with this one: he can either try to balance it, or he can go towards pacifism. Being bloodthirsty isn’t viable, because other players aren’t really going to take to kindly to you if you always go around destroying their ships and bombarding their planets. In addition, such a player probably won’t have the resources to spend on numerous prolonged wars.

Being a bit bloodthirsty is fine, though, since that only requires war with a few other empires and a bit of destruction, as well as a bit of propaganda to tie up the loose ends. Furthermore, you’ll have lots of empires willing to defend your colonies as a favour, so that they can continue to get happiness bonuses by giving you gifts, and as a bit of a threat so that you’ll keep accepting their gifts (‘cause otherwise they’ll blow you to smithereens), but this is OK, as long as the player knows how to play his opponents against each other, to divert their military attention from himself.

Being totally pacifistic is the cheapest route in terms of resource expenditure, but it also has potential to be the most expensive in terms of long-term consequences. The player doesn’t have to waste lots of resources on ships, and can turn his resource production to other things such as research and espionage. Furthermore, pacifistic species will like him more. This isn’t obviously a good thing, because the more they like you, the less their empire has to give you to keep them happy. However, the fact is that this will end up being an advantage for the diplomatic player, since pacifistic species are the ones who are less likely to like you more than their owner empire in the first place, since they would either belong to a similarly diplomatic empire, or an isolationist empire (see Ethos, below), so this would help raise your empire up in their eyes to the same level of diplomatic excellence that it is at with non-pacifistic species.

The long term consequences of choosing pacifism however, is that bloodthirsty empires aren’t going to like you as much as otherwise, which means less incentive to give you presents and avoid destroying your colonies. The pacifistic diplomat will have to ensure that his colonies are not in a vulnerable position to any bloodthirsty empires.

Egalitarianism vs. Elitism

Once again, the player has two main options: he can be neutral, or he can be egalitarian.

Being elitist would mean that some species in his empire would be upset with him due to being at a lower status, which in turn would mean that those species in other empires would have lower allegiance towards you (particularly since increased species-empire alignment is the main reason an empire with neutral alignment can have higher allegiance from species than empires who actually support that alignment, and species-empire alignment is what would be lowered by the lower status), which in turn gives those empires much less inspiration to give you presents. This makes elitism a poor choice for the diplomatic player.

Balancing the alignment scale for this is easy: just stick with a single species in your empire and the alignment will stay completely neutral. This allows the player to fairly easily please both sides, but doesn’t give the player the advantage of having a diverse empire with lots of different bonuses.

Being egalitarian requires getting lots of species into your empire, which is easy for a diplomatic empire, since you can just trade for a planet or a colony ship. However, the egalitarian diplomat will run into the same problems as the pacifistic diplomat. Elitist empires will have no significant incentive to give him gifts, and will instead be more willing to capture and enslave his planets. Having good allies and a good strategy can help with this, but even more so, being balanced between bloodthirsty and pacifistic will help with being egalitarian and vice versa, since the player will be able to wage war agains the elitists fairly effectively, which will both protect him, and keep his bloodthirstiness in the desired range.

Diplomacy vs. Isolationism

There’s only one valid option here: Diplomacy. However, the fact that other empires may have Isolationist races makes this interesting. Such races will not be amused by their empires’ attempts to increase their happiness, and will have lowered allegiance towards him. In addition, such attempts would be mostly futile even in the short-term, since such races won’t have very high allegiance towards the diplomatic empire. In short, the diplomatic empire will have trouble if there are a lot of Isolationist races in the galaxy, and he should do his best to turn all the other empires against whatever Isolationist empires may be present.


Ethos

Assuming there are 2 ethical preferences for each ethos, having 4 paired alignment scales allows 24 possible ethoi. What follows is a short list of combinations that make sense conceptually and strategically (but need better names, for the most part):


Bloodthirsty + Elitist (Warlord)

Pacifistic + Diplomatic (Passive)

Diplomatic + Free (Tolerant)

Free + Egalitarian (Democratic)

Egalitarian + Secure (Hive Mind)

Secure + Elitist (Hierarchical)

Isolationist + Pacifist (Reclusive)

Bloodthirsty + Isolationist (Xenophobic)


Each preference is used twice, and each of these ethoi is compatible with a unique, effective strategy.

Presumably, my predictions regarding the exact relationships between different ethoi will be somewhat flawed, and a typical game will usually include some variation in strategy which simply escapes me at the moment. Nonetheless, these descriptions essentially prove that such interesting relationships can and will exist under this system.

Assuming all players are trying to win the game, and there is an equal balance of all empire types in a galaxy, each empire should have a good chance to win the game; all the below-mentioned relationships are dependent on the player's completely Machiavellian drive to win the game, and no weird ideas such as a player having "loyalty" to a previous ally are included. An empire helps out another empire for as long as it is profitable, and eliminates it when it ceases to be useful. Under these conditions something like the following set of relationships will be created in the galaxy, taking into account certain predictable variations in strategy within a particular ethos-type macro-strategy:


Warlord

A Warlord species loves to destroy and conquer as much as possible. It will usually have industry, mining, space combat, or ground combat, which will complement its owner empire’s general strategy of massive war and slavery. It might have population growth penalties, to encourage capturing planets, and possibly penalties to other resource production such as food and research, for which the player can make up using diplomacy. Diplomacy is not harmful to the warlord species, and using threats of annihilation to extort resources, ships and technology from other empires will be a common strategy.

Early in the game, the player will be forced to reach outwards as much as possible to claim the most territory and reach potential victims the most quickly, which puts significant limitations on the amount of research and internal development that can occur. In the later game, when there are fewer empty planets left to colonize, he will be compelled to take planets from other races. It is most advantageous for his Elitism alignment if he captures and enslaves enemy planets, so he should make sure that his research strategy focuses on technology which permits easy capture of colonies.

Relationships with other Ethoi

All other races can be integrated into the Warlord's empire somehow, though usually they will end up as slaves.

Warlord

Depending on the circumstances, two Warlord empires might be on relatively friendly terms, or they might be completely at one another's throats. The question is whether or not the potential gain from going to war with the other empire outweighs the potential losses. If the two empires cooperate, they can potentially shred through the rest of the galaxy, but in practice, this won't usually work, because the two empires will always be in constant competition for resources and the "spoils of war". If, on the other hand, one empire manages to conquer the other, he will be at a great advantage, particularly since the other empire's racial bonuses will likely support his warlike strategy, and because he will have eliminated a potentially troublesome rival. However, the resulting empire will not be as powerful on its own as if both empires had chosen to cooperate, since they will have had to spend significant resources fighting each other.

