How to diplomacy?

[Eadee]

I've played some SMAC&SMACX the past years but I never played Multiplayer or searched the internet for it.

This year both things changed and I learned a LOT how to improve my strategy.

At the moment I play at Librarian difficulty and its quite easy going I'm usually extremely expansionist and become tech leader soon. My games may take forever but I usually win in the end.

Now I tried to switch to Transcendend difficulty and most things work pretty well. But Diplomacy is horror for me at this difficulty. If I keep my techs and EC for myself they declare war on me for being an A******. If I give them Techs and/or credits they declare war on me because I'm weak. So no matter what way I choose I always end up with everyone against me (maybe except for 1-2 tiny factions who cry for help wich I can't provide).

So, are there any hints on how to keep the AIs to declare war on me all the time? How do you handle diplomacy and how do you prevent being overrun by crazy AIs?

[Mart]

Being weak/strong is not the only factor, that decides if AI attacks human player.
Factions have their ideologies, so for example Morgan will become seething if you run Planned economy for long time.
When you switch to Free Market, he will be friendly.
There is this mechanism to watch for and plan accordingly.

But anyway, towards game end, all AI are eventually going to be against human player. And this is to be expected.

[Yitzi]

It's designed so that AI is homicidal on higher difficulties.

This is probably something that could be made moddable.

[Mart]

It's designed so that AI is homicidal on higher difficulties.

This is probably something that could be made moddable.

You mean, that AI is backstabbing human player?

Scenario editor has some setting: "shamelessly betray human player" or something similar. Maybe the game turns that ON in some circumstances?

[Eadee]

Well, maybe I shouldn't rely on the displayed mood of faction leaders if they really have such a settign active. :o

[Nexii]

Aggressive factions (Hive, Believers) are also more likely to declare Vendetta than Pacifist (Gaian, Morgan)
Another factor is also if you are at war with an enemy of a faction, this will aggravate them over time
And I've found the biggest one is your relative might, once you are much ahead they won't treaty/ally you.

To prevent being overrun, mostly it consists of getting the AIs to fight one another (by probes)
Also, keeping a decent military although this will slow your growth.
Keeping a few allies is very crucial for commerce/tech trades.  It's not always bad to give generous trades.  Usually you want to pressure the AIs near you and pact/ally those too far away to Vendetta