Problem with bribing AI to go to war

Usually I notice that it is because they have an agreement with that certain race, whether it be a trade route, and alliance or a treaty. It might also be influenced by the races relation with the other race.

I'm fairly certain (but not absolutely) that you cannot convince a race to declare war on another if they have better-than-neutral relations with said race.

yeah. I think that's the case. Would be nice if there was a good way to adversely affect relations between two races. Could be a nice use of spies. Assination missions or something to discredit one civ in the eyes of another.

You can check your foreign relations tab, hit treaties, then pick the race you want. To the right it will tell you THEIR relations with the other races. If its higher than neutral you usually cant even select that race to start a war. Also, they could be allied, or possibly have not met one another.

Thanks for the info, hmmm, so that means it's hard to bribe AI's to go to war if
the galaxy is at peace. A shame, but makes sense.

I think you can, sometimes, go to the other race and get them to declare war. Also take a look at any alliances they may have and you might be able to get them into the ware via alliances. And the very last one, if they are good, you might be able to drag them into a war of your choice via the Altarian superability...I.E. If you want the Torians at war with the Iconians, get the Iconians to declare war on the Altarians.

I try to spread some wars around early to prevent this situation (in particular involving leading races). Once a relationship gets the permanent "Don't trust them" flag, bribe wars pretty much remain an option between those races for the rest of the game.

Thanks Purge, it is a little more complicated than I thought, but I will try this approach in my next game. Up till now I have been more of the galactic peacekeeper.
Then when I want to manipulate wars later on it doesn't work, now I understand why.

Well, I used this once and I was playing as a custom race with the Drath Super Ability (What is it called?). I was able to convince almost every race to declare war on the galactic superpower at the time, the Yor, and then I got the Yor to declare war on the second strongest race in the galaxy and a few others. Then, several of these races were beaten by the Yor and surrendered to me.

I've heard people say that the Drath ability doesn't do anything, but I can't remember if my war-manipulating abilities were limited at all. So, there may be something to the Drath ability after all... not sure. Keep in mind that was the only game I used that strategy.

It seems that games on the harder levels require some diplomacy in order to succeed. The AI can ramp up the research and the economics, but it can't strategize the way a human player can. I've played a few games now where I've tried to keep to myself, and it hasn't worked for me. It's only after I decided to play in politics that I'm doing better now. I trade technologies with the less diplomatically advanced races, and I convince the races that can target me to target each other. I'm glad the game is like this, because so many games just blatantly ignore the diplomatic side of things. Or diplomacy and war seem random. The AI in this game actually seems to have a strategy for it's actions. Races will go to war, not because I necessarily prod them to, but because there borders are infringing on each other, or because one is growing too powerful. The AI seems to know who the most powerful race is, and sometimes the others will form an informal alliance to take it down.

One of the best games I've had, I'm playing now as a custom race. The Terrans were the most powerful for awhile, until the Altarians and the Torians declared war on them. I joined in, because they bordered me. Now I've taken a good chunck of the Terran empire, but I know at any moment a couple races are going to decide I'm a threat.

That's the kind of deep gameplay that makes this game addictive.