Passive

The Passive empire is a constant thorn in the side of the Warlord empire. He gets the other empires to gang up on him, he infiltrates his empire with spies, and most infuriatingly of all, he always manages to keep his colonies out of range of the Warlord's fleets. The Warlord empire has a few options:

  • He can take the weakling's way out, and pretend to have fallen for the Passive empire's sappy diplomacy, giving him presents and thus postponing the Passive empire's command to all his thugs (empires who are willing to do whatever he says so that they can continue to give him gifts and boost their citizens' happiness) to converge on the Warlord's empire. This is only a temporary measure though, and not the final way to deal with the Passive empire.
  • He can identify and eliminate the Passive empire's thugs one by one, until the Passive empire is defenseless
  • He can move in on the Passive empire directly, and take him out before he has a chance to infiltrate the Warlord empire with spies and tear it apart from the inside so his pet buzzards can finish it off. This is the warrior's solution, but it will take some good logistics to get fleets in position and take down the Passive empire, since he likes to make himself scarce around the parts of the galaxy that the Warlord can easily reach.

If this empire is conquered, its planets should be enslaved, adding racial diversity to the empire.

Tolerant

This empire is a good source of happiness for the Warlord's worlds - for a while, at least. Giving good enough gifts to the Tolerant empire can make even the empire's slave planets practically impervious to espionage due to increased happiness. However, the Warlord must be very careful that the Tolerant empire's power doesn't surpass his own. When it seems like that will happen, the Tolerant empire will have outlived its usefulness. Ideally, the strongest espionage empires would be eliminated at this point, and their planets enslaved, but even if this isn't the case, the extra trade spent on security will be a small price to pay for eliminating the Tolerant empire before it gets out of hand. In addition, there is no ethos conflict between Tolerant species and Warlord species, so when they are captured, they can easily be made citizens or even higher without revolting, if the Warlord empire thinks they will be more useful to him that way. Giving gifts to another Tolerant empire is a good way to keep Tolerant species happy.

Democratic

These empires often have strong militaries, and are difficult to take down immediately. The best solution is usually to build up power by conquering and enslaving other empires, then take on the Democratic empire. Espionage can sometimes help against them due to the lack of security, but they have no slave worlds, so it's often difficult to do much of anything with espionage. If for some reason this empire is noticeably weaker than the Warlord empire though, it makes a nice target for threats and extortion. Depending on the circumstances, the Tolerant empire might tell the Warlord empire to leave the Democratic empire alone, but the Warlord empire isn't always compelled to do everything that the Tolerant empire says, just because it's a sources of happiness on Warlord planets. Democratic species should be enslaved by the Warlord empire.

Hive Mind

This empire is Egalitarian and Secure, so spies aren't really of any use at all. However, it's likely that this empire has collected many species of somewhat incompatible ethoi, so not all species will have very high allegiance to them. In particular, any planets containing Elitist species in can always be counted on to give strong militia support to the Warlord empire in the case of an invasion, which makes these planets large weak points in this empire. Like the Democratic empire, they usually have fairly significant militaries, but if they turn out to have lagged behind a bit in terms of military production, extortion is an excellent means of taking advantage of them. In addition, since they spend a lot of resources on security, their military is quite unlikley to be developed to the same extent as that of a Democratic empire. Also like the Democrats, Hive Mind species should be enslaved by the Warlord empire.

Hierarchical

Hierarchical species can be integrated into the Warlord empire without much difficulty, as long as the Warlord empire has an adequate propensity of other slave races. These races can be made aristocrats, if the Warlord empire wants to use them for space/ground combat roles, or regular citizens if the Warlord empire wants them for their resource production bonus. It's not really practical or necessary to make them slaves, since they can be integrated so easily into the empire without significant ethos conflicts. Dealing with the Hierarchical empire itself is very similar to dealing with the Hive Mind; if you can't take them, muster power - if you can, extort as much as you can from them, then eliminate them when they have outlived their usefulness, always being mindful that the extra time you let them live so they could give you more stuff is extra time they can spend plotting your downfall.

Reclusive

If by some chance the Warlord empire should stumble across a Reclusive empire, he should by all means conquer and enslave it at once. Trying to extort from an Isolationist empire is generally not fruitful, and being Pacifists, they will offer little resistance. The real danger is if you fail to find them or let them survive - then your empire is liable to be completely overrun with spies, and before you know it, all your technology belongs to them, and your ships will start exploding at really inconvenient times, and your slave worlds will become startlingly unproductive. That would be bad, so the Warlord's best bet if he finds a Reclusive empire is to destroy it immediately and enslave all of its planets.

Xenophobic

As with the Reclusive empire, this empire will be unamused by the Warlord's attempts to extort from them. Unlike the Reclusive empire however, they are quite capable of defending themselves, and can become a significant threat if not dealt with. The best solution against the Xenophobic empire is to forge a temporary alliance with some other empires - Warlords, Hive Minds, Democrats and Hierarchies will be all too willing to help out, and you can always count on espionage support from Passive empires in taking down a Xenophobic empire, particularly if their thugs are going in as well. Integrating Xenophobes into a Warlord empire as citizens or higher isn't all that difficult, but unless the Warlord keeps his diplomacy to a minimum, such planets will represent weak spots where a rebellion could potentially be incited.


Passive

Passive species are pleased by Diplomacy and Pacifism, and the Passive empire will usually try to resolve his differences with other empires in the least violent way possible. It will be advantageous for this empire to follow a diplomatic strategy in which the Bloodthirstiness scale is at extreme Pacifism and the Security scale is neutral, at least at the start. Secure empires will be more favourable to him, but unless he expands carefully and keeps his colonies well defended and in protected positions, he will be in danger of attack from Bloodthirsty empires, particularly Xenophobes.

A Passive empire will need to use a lot of espionage to gain control over other empires, since his military force will be very limited. This espionage will allow him to ally with a more powerful empire to damage its enemies from within in preparation for invasion. He will use this strategy to defeat Warlords and Xenophobes early on before they can wipe out his militarily weak empire, and will always try to divide the spoils of war in a manner which is utterly favourable to him, which will be helped by the incentive his allies have to give him gifts and raise the happiness of their own planets.

The Passive empire isn’t going to be doing a lot of actual combat himself, so ground combat and space combat penalties are likely. Espionage however, is indispensable, so large trade and espionage bonuses are extremely useful.

Eventually, the player's Security and Elitism alignments are going to have to move towards one side or the other, as he eliminates unwanted empires and tries to please the remaining empires for as long as possible, but which way they'll go is dependent on the order in which the player will end up eliminating the other empires.

Relationships with other Ethoi

Since a Passive empire will try to keep his other two alignment scales fairly level, he can integrate most species into his empire as citizens or higher without too much difficulty, and use the species of his fallen opponents as slave worlds to balance his Elitism alignment and increase racial diversity.

Warlord

These guys don't like you at all, and with good reason. Since they aren't usually very useful to the Passive empire as sources of resources and technology, they should be eliminated as quickly as possible before they have a chance to eliminate you and your allies. Their planets can be enslaved and used for building ships, which can then be traded at a good rate to the Passive empire's allies. If the Warlord empire tries to appease the Pacifistic empire temporarily with gifts, it's up to the Pacifist empire to determine the point at which the risk of keeping the Warlord empire around outweighs the benefits from accepting its gifts.

Passive

Other Passive empires should not be tolerated. The player should do everything in his power to convince his allies that his empire is better than the other Passive empire, by increasing the species-empire alignment of all species belonging to his allies, and by more effectively infiltrating enemy empires and preparing them for attack. If at all possible, he should try to get his allies to turn against the other Passive empire, though this will be difficult, since attacking an empire to whom their citizens have high allegiance will have bad effects on the happiness of their planets. If necessary, the player may be compelled to actually invade and eliminate the other Passive empire himself.

