Academy can... buy stuff from the aliens.

[Dauntless Duelist]

The Resistance doesn't want you to know this, but the aliens will just sell you exotics I have 81 exotics


More seriously, the Academy can trade with the aliens! I'm not sure what the exact requirements for this are- it's likely Learn Their Language + not being at war? It *could* be Question the Captive, or having researched Exotics / Alien Technology. It's possible all the other factions can do this as well, though I know I've seen a few references in stuff which state that Academy counts as a 'pro-aliens' faction? Very unsure!

[Dauntless Duelist]

ohhey this also drops your Threat!

[gimmethegepgun]

The requirement is to research Hydra Diplomacy.
Doing this before completely kicking the aliens off of Earth is probably the single worst thing you can do as Academy, though, because it also allows them to freely travel from anywhere with CPs held by someone with Alien Diplomacy (so Academy, Protectorate, Servants) or the Alien Administration, to anywhere with the same. So instead of being able to tell where they likely are based on public opinion and CP changes and then find them, they can basically be ANYWHERE at any given time. Also, they're able to follow your councilors around to Assassinate them, if they move somewhere applicable.

[Dauntless Duelist]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

The requirement is to research Hydra Diplomacy.
Doing this before completely kicking the aliens off of Earth is probably the single worst thing you can do as Academy, though, because it also allows them to freely travel from anywhere with CPs held by someone with Alien Diplomacy (so Academy, Protectorate, Servants) or the Alien Administration, to anywhere with the same. So instead of being able to tell where they likely are based on public opinion and CP changes and then find them, they can basically be ANYWHERE at any given time. Also, they're able to follow your councilors around to Assassinate them, if they move somewhere applicable.

Oh, that's neat and makes sense! It's probably bad to do this before you have... wait, you can't do this without performing a capture or similar. It'd be good if the game told you this, still.

I have decided I really don't care, though- there's already an Alien Administration and I'm pretty sure Servants exist. I'll kick the aliens out of earth orbit / earth in general... eventually, maybe. I don't think I actually need to in order to win, but it'd be more convenient if I did probably.

I do think it'd be *hilarious* to essentially just try to usurp Servants as Academy- obtain large sums of cash, remove Servants from Earth orbit and hand the aliens bribes to look the other way. Probably more practical as Protectorate.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Dauntless Duelist:

I'll kick the aliens out of earth orbit / earth in general... eventually, maybe. I don't think I actually need to in order to win, but it'd be more convenient if I did probably.

You do still have to fight the aliens in open warfare to win as Academy. They're pro-alien according to their ideology, but in practice they're like the anti-alien factions, because their goal is to negotiate with the Hydra, but to do that you need leverage, which means kicking their asses.

[Relendis]

I find it is actually more useful to have Hydra agents try to act in your territory by being able to travel there; makes it much easier to capture/kill them.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Relendis:

I find it is actually more useful to have Hydra agents try to act in your territory by being able to travel there; makes it much easier to capture/kill them.

It's far more difficult to FIND them since they aren't confined to any particular area.

[Ericus1]

Yep. Since Surveil Region affects the region and all neighboring regions, it is significantly easier to find an alien when you know they can only move one region away from wherever you just had indications of their activity. They pretty much have to be within the area covered by your mission.

It also opens up countries that would otherwise be immune to alien actions since they cannot swim to get to them. Anything with its capital on an island (so Japan, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) is essentially immune to alien influence because they have no way to walk there, can't fly, and rarely crash down into these locations. But once you open up flight to them, now they can target those nations.

This is simply another reason that Academy simply gets the short end of the stick as far as factions go.

[Dauntless Duelist]

Originally posted by Ericus1:

This is simply another reason that Academy simply gets the short end of the stick as far as factions go.

The ability to trade with aliens to reduce threat while countering their operations seems fairly substantial?

