Diplomatic empire?

[.Esík]

I played most of the paradox interactive games so for example i know, i can easily play EU4 only with diplomacy and slight army force and still beat whole world. In HOI 4 it is opposite, so you have to have army to enjoy game and diplomacy is just basic. What about stellaris? Is this mix of warfare and good diplomacy/economy game? Can i for example achieve some kind of big corporate with vassals and play game more peacefully and for example having "citadel" like in mass effect games? Or you just win game by making thousands of ships and then those ships go vrrr and boom and you win?

[pete3great]

War is inevitable. You can't diplomacy your way out of everything. That said, large vassal empires are the go-to now, and you can build a trade/diplomacy focused build that will win the game. So the answer is it's a mix.

[Blood of Kerensky]

Originally posted by pete3great:

War is inevitable. You can't diplomacy your way out of everything. That said, large vassal empires are the go-to now, and you can build a trade/diplomacy focused build that will win the game. So the answer is it's a mix.

Exactly like that. But if you rely on diplomacy, you don't have to fight alone. If you are good at it, you can let others fight your wars. But they are inevitable.

[Peter34]

You won't be taken seriously by the AI polities, if they can attack you with impunity, using much stronger navies.

My approach, as a formal Pacifist, or sometimes as just a de facto pacifist, is to build a strong navy and maintain my techological edge relative to the other polities, but an alternative approach would be to have other polities committed in advance to defending you should war be declared on you.

You can do this by being a Vassal of someone, or by having one or more Defensive Pacts (although these are much easier to get if you have a strong navy). or by being a member of Federation (here, fleet strength matters less regarding the initial "yes", but it still matters), or by *having* Vassals.

Of course, many Vassals are one-system polities that you've Enlightened up from Primitive-hood, so they won't be very strong. But sometimes a more substantial AI polity will come crawling to you moaning "plz be my Daddy?". and that counts for something, especially if it happens multiple times. You can also directly propose to become the overlord of another polity (i.e. propose that they become your Vassal) and if they say no then you get a window-of-opportunity to declare war on them to force Vassalhood upon them.

In all of those cases, if the force committed to defending you is too strong, the belligerent AI polity will choose not to declare war on you.

So... the answer to your question is "kinda".

Stellaris isn't a wargame, the same way HoI is, but the AI polities *are* out there aggressively searching for victims, and if you look like a victim then they will victimize you.

[felmari]

i would say yes.

the game is war centric but you can take a diplomatic approach yet there will be those you will never be able come to any common ground with but with so many friends does it mater. as for a pacifist approach only as others as buffers where you may be at war but may not have to fight at all yourself.

[Ryika]

Stellaris is the kind of game where having a large navy is what allows you to do peaceful diplomacy.

People will not attack you if you're stronger, and fleet strength is the major factor in how willing other empires are to become your subjects. It's also one of the dominant factors that decide how much sway you have in the galactic community.

That being said, if you have that fleet, using it is always a strong option, so playing peacefully is kind of intentionally ignoring a potential power gain. Plus, the endgame crises do not care about diplomacy and must be met on the battlefield.

You can play the peaceful game without a fleet if you have the right neighbors, but that's always a bit luck based.

[CrUsHeR]

If you play with the default map settings and no custom empires - diplomacy is completely unpredictable.

Your diplomatic empire could start in the middle of a bunch of Exterminators, or a bunch of xenophile pacifists.

In the latter case, yes you're gonna have a great time if you only outtech everyone, then suddenly pump out some vastly overwhelming fleets and make them protectorates.
In the former case, it would be a miracle to even survive, of course depending on difficulty settings.

Or you start alone, in the middle of an uninhabited third of a huge galaxy. Nobody to even talk to for at least 50 years. In that case a conquest-oriented empire would be screwed even more than a tech/diplomacy oriented one.



What helps a lot for a diplomatic, semi-peaceful, empire building experience:

1) Custom Empires - make a mix of themed, efficient empires who are at least capable of diplomacy, set them forced to spawn. They're probably still at each other's throats, even if they tend to like you (the Xenophile opinion bonus is pretty powerful). So making friends with one may make the others gang up on you regardless.

2) No Clustered Starts (mod) - evens out of the distribution of all player spawns. Fixes the problem with either starting completely isolated, or sandwiched in between half the galaxy's empires.

[Bored Peon]

Diplomacy is easily done with Stellaris to a certain point. You are going to fight one way or another, it is unavoidable.

Making friends is easily done with envoy and perks.
Once you have friends you make a federation.
Federations use economy weights.

Just keep in mind have weak fleet power can create more wars than it prevents. The AI sees that weak status and you become a target.

Also the AI does not bother to check for possible allies when declaring wars.

Rebellions are the same way as there is no look at possibility of success. Which the AI really sucks @#$% through a silly straw when it comes to avoiding rebellions. Which when you conquer some of their planets you can see why.