The more diplomatic empires there are around, the less likely one will be able to claim victory, since the gifts from other empires that are given to appease their citizens will be divided between them.

Tolerant

This empire will likewise be a competing diplomatic empire, and in some ways, will be even more dangerous than another Passive empire, since the Tolerant empire is much more liable to simply invade you and conquer your empire himself. The key to defeating a Tolerant empire will be to enlist the aid of some high-security empires - either Hive Mind or Hierarchical - to invade the Tolerant empire and eliminate it, since these empires will get less severe happiness penalties for attacking the Tolerant empire, and they will not see giving that empire presents as being an effective way of dealing with happiness problems, so they will be less deterred from eliminating it. Once the Tolerant empire has been eliminated, Democratic empires are likely to come to the Passive empire if they experience any happiness problems. Tolerant citizens can easily be integrated into the Passive empire, if desired.

Democratic

This empire makes a good ally, since its citizens will tend to have high allegiance towards your empire. However, their allegiance will not be as high as it will be towards the Tolerant empire, which is part of why the Tolerant empire must be eliminated. If this empire does become your ally, its powerful military will be very useful for defeating your enemies. However, as the game progresses, the Democrat's citizens' allegiance towards him will surpass that of his citizens' allegiance towards the Passive empire, and the Passive empire will have outlived its usefulness. Before that happens, the Passive empire must be sure to employ his other allies to defeat the Democrats. Since the Passive empire will usually have to turn away from the Democrat's ethos eventually, it is usually best if Democrat species are enslaved rather than being integrated into the Passive empire as citizens.

Hive Mind

Hive Mind empires make good allies for the Passive empire, since their citizens' allegiance to the Passive empire will remain higher that to their own empire until later in the game. The Hive Mind empire is a particularly good ally to use to defeat the Tolerant empire. Once the Tolerant empire is eliminated, the Passive empire can increase his Security to become more liked by the Hive Mind empire, which will allow them to be useful to each other for longer. Depending on whether the Passive empire eventually turns to Elitism or Egalitarianism, Hive Mind species can either be enslaved or integrated into the empire as citizens.

Hierarchical

Hierarchical empires, like Hive Mind empires, also make good allies for the passive empire, since the Passive empire will switch to a policy of higher security once the Democratic empire is out of the way. The Passive empire will also eventually have to choose between the Hierarchical empire and the Hive Mind empire, since to keep at least one of their species loyal to him for long, he'll have to switch to an Elitist or an Egalitarian alignment, which will necessitate eliminating the empire whose species no longer have high allegiance to the Passive empire. If the empire chooses Elitism, it will be easy to integrate Hierarchical species into the empire as high ranking species, but if he chooses Egalitarianism, it will be very difficult to integrate them into his empire at all.

The alternative to eliminating the Democratic empire first is actually to eliminate the Hierarchical empire first, and move towards the Egalitarian alignment, then eliminate the Hive Mind empire and move towards the Freedom alignment, leaving the Democrats for last. This isn't usually advisable though, as long as there are Tolerant empires in the galaxy towards whom the Democrats will always have higher allegiance, but if there are no Tolerant empires, either option might be more viable depending on the situation.

Reclusive

Especially if the Passive empire moves towards the Security and Egalitarian alignment scales, it will be very difficult for the Reclusive empire to do much damage in the Passive empire. However, the Reclusive empire can do varying amounts of damage to the Passive empire's allies, and if there are highly active Reclusive agents in some of his allies' empires, that may affect the Passive empire's decision on who to get rid of first. It's usually fairly safe to leave the Reclusive empire until later, since it can do much more damage to the Passive empire's enemies than to the Passive empire itself. In addition, the fact that the Reclusive empire is engaged in espionage in the Passive empire's allies means that those allies will have a greater incentive to give him gifts to increase the happiness of their planets, which is a very good thing for the Passive empire, but will make the Reclusive empire very unhappy with the Passive empire. It's not terribly easy for the Passive empire to incorporate Reclusive species into his empire, but he can do so without too much difficulty if he has the opportunity and feels it's appropriate.

Xenophobic

These guys need to be dealt with. However, the Passive empire can't be too overzealous in dealing with them. The Xenophobic empire will usually have lots of planets with high happiness, and aren't very vulnerable to espionage, which means that the Passive empire's allies will probably take significant losses due to inadequate espionage support from within, and want to keep all the spoils of war for themselves in order to stay competitive with other empires. This doesn't do the Passive empire any good at all. His strategy should instead be to eliminate other greedy empires who also want to take down the Xenophobic empire and take all the spoils for themselves, then coordinate a joint attack will all his allies at once in an attempt to defeat the Xenophobic empire without giving too much of its power to any one other empire. Xenophobic species cannot intelligently be integrated into the Passive empire as citizens, though they can certainly be enslaved.

Keeping this empire infiltrated is a good idea, since any other empires trying to attack it will find espionage support extremely useful.

Tolerant

Tolerant empires will most easily find allies in Democratic empires, but they will also be able to win over Warlords fairly easily as well. Hive Minds and Hierarchies are unlikely to be particularly loyal to him for long, due to the conflict in the security alignment, but the species-empire alignment of those empire's species should be high enough for a little while to ensure that their allegiance to the Tolerant empire is greater than their allegiance to their own empires. Tolerant empires should also stay fairly Bloodthirsty, to keep allegiance from Warlord species as high as possible. Rather than simply sending in his allies' warships and giving them espionage support from within, the Tolerant empire will be out on the front lines of the battlefield, fighting and conquering like any Warlord species (though naturally without the same amount of military power, since some resources will have to be diverted to propaganda rather than ship-building).

To keep Elitism level, the Tolerant empire will have to have some species who are below citizen level, but it might not be wise to make them outright slaves, since the empire's Freedom will make it easier for enemy espionage to infiltrate if there are planets with very low happiness. If there are species who are between citizens and slaves, the Tolerant empire's natural charm plus propaganda will be sufficient to keep the species-empire alignment of that species from decreasing and lowering allegiance.

Warlord species can be integrated into the empire fairly easily, and the Tolerant empire might often find himself trading planets with the Warlord empire, if there are species that simply have too low allegiance to his empire to properly integrate. A Reclusive planet for example, might be traded to the Warlord empire, who could then enslave it and put it at basic security, if necessary, in exchange for a Warlord planet, which could contain a species of citizen rank or even higher.

Relationships with other Ethoi

The Tolerant empire can integrate many different species into his empire, just as the Passive empire can, but which species will be slaves and which will be citizens is quite different between the Tolerant and Passive empires.

Warlord

Warlords make good allies for this empire, since their species have high allegiance to the Tolerant empire. Warlords will often give gifts to the Tolerant empire to keep up happiness on their core worlds and their various slave planets. Joint assaults between Warlord and Tolerant empires are fairly common, and highly effective. Care must be taken though, to make sure that the Warlord empire doesn't see the Tolerant empire as having outlived its usefulness. The Tolerant empire should try to keep its full military strength hidden from the Warlord empire, so that it doesn't perceive him as a threat and take steps to eliminate him.

