I don't keep up with all the posts so if this topic has been discussed ad nauseum I apologize. However I HATE the way the developers decided to have a civilization conviently "surrender" to another civ that isn't at war with them because "it is their best hope for survival". That is really, really cheap guys. I don't feel that it is even close to realistic and while I won't go so far as to say that that "tactic" is cheating it is designed to put the human player at a disadvantage. If vassal states existed within the premise of the game I think this tactic of surrendering to a friendly civ would be very acceptable. In fact for a human player it may be a way to survive overwhelming odds and somehow even pull out a tech victory. A vassal state could exist through an agreed tribute for a definite or indefinite period of time. I don't see how it would be that hard to come up with, I mean we can practically sell or buy anything from the other civs anyway.
I owned the first GalCiv and I like the second one better, but this surrender to another civ to spite the attacker is my biggest gripe and should be removed from the game. Brad, your AI can stand on its own, you don't need this cheesy tactic! I curious to see how much flack I catch from you fan boys out there.