SE5. How do alliances work?

[Randallw]

Clearly an alliance, as in SE4, is the partnership of two empires, but how do they come up with the alliance flag. I find 5 alliance flags in the Demo. How do 2 or more empires that decide on an alliance agree to use an alliance flag, and how is it implemented. Once multiplayer starts I forsee alliance flags that could share the emblems of the members.

[Puke]

i dont know, i cant get those pesky AI to agree to any treaties. Heck, i can barely get them to agree to regular treaties. i really wanted to experiment with alliances, too.

[Kamog]

We could experiment with alliances by having two human-controlled empires. When starting a new game, just add two new empires to have a 2-player hotseat game.

[Captain Kwok]

There is probably a few problems in the demo with alliances... but you can try it and see how it works. I haven't had much experience with it myself.

[Puke]

I have tried that, Kamog. It generally locks up during the turn processing, when i have multiple human controlled empires. I've never actually gotten a game to run long enough to get an alliance.

I even tried your trick with turning a AI race into human controlled, and I proposed an alliance to it then. The game locked up during processing on the very turn the aliance was being accepted. I think theres something bugged about hotseat in the demo.

i'll keep trying various ways, though.

edit: confirmed. it locks up during turn processing, every time an alliance is accepted. its not just a random bug with hotseat play.

[Captain Kwok]

Essentially an alliance is like a regular 2-empire treaty with all the various conditions but with multiple members. So in order to add/drop members or make rule changes, you need to get votes. When a proposal is made, each empire votes and if there is enough votes the proposal is enacted. And you get to pick your flag.

[Puke]

can you have both a treaty and an aliance with the same empire?

if so, do the trade bonuses stack?

[MasterChiToes]

Just tried a hotseat game... and there were three amon'krie (deleted err'ed comment).

[Randallw]

aha, but do any of the Beta testers know how the alliance flag is implemented or is the NDA still active for some reason?.