bribery... we give you x+y+z+q+lmnop in exchange for treaty

...perhaps the absense of an "Alliance" option indicates that I'm experiencing a bug?

Yeah! Those slobbering simians deserved every bit of it! Ok, so.... I must woo more diligently. Then, anyone know what the "-" in diplomacy for "militaristic" stems from? They start the game disliking me for my "militarism", and nothing I do seems to remove that black mark.

Hey, thanks for the help Iztok - good to have some experienced advice. Cheers!

Ahhh.... makes sense. So "militaristic" is just a euphamism for "a$$holes". Gotcha.

Thanks again for all the assistance.

When I played this episode I had to destroy every single other AI planet until the Yor would ally with me. But that was just when DA started, so I hope things have changed since then. I had super high diplomacy, the best military, and I was coddling the Yor for the entire game. But nothing seemed to work until I had wiped out the furthest Korath outpost. Again, things must have changed, because others are saying you can make an alliance without wiping out all the other races.

Naturally, after checking this thread and resolving to kiss their a$$es even harder, two turns proceed and suddenly they're ready to ally without me doing a damn thing. Go figure.

I've seen the "- militaristic" appear for some AI's for these reasons:

1) If your military is far and above better then theirs, they view this as militaristic. Of course some AI's respect it as well and you pluses for it (they are scared)

2) If you ever declared war on anybody, even a minor, this can and most likely will be viewed as militaristic

3) If you place fleets in their sectors or near a planet of theirs, you can get this as well as the "we know what you're doing" minus.

As for getting to close so you can get an alliance. Sometimes it just has to do with your ethics. If the Yor are Evil and you are good you'll probably never get to close no matter how much you bribe them. I think the best alignment to be if you are going for an alliance victory is to be neutral.

I'm pretty sure the "- militaristic" refers to the AI's attitude, not to what you've done or how strong your military is. However, the "- we know what you're doing" does refer to you, of course.

Heya!

bringing up this topic as I had difficulty making the alliance with the Yor.
I had 4++, 2+ and no - realtions with them, many gift, fighting with a common enemy etc... still no alliance. I think the reason was that the Yor didnt have the technology. Someone wrote that he traded it with them, BUT in my game there is no techtrade in the whole campaign. How is it possible?
(after around 300 turns they finally got the tech and I could finish the level)
The main question: can the techtrade option set in the campaign or I had no tech trade because of a bug?

I got an alliance on suicidal(so I had HUUUGE diplomacy penalties) with Korath playing as Yor. I had practically no military (ranked last) and Korath were the strongest. So I do not believe this is the case.- Granted I had every possible dip tech researched and every diplo project built but nevertheless it was possible.

- I think they became "close" after I traded them my economic treaty ( one sided - I traded it for bunch of tech).