Tributes

Iunno. Works for me. You have to give them a big tribute though, like over 1000 bc to see an immidiate difference.

Is there something special about giving techs?
Do they say something special when you don't give them enough BCs or when it is enough (The text stays white)?

talking about tributes
I'm in the third mission of the campaign and I'm having a lot of trouble getting the Torrians to ally with me
the mission just drags on to a very frustrating level, I have almost 4/5 th of the map under my cultural influance
none of the planets want to revolt to my side and I have already a lot of influance starbases to the max
if I build more they start bitching about there daughters, like anybody would want them

any ideas to complete this missions would be very welcome, I already gave massive tribute in the form of loads of research and money

Take a look at the race info screen and see what they like and dislike about you. Just giving them money and tech doesnt always work. On hard difficulties the AI knows you are just trying to buy there friendship.

So if AI knows you're trying to buy their friendship, what the hell can you do?

As he said, see what the other race doesn't like about you. I can often make the Arcaens like me better by having a respectable military force. Also, instead of having trade routes all over the galaxy, I may focus half (early on) of my trade routes with a particular civ (may be excessive, still exploring somewhat).

Double Post. Sorry. So, many of those dislikes can be reversed. If you share the contents of the appropriate screen, I might be able to offer some advice.

You said the third mission of the campaign. Was this the original mission path, or one of the alternate branches? Could you remind me of the name of this mission and the victory objectives?

I have found that you need a large military to get most of the civs to get close to you. If you look at the foreign relations screen it will tell you why they like you, and why they don't. (Things like ++military stength for them to like you, or -alignment for disliking. Those are the biggest things that make them like/dislike you.)

What does the - "I know what you're doing..." mean then? Usually I'm not really doing anything special about that race. No inlfuence starbases, no massing next to their border...

I've found the - "I know what you're doing..." usually occurs for me when I AM massing near their borders but haven't declared war. But if you're not massing near the border...I'm not sure.

The biggest things I've found that influence relations are the size of your military as compared to that of the empire you're looking at, and your ethical alignment as compared to theirs. Ethical alignment is a big one, if you're evil and they're good, they'll almost never ally with you, or even be anything above neutral.

I'm not totaly sure if it was the alternate
the objective was to erradicate the Drengin and to ally with the Torrians
maybe if I succeed in allieing with the Thorrians the Dread Lords would arrive

Sounds like an alternate. Third, you say? I'll see if I can find that mission.

If it was Seige, the objective was to conquer this one planets the Drengins control, but is really a planet of enslaved Torrians. Two others already on your team, a single star far to the north, and threat of dread lords arriving during the mission.

Yeah. I've tried the alternate now, it sounds like it matches the mission you were describing.
If you aren't going to culturally dominate them, you may have to much influence to go the diplomatic route. On the relations screen, is there anything hinting at them being uneasy about it, such as we know what you're doing or something about borders.

Try decreasing your influence.

You can't just buy your friends. Gain more military might, create some trade-routes, trade some techs with them (trade with them, don't just give them presents) and they'll like you more. Only iIf you have a really strong diplomacy bonus you can get away with buying them off, otherwise they'll just see through your flattery.

Hmm... I've been working on my alliances now, and I just cant get past Friendly and to an alliance.

finished the mission
I didnt yet check out the screen which displays the things they like and dislike about you
that really helped a lot