Alliances useful??

alliances are currently totally bugged and not to be used.

if they get fixed they should be better than regular treaties. with treaties you still fight each other when you happen to be both in a spacefight, shouldn´t happen with alliances.
also you can see that your alliance partner is doing the same diplomacy as you do, for example....

you have a treaty with one ai. at one time you and your ai-partner go into war on a third ai and you both declare war.
but from now, you can´t controll how your partner-ai handles the war, it can be that he´ll make peace a few rounds later again.
declaring war as an alliance, you know that they´ll fight on with you.

Since alliances prevent member empires from outside treaties with non-Alliance members, it allows for some control of your allies' diplomatic dealings, particularly when you're a stronger member of the alliance. The weaker empires in the Alliance enjoy the benefits (trade, sensor data, etc) and will tow the line most of the time rather than leave the alliance and potential be its next target etc.

It's also fun for RP-style games.

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Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

I don't see that there are any options in an alliance that don't exist in normal treaties. In treaties you can agree not to attack each other and you can also make "defense pacts" just like in an alliance.

The advantage of alliances (if alliances were to work correctly), as I see it, is that multiple races can join the same "treaty". So, if Empire A is a little hostile but is friends with Empire B and Empire B joins your alliance then Empire A will be more inclined to join and you three can be a big, happy resource-trading, technology-sharing family.

I wish alliances worked!!!!!! They aren't useful but they could be!

If/when alliances begin to work, they'll save hassling with renegotiating all the time. Once you get the features you want, all new members will be subject to them as soon as they join.

I haven't yet seen a game with more than one alliance. Once they work right, I expect the best counter to an enemy alliance will be an alliance of your own. Otherwise you're friends may be invited to join the other side.

I've only played one game that had an alliance. Every empire but the neutral and xenophobic empires joined. After I quite the alliance, I tried to form one with the non-alligned empires...but, of course, they were not interested. And then the Alliance wouldn't let me back in. That sucked.

I have an alliance horror story. I was playing my first hotseat game and we were like 70 turns in when I decide to create an alliance to get some AI to interfere with his plans. I thought I would be the big dog with the most pop, but my recon was off. Anyway, they made no research an alliance thing over my head, so I left the alliance. I started some treaties with non involved species, but all of a sudden, the alliance sucked me back in without my consent, dooming my game.