Eventually, the Tolerant empire will have to make a decision between destroying his Warlord allies or his Democratic allies, and then move his elitist scale to one end or the other, to keep high allegiance from the other. Eliminating the Warlord empire first is usually best for several reasons:

  • Increasing elitism means that there will probably be some unhappy slave worlds, which are significant weak points in an empire with high Freedom.
  • Because the Tolerant empire has high Freedom, it will be easier to stay favourable to the Democratic empire for longer.
  • The Warlord empire is likely to turn against the Tolerant empire before the Democratic empire does because the Warlord species is likely to have lower allegiance for the Tolerant empire than the Democratic species, which means lower happiness penalties for the Warlord for attacking the Tolerant empire.
  • The Democratic empire is Egalitarian, which means its various species cannot be enslaved to avoid riots and rebellions, so it will likely have a greater need to continue giving gifts to the Tolerant empire than the Warlord empire does.

Warlord species can be integrated into the Tolerant empire fairly easily, but later on in the game, they may have to be enslaved, depending on whether or not the risk of espionage-incited rebellion is worth the vulnerability to other types of espionage.

Passive

Passive empires aren't too bad, but they have an annoying habit of trying to eliminate you for stealing their Democrats. Often, a galaxy with a Passive empire and a Tolerant empire can turn into a massive galactic war, with the Warlords, Democrats and Tolerant empires on one side, and the Hive Minds, Hierarchies and Pacifists on the other. The Pacifists will want nothing more than to defeat the Tolerant empire, because then, there will be no reason for the Democratic empire not to give gifts to the Passive empire to increase his planets' happiness. The Tolerant empire doesn't really mind the Passive empire's existence though - it's more concerned with the Hive Minds and Hierarchies. By the time the Pacifist empire is defeated, the Hive Minds and Hierarchies would have high enough allegiance from their species that they wouldn't get a happiness bonus for giving gifts to the Tolerant empire.

By defeating the Passive empire's allies, the Passive empire himself can be rendered mostly harmless, although during the war, it will tend to wreak havoc in the Tolerant empire with his spies. Keeping high happiness on all planets is essential for the Tolerant empire if there's a Passive empire out to get him.

Passive species cannot easily be integrated into the empire, but they can be enslaved without significant consequences, since the Tolerant empire isn't concerned with pleasing any Pacifistic species. It might be a good idea to eventually trade these planets to someone else though, since the Tolerant empire may eventually need to move towards Egalitarianism to continue to please Democratic species.

Tolerant

Other Tolerant empires are trouble and should be eliminated quickly. There are only so many Warlords and Democrats to go around, and sharing them is not likely to help the Tolerant empire claim victory. If possible it might be wise to try to please Hive Minds or Hierarchical species, and try to get their empires to take down the other Tolerant empire, provided those empires aren't already allied with a Passive empire. Otherwise, the Tolerant empire will simply have to wage war against the other Tolerant empire in whatever way is necessary to eliminate it.

Obviously, if the species-empire alignment of the other empire's Tolerant species isn't lowered too much by the war against them, they can easily be integrated into the empire. However, if you need to do a lot of destroying of colonies, and therefore lowering their species-empire alignment significantly, it might be better to just destroy them all, and not bother trying to integrate them.

Democratic

The Democratic empire makes a very good ally for the Tolerant empire, and will give the Tolerant empire lots of presents to keep happiness on his planets high, which is particularly necessary due to the low Security of the Democratic empire. The Democratic empire has a fairly significant military, and can be used to help take down the Warlords once they no longer have any use for the Tolerant empire and seek to eliminate it. Eventually, the Tolerant empire will have to turn on the Democratic empire and defeat it. Ideally, this would occur after all other empires have been eliminated, but before the Democratic species' allegiance towards the Democratic empire is higher than towards the Tolerant empire. This is so that the Democratic empire will get happiness penalties for attacking the Tolerant empire, which will limit his actions and make his planets open to espionage. In this sense, speed is of the essence for the Tolerant empire, and he should busy himself eliminating other empires as quickly as possible, to make the encounter with the Democratic empire occur sooner, while he's still at the advantage.

Democratic species can easily be integrated into a Tolerant empire, and can usually stay as citizens or above for the entire game without being very vulnerable targets for espionage.

Hive Mind

Hive Mind species will have higher allegiance to the Tolerant empire than to the Hive Mind empire for a little while, but as the Tolerant empire's alignment moves towards Freedom, the Hive Mind allegiance towards the Hive Mind empire will gradually surpass that towards the Tolerant empire. In the meantime however, if the player is willing to keep his security alignment level for a short while, the Hive Mind empire can potentially be a good ally, provided there are no Passive empires for it to ally with. If there are any Passive empires, it's usually best to just give up on the Hive Mind entirely and focus on pleasing Democrats and Warlords. In this situation, its best to eliminate Hive Mind empires quickly, before the Passive empire sends them against you.

Hive Mind species are not integrated very easily into a Tolerant empire, and may need to be enslaved or simply gotten rid of.

Hierarchical

Like the Hive Mind, Hierarchical species will not make good allies for very long, and are significant liabilities if a Passive empire is present. These empires should be disposed of as quickly as possible if they are allied with a Passive empire. If there are no Passive empires though, taking advantage of them for a little while before eliminating them might be a good idea. This will require keeping the Security alignment neutral until it comes time to dispose of the Hierarchical empire.

Like Hive Mind species, Hierarchical species are not easily integrated into a Tolerant empire, and are in fact more difficult to integrate, since the Tolerant empire's Elitism alignment will likely shift towards Egalitarian near the end of the game, which could conceivably keep Hive Mind species at bay, but would not be at all good for Hierarchical species.

Reclusive

Reclusive empires obviously aren't anxious to make friends with the Tolerant empire. In fact, they very much dislike the Tolerant empire, because other empires are able to increase the happiness on their planets by giving gifts to the Tolerant empire, which makes it much more difficult for the Reclusive empire to infiltrate their planets. On the other hand, Tolerant empires don't mind the presence of a Reclusive species at all, since their espionage activities increase the need for other empires to give gifts to the Tolerant empire.

Defending from the Reclusive empire's inevitable attempts to eliminate the Tolerant empire is important, particularly because the low-security nature of the Tolerant empire opens it up to the Reclusive empire's spies. Other than that however, it's best to just leave the Reclusive empire alone and let it do its thing, so that you can capitalize on it when other empires need to boost their happiness.

Reclusive empires can't be easily integrated into the Tolerant empire at all.

Xenophobic

These guys are scary, and need to be dealt with, but being in a rush to eliminate them isn't always the most prudent course of action. Diverting too much effort towards them will make the Tolerant empire an easy target for the Pacifist empire's goons. The best course of action is to build up strength and secure your position in the galaxy by defeating the Passive empire's Hive Mind and Hierarchies, then taking out the Xenophobic empire. Of course, if there are no Passive empires, then the Hierarchies and Hive Minds will be working for you, at least for a little while, so you can send all of your allies against the Xenophobic empire and wipe them out before they become a significant threat.