[Ericus1]

It's not as useful as you'd imagine. The rates border on extortionate, the hate reduction is minimal, and the reality is that Academy has to fight the aliens even more than Resistance does to reach their victory conditions.

You're better off just going total war in the mid 2020s like an anti-alien faction.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Ericus1:

You're better off just going total war in the mid 2020s like an anti-alien faction.

And NEVER researching Alien Diplomacy until you're ready to meet your victory condition, because it offers nothing of value and only makes things harder for you.

[Dauntless Duelist]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by Ericus1:

You're better off just going total war in the mid 2020s like an anti-alien faction.

And NEVER researching Alien Diplomacy until you're ready to meet your victory condition, because it offers nothing of value and only makes things harder for you.

...you all play Academy weird. Maybe it's because I got something strange where destroying an initial landing ship did not cause aggro? But, no, you can just kill the alien armies and not destroy the alien administration, which will still let you do funky diplomatic maneuvering.

...aliens very rarely do missions which are actually impactful. A majority of AI councilors rarely do missions which are actually impactful, which is sort of awkward. I find that they very often were wasting actions sending requests to stop wars with the alien administration, even. Are you suuure having an alien administration on planet makes alien operations more effective overall?

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Dauntless Duelist:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

And NEVER researching Alien Diplomacy until you're ready to meet your victory condition, because it offers nothing of value and only makes things harder for you.

...you all play Academy weird. Maybe it's because I got something strange where destroying an initial landing ship did not cause aggro? But, no, you can just kill the alien armies and not destroy the alien administration, which will still let you do funky diplomatic maneuvering.
[...]
Are you suuure having an alien administration on planet makes alien operations more effective overall?

It's not about the alien administration, it's that they can freely move between any region of any country that has at least 1 CP belonging to a faction that has researched Alien Diplomacy, or is the AA.
This means that if there are alien agents on Earth, they aren't localized to any particular area and are thus much harder to find, they can easily go to the capital of your countries to use Enthrall Elites, including ones that otherwise are inaccessible to them like Japan and Australia, and if they find one of your councilors they can much more easily Assassinate them since they can follow them to any eligible location, rather than only being able to do it if the councilor stays within 1 region of where a Hydra was the previous turn.

[Dauntless Duelist]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by Dauntless Duelist:

...you all play Academy weird. Maybe it's because I got something strange where destroying an initial landing ship did not cause aggro? But, no, you can just kill the alien armies and not destroy the alien administration, which will still let you do funky diplomatic maneuvering.
[...]
Are you suuure having an alien administration on planet makes alien operations more effective overall?

It's not about the alien administration, it's that they can freely move between any region of any country that has at least 1 CP belonging to a faction that has researched Alien Diplomacy, or is the AA.
This means that if there are alien agents on Earth, they aren't localized to any particular area and are thus much harder to find, they can easily go to the capital of your countries to use Enthrall Elites, including ones that otherwise are inaccessible to them like Japan and Australia, and if they find one of your councilors they can much more easily Assassinate them since they can follow them to any eligible location, rather than only being able to do it if the councilor stays within 1 region of where a Hydra was the previous turn.

This... makes sense. I also understand the movement thing. However, I would assume that Servants and Protectorate exist, have at least 1 CP, and probably research Alien Diplomacy significantly before you're setting up your endgame conditions as Academy.

I think that delaying researching Alien Diplomacy can make sense. I think that there's also an opportunity for it where it can allow you to impede the aliens more without drawing retribution. I would say that's something of value?

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Dauntless Duelist:

However, I would assume that Servants and Protectorate exist, have at least 1 CP, and probably research Alien Diplomacy significantly before you're setting up your endgame conditions as Academy.

Yes, and you can evict them from such places to prevent that from being an issue.
Whereas you necessarily will have the problem anywhere that YOU have a presence on Earth if you do research it.

[Dauntless Duelist]

oh, I was misunderstanding- I was under the impression it allowed for global mobility, not only to control points with diplomacy.