I thought there used to be an ideas thread here. Anyways here's mine.
When negotiating a peace treaty, a bonus or penalty for breaking that treaty. For example, have the length of the treaty negotiated and a penalty if war is declared with that race within that time frame. If the time frame expires, the treaty is still in effect but the penalty is not. A 6 month peace treaty if broken will cost the attacking player 1000 (or whatever amount). That money could be divided at the United Planets or given straight to the race attacked maybe decided by a UP vote. A 2 week peace treaty if broken might cost the attacking player 50 and so on with the penalty determined by the length of the treaty. Peace treaties seem to mean nothing to the AI and there is no reason not to break them.
Maybe it's already in there, but have allies more willing to trade techs between each other.
More defined borders - only a very small number of ships can cross the border of a non ally without getting an AI response. Perhaps it could lower the relations - ex: go from neutral to cool and so on until you are provoking war. Maybe this is how it already works at higher levels, I'm not sure. At normal though, I can come and go as I please for the most part. I very rarely see the please remove your ships message from the AI.
Ability to put forth United Planets initiatives from a list if you have enough power or at least the ability to persuade other races on UP votes if you have enough power.
I really enjoy the United Planets votes as they can randomize and indiviualize each game. I'd like to see more UP initiatives to vote on:
UP forced peace treaties between warring races.
Limits on certain weapons research or use - ex: no one can research tech beyond phasors in the beam line as it is too devastating and damages space time.
Limits on total number of warships.
A certain number of ships should be donated to the UP to keep the peace (either have them vanish more or less or given to a weaker race). Perhaps easier to implement but along the same lines, a general tax on being in the UP - ex: The cost of administration at the UP has risen dramatically, should a tax be imposed to finance it?
Trade embargo on evil/good/neutral depending on what type of race is in the minority in the UP - ex: UP is made up of mostly good races so they put forward a vote on a trade embargo on the evil race whereby trade to that race must be reduced or eliminated until they start trending towards a good race.
The ability to vote on and reverse passed UP votes.
These might give you more of a reason to actually leave the UP too if it gets too restrictive for your tastes.