Xenophobic species are fairly difficult to integrate into the Tolerant empire, but the Bloodthirstiness alignment makes it a bit easier for the Tolerant empire than for the Passive empire. Still, it usually isn't the best course of action.

Democratic

Democrats have a very open society with several different species of equal ranks. The danger to this though, is that not all of those species can be fully pleased by the empire due to ethos conflict, and since none or very few of them will be enslaved, since the empire is Egalitarian, there's not much to prevent espionage-incited rebellions. The solution to this is to find a Tolerant empire and give it gifts to increase the happiness on planets which have high allegiance to the Tolerant empire. If the Democratic empire has a lot of Hierarchical or Hive Mind species in his empire, he might also want to give gifts to the Passive empire. For the most part however, the Democratic empire will try to acquire species that have similar ethical preferences to his own, and since such species will have higher allegiance to the Tolerant empire than to the Passive empire, the Democratic empire will be more compelled to ally with and give gifts to the Tolerant empire.

Having lots of different species at citizen level and keeping security low makes for an extremely productive empire, but one which is quite vulnerable to espionage.

Relationships with other Ethoi

Warlord

Warlords aren't very significant threats immediately. Earlier in the game, they won't have an adequate military to defeat the Democratic empire without severely opening themselves up to attack on other fronts, and if there is a Tolerant empire present, they will be trying to stay in favour with it so that they can continue to give them gifts and increase happiness on their planets, which means that they will be somewhat deterred from attacking the Tolerant empire's allies, the Democrats. Eventually, the Democratic empire will most likely be called upon by the Tolerant empire to defeat the Warlords, or be manipulated into doing so by a Reclusive empire, but this is fine with the Democratic empire, since by that time, he will be compelled to move against the Warlord empire anyway, as it will have become a significant threat to the Democratic empire.

Warlord species are difficult to integrate into the Democratic empire without happiness bonuses, but if it does accrue such bonuses by giving gifts to the Tolerant empire, it will be much easier to keep them as part of the Democratic empire. The fairly high Bloodthirstiness of a Democratic empire makes this easier as well.

Passive

The Passive empire can be a good source of happiness for the Democrat's planets early on, but eventually, it will likely turn away from the Democratic ethos, and cease to be useful to the Democratic empire. At this point, the Democratic empire should attempt to destroy the Passive empire, but this will be difficult, since it will be vulnerable to the Passive empire's espionage, and the Hive Minds and Hierarchies will have been sent against him by the Passive empire. Unless there is a Tolerant empire present in the galaxy, it may be safer for the Democratic empire to keep the number of species in his empire fairly low, so he can keep all of their allegiances high and keep them all at citizen rank safely, without being vulnerable to the Passive empire's espionage, and without having to give gifts to the Passive empire to increase happiness.

A Democratic empire is fairly Bloodthirsty, but it is also fairly Diplomatic. As such, Passive species can be integrated into the Democratic empire, but it won't be as easy if there is not a Tolerant or Passive empire to give gifts to, to increase the happiness on planets with Passive species.

Tolerant

Tolerant empires are extremely useful allies for the Democratic empire, since the species in a Democratic empire have high allegiance towards the Tolerant empire, which allows the Democratic empire to increase happiness on those planets by giving gifts to the Tolerant empire. This additional happiness is needed badly if the Democratic empire wants to incorporate more than a few species into its empire, because Democrats are the most vulnerable to espionage - particularly espionage incited rebellions - out of all the empires. The Tolerant empire will be taking advantage of the Democratic empire, obviously, but in return, the Democratic empire will get safety from enemy espionage, which will allow it to establish a strong power base and eventually eliminate the Tolerant empire when it is no longer useful.

Tolerant species are very easily integrated into the Democratic empire, particularly if the empire keeps a high level of Diplomacy.

Democratic

Democratic empires can usually be friends and focus their attention elsewhere until much later in the game. There's nothing a Democratic empire will do that will really make things difficult for another Democratic empire. They will both probably be giving resources to the Tolerant empire, if present, which will make the Tolerant empire very powerful and dangerous later in the game, but that also means that there will be another Democratic empire to help eliminate the Tolerant empire at that point. If multiple Democratic empires are present, the Tolerant empire will often find it convenient to send them out on joint military missions. It's wise for the Tolerant empire to eliminate one Democratic empire before the other, so when this happens, the empire who is destined to remain must consider carefully whether destroying the other Democratic empire with the help of the Tolerant empire, or destroying the Tolerant empire with the help of the other Democratic empire is the best option.

Democratic species obviously have high ethical compatibility with Democratic empires, and since two Democratic empires usually won't be at war, other Democratic species will also have high species-empire alignment with the Democratic empire.

Hive Mind

If the Hive Mind empire is allied with a Passive empire, and the Democratic empire is allied with a Tolerant empire, the Democratic empire and the Hive Mind empire will almost certainly be thrust into war with one another. If this is not the case however, there is no reason that they can't work together to defeat larger threats, such as Xenophobic, Reclusive and Warlord empires (which are not friendly with the Democrats in this situation, since there is no Tolerant empire for them to both be allied with).

If a high species-empire alignment can be maintained between the Hive Mind and the Democrats, the Democrats won't have a really big problem integrating them into their empire, but it will be more difficult and dangerous if there are no Tolerant or Passive empires from which to get happiness bonuses.

Hierarchical

Like the Hive Mind, Hierarchies will be against the Democratic empire if there are Tolerant and Passive empires around, and willing to be friends with the Democratic empire if there aren't. This empire is an easier target for the Democratic empire than the Hive Mind empire however, since the Hierarchy's various slave worlds are likely to include species with high allegiance to the Democratic empire. This is very likely because the Hierarchical and Democratic ethos are entirely opposed to one another, so the species which the Hierarchy needs to make slaves are the exact same species that would thrive in a Democratic empire.

Hierarchical species themselves can't usually be safely integrated into the Democratic empire due to severe ethical incompatibility.

Reclusive

Reclusive empires are one of the most dangerous empires to the Democratic empire. Since the Democrats are so vulnerable to espionage, it would be possible for a Reclusive empire to infiltrate the Democratic empire to a significant degree, make a few arbitrary displays of his espionage power within the Democratic empire, then tell the Democratic player how to run his empire, and he will have little choice but to comply, or have his empire shredded from within by espionage agents. Tolerant empires - and to a certain extent, Passive empires - can help with this, since by giving such empires gifts, happiness on the Democrats planets will go up, making them less vulnerable to espionage. It's worth the Democratic player's while to try to find the location and weaknesses of the Reclusive empire if he can, the relay this information to the Warlord, who will be all too eager to move in and destroy the Reclusive empire.

Reclusive species are almost as difficult to integrate into the Democratic empire as Hierarchical species are, and it's usually not worth the effort.

