Diplomacy

u need 1st contact to communicate in any way

the diplomacy on mine is a bit crazy too, I dont really start treatys but npc`s send them all the time, there is a delay of up to 2-3 turns i found sometimes for ure message to arrive. Also check the communications tab on your news page just incase. Also if you are not on good terms with the recipient they might be ignoring u??? :-s ..but I doubt the AI has been programmed to ignore the player.
Actually i just read some1 said 2 of the ai opponents wont even reply to him so it is a factor.

Neutral empires do not engage in any diplomacy, that's why you're not getting any response. I first thought it was a feature, then a bug. Since it's not fixed in patch (and the fix is really easy), I'm no longer sure. Most players seem to be of the mentality that neutrals are just "speed bumps", and maybe MM agrees.

Anyway, anybody who wants neutrals to be more diplomatic can change it themselves:
Run [SE5 Directory]\Utilities\ScriptParser\ScriptParser.exe.
Open (in ScriptParser) the file SE5EmpireScripts\Default_Main_Script.txt
Scroll down until you find the line that begins "set str_Politics_Speech...". Should be about line 0227.
Change "Neutral_AI_Speech.txt" to "Default_AI_Speech.txt" (n.b. the problem is Neutral_ doesn't exist. For some reason creating it doesn't change anything though.)
Save the file, then hit "Compile". This will create a file called Default_Main_Script.csv.
Copy the file to the \Empires\Default folder. MAKE SURE you back up the old one first (rename it to Default_Main_Script_old or whatever).

In the diplomacy screen, you can click on the races you have contacted in the upper left. It shows you their race picture and their Shipset. The "default" races all use the same dull gray shipset. If you see that shipset, they are never going to respond to you.

Might it be better to create a small mod in your own game instead of editing the defaults? Sometimes changes made get out of control and we can't remember what we changed and where... j/m .02

*snip* Double post....

Always check the Race description, it usually gives hints about what the race is like, and the neutrals normally have something about them not knowing how to use Warp points or something similar.
Baron Grazic

[edit] Spelling.