Are there no friendly aliens???

[Oedipus's Stepdad]

I bought this game expecting space diplomacy NOT f*cking Warhammer 40k where literally every surrounding faction vivisects all of my science ships. I am playing on the easiest difficulty and I'm still struggling just to survive; this is nothing like EU4 or CK2

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Sounds like the rng screwed you over.
Nice alliens are xenophile's.
But just like real life.
If you dont have an army.
You dont get respect.

Be strong and they will shower you with: Please be my ally/dont hurt me requests.

[Cmd Gabriel]

Depends on your race. Is it xenophob? Others sense this... :) - Yes, there are friendlys. Federations are a great tool. Keep playing!

[Stormwind]

I am surrounded by friendlies in my first nemesis game, had to go out of my way to make an enemy.

[Garatgh Deloi]

The game can spawn plenty of friendly aliens (or aliens that want nothing to do with you).

What empires you get is random unless you custom create all of them, but from my experience the game does weight it somewhat (for example, if you play as a megacorp its more likely that some of the random empires will be megacorps (competition)).

[thomashenders]

That's pretty rare in my experience I've had Fanatic Purifier neighbors that I was able to keep "friendly". The key is to have enough military to be a deterrence. If your too weak your too tempting.

[thomashenders]

As to the science ships., its rare that they don't get away from a hostile player encounter at least for me.

[FuriousGreg]

Two out of six encounter got eaten in the game I'm playing now. Not sure if that's the norm or not yet as it's just my first start.

[ahnkra]

my first game spawned 4 hive minds, and i was really worried. But I managed to make friends of three of them and the 4th is far enough away that if he decides to eat me, he will end up loosing allhis teeth! lol

[Madcain]

did you by any chance start as a devouring swarm or something?

you can send envoys to improve relations with neighbors to either try and gain allies or keep them in a neutral position towards your empire or colony or whatever you call your little faction

[Hexagoros]

Originally posted by Oedipus's Stepdad:

I bought this game expecting space diplomacy NOT f*cking Warhammer 40k where literally every surrounding faction vivisects all of my science ships. I am playing on the easiest difficulty and I'm still struggling just to survive; this is nothing like EU4 or CK2

It happens.

Sometimes you get a galaxy full of xenophobes and military dictatorships.

Other times you get a galaxy full of Xenophiles and pacifists.

Sometimes you get a balance of the two, or an imbalance (the most fun in my opinion).

This kind of randomness, where quite literally no two games are alike, is what keeps Stellaris replayable.

[Kafson]

Expect nothing less, the strong rule, the weak perish.

[Bone White]

The best way to get friends is to have a mutual enemy/threat. Even Xenophobes will want to get closer ties with you if they have a threatening neighbour - just give it time. Deploy your envoys and wait for the "new contact" debuff to tick down - preferably before you start grating on their borders.