Xenophobic

The Xenophobic empire will try to use a combination of espionage and military might to defeat the Democratic empire, and overall, it will usually be very effective. Working as a team with the Tolerant empire and his allies, and making the protection of the Tolerant empire the primary goal is essential to defeating the Xenophobes. If there are no Tolerant empires, teaming up with the Hive Minds and Hierarchies will be the best way to defend agains the Xenophobes, but since they are a more difficult target for the Xenophobes, they might be content to just sit back and watch the Xenophobes destroy the Democrats. Keeping a strong military and happy, espionage resistant planets is the key to defeating the Xenophobes as the Democratic empire.

Xenophobic species don't really fit into the Democratic empire all that well - about as well as Hive Mind species would. It's not usually a good idea to try to incorporate them into a Democratic empire.

Hive Mind

Hive Mind empires incorporate lots of species into their empire as citizens. Since an empire with lots of different species at citizen level is very productive, they can afford to spend lots of trade on Security, and give lots of gifts to the Passive empire. The Passive empire is more attractive for gift-giving happiness boosts than the Tolerant empire because the Hive Mind empire will try to integrate species into his empire who won't have terribly severe ethos conflicts, and such species will have higher allegiance to the Passive empire than to the Tolerant empire.

If there are no Passive species, the Hive Mind will be compelled to ally with the Tolerant species, and if there are no Tolerant species either, the Hive Mind empire will simply have to put up with having fewer species in its empire, which will lower productivity, but result in higher happiness overall.

Relationships with other Ethoi

Warlord

The Warlord empire is usually an enemy of the Passive empire, which means that the Hive Mind empire will most likely be called upon to attack the Warlord empire. If there is no Passive empire, the Hive Mind is free to attack or not attack the Warlord empire at whatever time and with whatever allies he feels is appropriate. It's usually best to get some allies and finish the Warlords before they park their death fleet over your homeworld and start demanding technology and resources.

Warlords can't usually be integrated into a Hive Mind empire without being vulnerable to espionage, but this can be countered with good security and by giving gifts to Tolerant empire, though normally, a Hive Mind will be allied to a Passive empire.

Passive

The Passive empire is a good ally of the Hive Mind empire, since the Hive Mind empire will be able to give it gifts to increase the happiness on its planets. Eventually, the Passive empire might be compelled to eliminate the Hive Mind empire, and focus only on pleasing the Hierarchical empire. The Hive Mind empire must be prepared for this eventuality, and keep from being infiltrated too heavily by the Passive empire's spies. On the other hand, the Passive empire might choose to eliminate the Hierarchical empire and focus on pleasing the Hive Mind empire, in which case the Hive Mind empire needs to decide which of the two will be a greater threat in the long-run, and team up with the other against the more dangerous empire.

Passive species might be able to be integrated into the Hive Mind empire effectively, depending on how much the Hive Mind empire has focused on war and diplomacy.

Tolerant

Hive Minds can potentially use Tolerant empires to increase the happiness of their planets for a little while but they will tend not to be as useful as Passive empires. As such, if there is a Passive empire around, there is no reason to be friendly to the Tolerant empire, and in fact, the Passive empire will likely demand that the Hive Mind declare war against the Tolerant empire. Because the Tolerant empire realizes this, he will likely try to eliminate the Hive Mind empire preemptively so that it will not be able to do significant damage to the Tolerant empire. If there is no Passive empire, the Tolerant and Hive Mind empires have no significant motivation to go to war with one another.

Depending on how much diplomacy the Hive Mind empire is doing, it might be really difficult, or just fairly difficult to integrate a Tolerant species into the Hive Mind empire.

Democratic

If Democrats are allied with the Tolerant empire and the Hive Mind is allied with the Passive empire, their respective diplomatic allies will very likely send them to war against each other. If either the Passive empire or the Tolerant empire is not present, there is no really compelling reason why the two empires can't coexist peacefully until more pressing threats are dealt with.

Democratic species will always have neutral ethical compatibility with the Hive Mind empire, so integrating a Democratic species into the empire isn't too dangerous.

Hive Mind

Hive Mind empires have no significant reason to compete with each other. Both can co-exist peacefully until one or the other decides it will be advantageous to attack. The Passive empire may also choose to try to eliminate the Hive Mind empires one at a time by turning them against each other, in which case, one Hive Mind empire may be compelled to eliminate the other, or to ally with the other to defeat the Passive empire, since both their usefulness in the eyes of the Passive empire is obviously coming to an end.

Hive Mind species can easily be integrated into Hive Mind empires, as long as no terrible atrocity has been committed by the Hive Mind empire against the particular Hive Mind species in question.

Hierarchical

Hierarchies are usually no more threatening to Hive Minds then other Hive Minds are, though if it comes time for the Passive empire to eliminate the Hive Mind empire, the Hierarchy is more likely to comply than another Hive Mind would be, since the Hierarchy will be useful to the Passive empire for a while longer, since it's moving its alignment towards Elitism at that point. If it's the other way around, and the Hierarchy is being disposed of first, the Hive Mind will likewise be more inclined to finish off the Hierarchy rather than allying with it to defeat the Passive empire.

Hierarchical species will usually be just as easy or difficult to integrate into the Hive Mind empire as Democrats, since one ethical preference is compatible with the empire's alignment, and one is opposed to it (though variations in the Hive Mind's strategy might end up favouring one over the other, particularly before alignments are maxed out in the late-game).

Reclusive

A Hive Mind usually won't be the direct target of a Reclusive empire's espionage very early on, but the Reclusive empire might try other means of eliminating the Hive Mind empire before the late-game, such as manipulating the Democrats to do so, so that he won't have to go to the trouble of defeating it with espionage, which can be quite troublesome in a high-security empire like the Hive Mind. If there is no Passive empire though, the Reclusive empire might be more compelled to try infiltrating the Hive MInd empire, depending on the circumstances. Since the Hive Mind empire is fairly resistant to espionage, it's in no real hurry to finish off the Reclusive empire; it can wait until any more immediate threats, such as Xenophobes, are out of the way.

Reclusive species will be fairly difficult to integrate into the Hive Mind empire, since the Hive Mind will tend to be fairly Diplomatic and Bloodthirsty.

Xenophobic

If the Hive Mind has allies, it will probably be in its best interests to attack and take out the Xenophobes. If the Hive Mind does not have allies, it will be in the best interests of the Xenophobes to attack and take out the Hive Mind. If there is an approximate balance of power between the Xenophobes, and the Hive Mind and its allies, or if the more powerful side has more immediate enemies to deal with, then their inevitable encounter will be delayed. Since the Hive Mind is not too susceptible to espionage, the Xenophobic empire will have to attack with brute force, so its best to stay well-defended militarily.

Xenophobes may or may not be easier to integrate into the Hive Mind empire depending on whether or not it's been particularly Bloodthirsty.

Hierarchical

A Hierarchical empire will go around conquering and enslaving races, then use high-security measures to keep spies from infiltrating their slave worlds and wreaking havoc. This empire will tend to be less dependent on the Passive empire for keeping planets resistant to rebellions, but will find it useful for repelling other types of espionage, particularly since basic security and active purgation are much less expensive on happy planets.

