Hearts & Minds of Robots

Trade

Give 'em money every so often.

My experience is that even if you get to "close", you won't be able to ally with them until you've wiped out the other civs. So, it's basically just a matter of keeping Yor alive and killing everyone else. The whole alliance issue is just for the sake of plot, I'd guess.

Even though I had all trade route to the Yor, all treaties with them, and a 249% diplomacy bonus, I was still at friendly.

Since I couldn't raise my relation anymore, I decided to attack the Korath, in the build up to the war, my military rating doubled, pushing it higher than the Yor rating. This pushed my relation to Close.

So, my suggestion : Create a lot of ships.

That didn't work for me. I had to defeat everyone. Anyone been able to finish this without conquering everone else?

Me. I didn't conquer anyone at all. I got to friendly rather quickly, getting to close is what is difficult.

Trade, Economic/Research Treaties both help. I usually trade them technologies, but you need tech trading on to do this one.

I've found that it is harder to go from Friendly to Close then any other relations evolution.

How would you turn tech trading off for a campaign mission? Or are you guys talking about playing this as a sandbox scenario?

On the campaign, I had highest possible diplo, with all associated buildings, full trade routes with Yor, both econ and research treaties to and from Yor, and then finally a military at least 10 times the next AI (eventually, of course). Still, I had to finish everyone off to get an alliance. I did get Yor to close near the end, but the alliance option wasn't showing on the diplo screen until I had finished everyone else off.

I've gotten all the races to "Close" with little effort, likely because I play the Terrans. Diplomacy, Trade, similar alignment helps, and a very powerful (moreso than theirs) military.

Thanks to everyone. I have trade routes also with all of the Yor planets and have offered them $ & tech. I aolso have a fairly strong navy at sea, so I guess I'll build more ships and offer them more $. I'll buy their alliance if I have to. I was on the verge of just conquering them and starting over.

Finally got the Alliance. Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions.

I'm playing a new game with the most races I've faced so far (8). Fantastic starting earth (bonus tiles), but I have the Yor and Drengin as immediate neighbors. The Drengin aren't much of a threat, they got blown out in the colony rush, and face imminent extinction.

The Yor are another matter. They're currently the largest and strongest. My Terrans were quick to establish trade routes, bargain for fighters, and develop that diplomacy.

The point behind my post - and somewhat ontopic -is I read somewhere that the Yor are either very resistant to cultural takeovers or even invulnerable to them (?). I find this patiently absurd and a bit unfair, particularly with all the other bonuses they possess. If the rationale is that, being sentient robots, they are hard to sway culturally, the opposite should be true also -their influence and diplomacy should also stink (at least the former). They have a hard time understanding organic b eings (every other race in the galaxy) and what motivates us.

Currently, however, they're also the most influential in the galaxy.

Well, I bribed four other races to war on them so hopefully they'll get wiped soon. Them and the Krynn share top honors for early snuffage, IMO.

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Unbelievable. They went to attitude "Close" earlier for me than any other civilization. Evil or not (I plan to try Good this game), and despite our close borders and their dislike of my (early) alignment (Neutral) they agreed to an alliance for a mere 150BC.