I like that idea, Tertullian. The ability to actually influence a vote would indeed add 'spice'. Your solution should be fairly easy to implement, I should think. Just add it to the trading screen, with the trade goods, perhaps. 'Vote for', or 'Vote against' the proposal.

No, they vote as the same time as you. I have strong feeling that they may actually vote BEFORE you, that the votes are chosen before the UP screne even comes up.

In it's current form I'd rather see it done away with cause it pulls you away from the rest of the play and for reasons really insignificant anyway. I mean random events when they occur take about 1/5 the time that the voting does and the meanings of random events are just as powerful as the events brought up at the UP. Not only that but unless you have uber influence you usually lose the vote.

The lack of interaction is the biggest thing about it I don't like. The second biggest is the lack of choices, sometimes the decisions are permanent, sometimes they take effect for a limited amount of time, other times it's a choice of 4 for something but all the choices are lame.

I just think having more control over the UP being able to wheel and deal would make it more fun. Not only that but perhaps the way in which votes are counted. Say by percentage of support by each empire. This is something I want you guys to understand so you can debate if you choose but. Instead of just taking the number of people purely. Take the % of those people approving of the leadership, and don't just take that number the day of the vote or the previous day, or some time that might not be an accurate representation of what the approval is and has been but take the approval average for the last year. The larger that number, the better run that empire, the more people on board with that leader, the more incentive thoe player has to maintain a high approval has in order to do well in the UP or if they are evil or too poor, a leader could just say screw it and out populate or just shrug off the benefit of winning a vote. I think adding another meaningful dynamic to the UP would give it a reason to keep it in the game. Adding a little more complexity and rewarding the leaders who keep their empire happier would be a cool bonus in the UP. What do you guys think?

I'd love to see another expenditure in diplomacy along the lines of UP diplomats. You spend money like espionage towards the UP. The more time/money spent, the better informed you are what is on the council's mind. That way you could possibly get some general information on the up coming session at a low setting (example: a week before you find out the UP is concerned about trade), and at a higher setting, get more detailed information even earlier (example: several weeks before the session you find out The UP wants to limit trade routes to 5 per/civ.). It would give a player another tactic to exchange some cash and techs for UP votes to be sure you can influence the vote when it comes up.

what if the up voting was expanded so you had a choice of several resolutions and you all choose which resolution to vote on then vote on it. i think that would be a pretty simple way to expand it and make it more meaningful

to rape pillage and destroy of course!  

Does the way I vote in the UP affect my relationships with the other races?

Yeah, I would like to know this one myself. Any devs around to shed a little light?