The Hierarchical empire will not reduce the number of species in his empire if there are no Tolerant or Passive empires to give gifts to - instead, he will simply have to spend more trade on security to counter the effects of low happiness. This is expensive, but worth it, since unlike the Hive Mind empire, his species with low allegiance to him will be enslaved, and therefore not be a significant threat in terms of rebellion.

Relationships with other Ethoi

Warlord

If the Warlord is allied with the Tolerant empire and the Hierarchy is allied with the Passive empire, or if the Warlord is just looking for a fight, he will probably attack the Hierarchical empire. If the Hierarchy has slave species which the Warlord doesn't, those planets will probably give militia support to the Warlord empire, which will make capturing those planets much easier. The Hierarchical empire usually can't take the Warlord empire in a direct conflict, so employing espionage against the Warlord's slave worlds to decrease production can be a good strategy to defeat them.

Warlord species can easily be integrated into the Hierarchy, especially if the Hierarchy has been particularly Bloodthirsty.

Reclusive

Reclusive species just don’t want to deal with anybody. We don’t want to fight you, we don’t want to talk to you, just go away.

Reclusive empires will attempt to colonize planets in their own system and nearby systems as much as possible, but will probably send out high-detection long-range scouts to determine the location of other empires, so that they can avoid them at all costs.

This ethos is very much compatible with tech victory (if it exists), or sole-survivor victory through espionage (which is pretty hardcore), and empires who intend to use this strategy are very likely to have high research, trade and espionage bonuses, with large penalties to space combat, ground combat and diplomacy. This empire will usually choose stealth techs and techs that help him manipulate starlanes in order to keep the other empires from being aware of his existence. An extremely successful Reclusive empire should be able to play through the game without making diplomatic contact with even a single other empire, but this would by no means be easy or occur frequently. Reclusive empires have no objection to slavery, so abducting citizens from other empires and using them on slave worlds would be a strong method of increasing production of other resources, particularly since a good Reclusive race would be able to hide those worlds from his enemies, therefore keeping these low-happiness planets from being good espionage targets.

The Reclusive empire will try to keep other species at war with one another for as long as possible by keeping the balance of power relatively even through espionage. This will give him time to get enough trade and infiltrate the enemy empires to such an extent that he will be able to completely wipe out the rest of the galaxy with his spies.

Relationships with other Ethoi

Slave worlds are a common way for Reclusive species to get the non-trade resources they need; these worlds are usually acquired by abducting citizens from other empires. Some species could also be integrated as citizens or higher ranks, but that doesn't need to be common.

Warlord

The Warlord is harmless as long as he doesn't know you exist. Once he does, he will spare no expense in tracking you down and defeating you. If he doesn't know you exist, you're free to wreak havoc in his empire, sabotaging slave worlds and inciting rebellions on planets with citizen species, as well as infiltrating his mighty military, self-destructing capital ships at critical moments, and sometimes even completely taking over a fleet of ships with espionage and bringing it back to the Reclusive empire.

Warlord species usually shouldn't be integrated into the Reclusive empire as citizens, but they do make nice slaves for increasing industry and mineral production.

Passive

Passive empires are a significant nuisance to the Reclusive empire. It's not easy to take them out quickly, so the Reclusive empire needs to decide whether it's worth trying to take down the Passive empire, or if it's better to just focus espionage in empires who can't get huge happiness bonuses by giving to the Passive empire. If the Reclusive empire can reveal himself to a single empire, and display the power of his espionage within that empire, it can be coerced into doing the Reclusive empire's bidding under the threat of severe espionage.

Passive species have neutral ethical compatibility with the Reclusive empire, so they could potentially be integrated into the empire as citizens and used for Trade production, though it's uncertain if that would be any better than just keeping the Reclusive species on Trade production. However, if a species gets an espionage bonus for having a higher rank, then having Passive species to produce Trade would free the Reclusive species to be Overlords and focus on espionage, since the Passive species will be making up for their decreased Trade production.

Tolerant

Tolerant empires are also very annoying, but since them and their allies will have lower security, it will be much easier for them to be infiltrated. A Tolerant empire will have nobody to turn to if its planets have low happiness, since there's nobody with higher allegiance from its species than the Tolerant empire itself. While the increased happiness implicit in that fact makes espionage activity more expensive, it also makes it potentially more rewarding. If the Tolerant empire discerns the location of the Reclusive empire however, and is able to get there, it and its allies will easily be able to eliminate the Reclusive empire. The Reclusive empire must gain sufficient espionage power to take over or destroy a large portion of the enemy's ships on command before an invasion of the Reclusive empire can be permitted to occur.

Tolerant species are about as likely to be integrated into the Reclusive empire as citizens as Passive species are, but there is less incentive for this to occur, since they will not have the same Trade bonuses as the Passive empire, or the same Mining and Industry bonuses as the Warlord empire. It's more likely that there will be no Tolerant species in a Reclusive empire unless they have an EP that is very different than any of the other species in the Reclusive empire, and the Reclusive empire has chosen not to research the techs that would make those environments more suitable.

Democratic

Democratic empires are particularly vulnerable to espionage, so they can be infiltrated easily and used to acquire technologies, ship designs, etc. In addition, it's possible for the Reclusive empire to make contact with this empire once it is fully infiltrated, and tell the Democratic empire what to do, who to declare war on, etc, and as long as the actions aren't too much against their bets interests, they will comply out of fear of your powerful espionage agents. This is particularly useful if there are no Tolerant or Passive empires about, but even if there are, the Democratic empire might find it more effective to just accept to the Reclusive empire's control rather than wasting a lot of resources trying to increase happiness.

Democratic species can theoretically be integrated into the Reclusive empire as citizens without much difficulty, since there's no explicit need for slavery or high security, but there won't usually be good incentive to.

Hive Mind

Hive Mind empires have high security, which makes them fairly difficult to infiltrate, particularly as long as there is a Passive empire around to increase happiness on their planets. It's usually better to defeat these empires by proxy, for example, by manipulating the Democratic empire into declaring war on them and defeating them. If that option is unavailable, it is best to try to destroy the empire's supply of Trade, so that it can no longer afford basic security and active purgation.

Hive Mind species are not usually integrated easily as citizens into a Reclusive empire, but they can be.

Hierarchy

The Hierarchical empire should usually be dealt with in the same way as the Hive Mind empire - by getting someone else to do the dirty work for you. Hierarchical empires will often have myriad slave worlds, which can serve as a good source of abducted population if the Reclusive empire wants to integrate new species into his empire.

Hierarchical species are more easily integrated into a Reclusive empire than Hive Mind species, since the Reclusive empire will usually be using slavery, but the fact that the Reclusive empire doesn't need high security will continue to make it somewhat difficult.

Reclusive

Part of being a good spying empire is to be able to take what you need without other empires necessarily being too upset about their losses. If you focus too much on a single empire, aside from one which you intend to manipulate or eliminate, then that empire is likely to try to find your empire and destroy it. This is more difficult when there are multiple Reclusive empires in the same galaxy trying to take resources and ships and population from the same set of empires. In addition, when higher security empires see more espionage meters on their planets, they are more likely to initiate active purgation. Because of this, it is wise for a Reclusive empire to try to find the other Reclusive empire if it exists, then somehow reveal its location to the rest of the galaxy, so that the other empires will destroy it.

