War, what is it good for?

Keep an eye on the other Empire's mood towards your Empire. It might take a few more combats before they'll be angry enough to break the treaty themselves and declare war if you don't.

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Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Yes, the AI will take a lot of hostile actions into account. I understand that it will even frown upon you having a ship in a system they consider "theirs", for example. The relationship will go downhill for every one of these "incidents", of course eradicating a colony would be factored heavily, while a little "skirmish" between two hot-headed frigate captains will not be reason to declare all out war (although it could be the little drop that makes the barrel overflow, as we Germans say:-) )

What I am sorely missing in this game is an indicator of why the other empire likes or dislikes you - this indicator seems to be a standard in modern rts games (Civ4, GalCiv2, etc.) and it helps to understand the enemies action.

Jan

I just captured two systems including the homeplanet of one of my "enemies". They didn't declare war yet, neither did I. Maybe they'll do as soon as I capture the next, and last, two systems?

Bug or feature?

one point is that other empires see what diplomatic status you have with another.
placer C is at war with player B. if player C sees that A and B have a trade agreement
he won´t like you either as you are helping his enemy, even if you fight against B you are for others somehow allied (or at least befriended) with him.

so from your point of view war has not much effects, it´s more a fact that you show that you defenitly don´t like the other player.

I agree to Geokinkladze.
As an oponents allies might declare war against you as soon as you'll go to war against an AI's empire, I can see only one reason to declare war before attacking: You want to have military support by your allies.
If you don't need them or even don't want them to attack your enemy - they might conquer some of your targets - there's no need to declare war ever.

War, what is it good for?
--> Absolutely nothing.

i have never seen this in my 1.08 games. If i leave a ship long enought in there system i see there mood change. If i attack there plantes, next turn they declare war. somethime with all the updates it might be time for a fresh install. I had to do this to get my color tac map to work.

Indeed, the default state between empires is undeclared war. Declaring war will just make you subject to war exhaustion and trigger messages from the other side's 'friends' instructing you to make peace.

I suppose if you wanted to inflict war exhaustion on the enemy (and yourself) that would be a reason to declare war. Other than that, you're free to blast, conquer, and exterminate at will without the formalities.

Due to bugs, war with a member of an alliance cannot end; so that's one more thing to consider.

zalon's idea has merit, but I don't think the game would respond properly. You don't have to be at war to request military assistence, and I'd be surprised to get any worthwhile support from an AI friend or ally.

Even if there were no bugs, and everything worked properly, the incentive to declare war would be small. The rules of the game might need to be revised. I think a DoW should be required before one can attack an enemy planet. Ships are debatable, but in the case of planets I see no room for argument. A shortcut would be to just make a DoW issue automatically any time a planet is attacked.

This is not without precident in real life. In the early days of New World colonization, the Pope sponsored the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain & Portugal which basically drew a line on the map - east of the line the non-European world belonged to Portugal and West of it the world belonged to Spain. Of course, the other colonial powers didn't recognize it (especially the Protestant ones, obviously not caring much what the Pope thought). So, in the Caribbean (Spain's bailiwick, according to the treaty), a situation evolved where regardless of the current state of war or peace or shifting alliances in Europe, "West of The Line" it was undeclared war between Spain and all comers. "No peace beyond The Line" was how they put it...