Yes, I see what you mean. I think it is quite serious, still, but perhaps not a 'bug' per se.

I think the reasons for not giving the AI diplomatic victory are as follows:

When a human player wins in a Diplomatic Victory I think story-wise it's still presumed that the universe continues after the game is finished with all the civilizations going about their merry way and living in harmony with each other. So conversely even if the AI "wins" a diplomatic victory everyone else including the human player should have the freedom to keep going about their business without the universe ending.

In the end the AI is supposed to act like a real galactic civilization rather than a person playing a game. The only one that can really win or lose the game is the human player, the AIs are there just to try and be a successful civilization and it's up to the player to decide how they interact with those civilizations to win the game. Giving the AI the ability to "win" the game is essentially redundant because that's not their goal.

Thanks, CariElf. I have heard many strange opinions on this thread. The major point is that it IS NOT CLEAR that the current design should be called a bug. There is much to consider, many varied opinons, and many ways of looking at this issue. However, a decision needed to be made, and I for one think the final choices of how to implement the victory conditions for Diplomatic Victory made sense for a single player game.

I think you need to do the thinking.

Here's a visual aid.

Here's a diplomatic victory:



The diplomatic victory condition states:



This means that the MOMENT you (or any player) has an alliance with every player in the current game, they win the diplomatic victory. Eradicating those that aren't part of your alliance eliminates their race, so that you can fulfill the requirement to be allied with everyone easier. If I'm allied with everyone but the Drath, and kill the Drath, I win a Diplomatic Victory.

The Victory Condition explicitly states that in order to win, you must have the alliance with everyone. It is not a team victory. Except in extremely rare cases, ONLY one person wins. Suggesting that everyone in the alliance wins would require the 'final victory' condition to look like this:



Yes, in this case, everyone won, because everyone fulfilled the victory requirement.

However, since only ONE person needs to ally with everyon, the following is *NOT* a diplomatic victory condition for anyone. Even though everyone has a rather significant number of allies and everyone will more or less be at peace, nobody has filled the condition yet.



If the Korx and the Yor made the magenta-colored alliance, then they would BOTH win the Diplomatic victory condition, as they both fulfilled the goal (personally I'd think whoever MADE the alliance would win, but that's minor).



Likewise if the Drengin and the Drath made the magenta alliance, the Drengin would win the Diplomatic victory, but not the Drath.



It's stupid to say 'Everyone wins' because no, not everyone wins. I really don't see why the AI should be exempted from this victory condition.