Another Reclusive species can easily be integrated into the Reclusive empire, since there is a high level of ethical compatibility, and the Reclusive empire will have committed no (or very few) atrocities against the other Reclusive species that would lower their species-empire alignment.

Xenophobic

Xenophobic empires are no more dangerous to the Reclusive empire than any other empire is. In fact, they are usually less dangerous, since they won't see the Reclusive empire as being as great a threat as most of the other empires do. The Reclusive empire should try to make the conflict between the Xenophobic empire and everyone else as even as possible, so that they will expend more resources on their conflict while the Reclusive empire steals and stockpiles ships and resources from everyone, and heavily infiltrates every empire in preparation for destroying them all from within.

Xenophobic are more easily integrated into a Reclusive empire than Reclusive species are integrated into a Xenophobic empire because the Reclusive empire can more readily afford to have planets with sub-optimal happiness and allegiance. In addition, the Reclusive empire probably won't have done anything to lower species-empire alignment with the Xenophobic species, so they will not have abysmally low allegiance towards the Reclusive empire.

Xenophobic

Xenophobic species are intent on destroying other species, and are totally unwilling to make treaties or alliances with anybody. Slavery is just fine though, so the player essentially can capture a planet and enslave it when it’s convenient, and likewise just completely annihilate a planet when it’s convenient.

Xenophobic players will usually focus primarily on military, but not to the same extent as the Warlord empire, since the Warlord empire is able to get a lot of the resources and technology he needs just through threats of violence. A Xenophobic empire will not be willing to do so, and therefore will need to use other means of manipulating empires and taking their resources and technology, most notably, espionage. The advantage he’ll get from weakening the other player’s empire from within will make up for the fact that he will have fewer production points to build lots of warships. Also, unlike the Warlord, he is not compelled to have many slave planets because allegiance of his main species is unaffected by the Elitism vs. Egalitarianism scale. This will give him an advantage in terms of flexibility, since he can enslave enemy planets to get a good resource bonus, then exterminate them if they prove to be too much of an espionage liability.

Xenophobic races will usually have some combination of space combat bonuses, ground combat bonuses, espionage bonuses, and various resource production bonuses, particularly trade, mining and industry, since essentially all of these can be of great use to him. Penalties will certainly include diplomacy, and will probably also include other myriad penalties which don’t apply directly to resource production.

Relationships with other Ethoi

There are some species that can be effectively integrated into the Xenophobic empire as citizens, but since their species-empire alignment will usually be very low, due to the Bloodthirsty atrocities committed by this empire, it's usually better to just enslave or exterminate them.

Warlord

The Warlord is closer to being Xenophobic than any other empire. His main weakness is his slave planets, which the Xenophobic empire can infiltrate to gain information and technology, then conduct military sabotage in preparation for invasion. Invading slave worlds will be easier in the early game, since slave planets will usually have lower allegiance to their current owners than to anyone else, and will give militia support to the invaders. Later in the game, if the Xenophobic empire has slave planets of the same species, such planets will obviously no longer have higher allegiance to the Xenophobic empire.

Warlord species are one of the few that can very easily be integrated into a Xenophobic empire at a level of citizen or higher, and can increase production of minerals and industry or used in military roles.

Passive

Passive empires can be difficult to defeat if they have the support of Hive Minds and Hierarchies. Their allies should be eliminated first, one by one, then the Passive empire should be eliminated. It is unwise to use espionage to prepare the Passive empire's allies for invasion, since this will only encourage them to give more gifts to the Passive empire to increase happiness on their planets, which will make them more valuable to the Passive empire and illicit stronger support from them in defending from the Xenophobic empire.

Passive species cannot possibly be integrated into the Xenophobic empire as citizens without becoming severe espionage liabilities later in the game. If they are enslaved though, they will make excellent producers of Trade.

Tolerant

From the Xenophobe's perspective, the main distinction between the Tolerant empire and the Passive empire is that the Tolerant empire's allies are more vulnerable to espionage when they have nobody to give gifts to and increase the happiness of their planets, since the Passive empire attracts high-security empires, whereas the Tolerant empire mainly allies with Warlords and Democrats. Because of this, the Tolerant empire should be eliminated first, then its allies can be softened up with espionage and eliminated.

Tolerant species are easier to integrate into the Xenophobic empire as citizens than Passive species, but it's still not at all likely to be a good idea.

Democratic

This empire should be eliminated using espionage. If a Tolerant empire exists, it should be wiped out so that the Democratic empire doesn't have an easy way to increase the happiness of his planets. Once the Tolerant empire is out of the way, there is very little chance for the Democratic empire to withstand the Xenophobic empire's raging wave of espionage and military.

Democratic species can theoretically be integrated perfectly into a Xenophobic empire, but that's unlikely to occur very often in practice, since the Xenophobic empire will probably have high security, quite a bit of slavery, and will have destroyed a lot of Democratic planets, all of which will lower the allegiance of Democratic species towards the Xenophobic empire.

Hive Mind

The Hive Mind won't be very susceptible to espionage due to high security, but the resources it expends on Security are resources that it didn't spend on its military. The Xenophobic empire can whip the Hive Mind in a straight fight, but realistically, it will have the support of the Passive empire, who may also send other empires after the Xenophobic empire.

Circumstances might allow the Xenophobic empire to integrate the Hive Mind species into his empire as citizens, but for the most part, they're better off as slaves.

Hierarchical

The Hierarchical empire is dealt with similarly to the Hive Mind empire, except that the Hierarchical empire has the particular weakness that its slave worlds will probably be willing to offer militia support to the Xenophobes, or at the very least, will refrain from offering significant militia support to the Hierarchy. Targeting the Hierarchy's slave planets first will help ensure their quick elimination.

Hierarchical species can usually be incorporated fairly easily into a Xenophobic empire, but security and elitism might not always be maxed out, and its very likely that actions taken against the Hierarchical species has decreased its allegiance towards the Xenophobic species, so it won't always be possible/easy to integrate this species as citizen or above.

Reclusive

The Reclusive empire isn't a big problem for the Xenophobic empire, since it's fairly strong against espionage. There's no huge reason for the Xenophobic empire to try to eliminate the Reclusive empire sooner than anyone else. In fact, it's probably best to leave them until last. Once the other empires are out of the way, the Xenophobic empire should be able to take out the Reclusive empire fairly easily, provided his empire hasn't been infiltrated too severely.

Reclusive species can be somewhat integrated into the Xenophobic empire due to the Isolationist alignment, but the Bloodthirstiness alignment can make this problematic.

Xenophobic

The Xenophobic empire probably shouldn't waste too much time and resources fighting other Xenophobic empires, particularly when there are so many other empires out to get the Xenophobic empires. The Xenophobic empire should instead try to eliminate as many other empires as possible and gain as much power as possible, then eliminate the other Xenophobic empire when it is convenient, usually when most of the other empires have been eliminated.

Other Xenophobic species can usually be integrated fairly easily into the empire, but due to differences in species-empire alignment, it's possible that in some cases, it would be quite difficult.