User:Bigjoe5/Alignments

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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 planets containing the higher ranking species will be happier and more productive due to their higher rank; essentially, this allows the empire to have a very 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 fairly 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.

- 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 elitist without having any elitist 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”.

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. 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.

- 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.


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.

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. 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. 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.

Democratic

The Democratic race is pleased when the empire has lots of different species all being treated equally and when the player has lots of diplomatic negotiations with other empires. This empire will find it advantageous to follow a diplomatic strategy in which the Bloodthirstiness alignment is neutral and the Elitism alignment is at extreme Egalitarianism. The fact that his Egalitarianism and Diplomacy will become maxed out means that the allegiance of his Democratic species will also become maxed out, and he can use them as his primary military race.

Since this empire will be somewhat focused on war, space combat bonuses are likely, in addition to whatever bonuses affect diplomacy. Resource production bonuses are unlikely and not required, since the diversity of species which will exist in this empire will be sufficient to allow bonuses to production of essentially all resources to be available.

This empire will usually use diplomacy to acquire planets and colony ships with new species, but he is also likely to liberate slave planets from Elitist empires and incorporate them into his empire. In addition, diplomacy will also represent a large part of his strategy in general, and he will use it to manipulate other empires to put himself at an advantage.

Species of all different ethoi could conceivably be brought into this empire without significant allegiance penalties, but any Warlord, Xenophobic or Reclusive planets will still represent a weak spot in the player’s empire due to the ethical incompatibility which will result in an allegiance of about 60 at the very best (the value would usually be a bit lower due to species-empire alignments, since the empire was probably waging war against these race’s previous owners), making them good targets for espionage compared to the rest of the empire, and potentially being candidates for espionage-incited rebellion.


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. 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.

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 to 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 (or none at all) 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.

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, 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.


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, as is capturing other planets, 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, 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.