Evil?

[Tree]

Fantastic game guys just a few things:

In every game I have played so far (around 6, all on the largest galaxy size with ~14 races) I expand well, have a great economy, a formidable fleet and keep good relations. However, in each one of these games when late game rolls around and the galaxy starts to get filled up, I notice that all the empires become jealous of my empire. Inevitably one of them declares war on me. I defend myself and sue for peace, but not until my relations drop with everyone. This will continue to happen until I go from admirable to evil.

Now I have no problem with fighting off jealous empires. I can even understand my faithful allies from the start of the game turning on me out of jealousy (sort of). But EVERY game so far this evil status has led to civil war in my empire and fighting with my own kind drops my approval rating, which causes even more civil war. In my last game that I gave up on, in the final 20 minutes I have civil war 3 times, dropping my empire size to a third as well as cutting my economy and fleet in half.

My reputation should not drop when another empire declares war on me and I fight back. It takes forever to get a reputation of admirable and in a few minutes it drops to evil which is nearly impossible to get rid of. Is there someway to turn off civil wars or fleet defects?

[Shark7]

Odd, I've never had my reputation drop to evil due to fighting empires that have declared war on me. So here is the question did they declare war or did you? Whoever declares the war, or whoever starts it by attacking unprovoked will take a reputation hit.

[Spacecadet]

They officially declared war on you, but you're Rep is going down?
That doesn't sound right.

Do you have a Planet Destroyer and are you using it?
This will tank you Rep.

Are you Bombarding their planets?
This will also reduce your Rep, but to a lesser degree than the Planet Destroyer.

Killing Pirate Bases is the best way to improve your Rep, go kill some Pirate Bases and it should start bringing your Rep back up.

[Haree78]

Things that drop your rep that I know of:

Dealing with pirates
Attacks outside of a war
Blockades outside of war/Trade Sanctions
Declaring Trade Sanctions / War
Blowing up worlds
Blowing up civilian ships
Espionage of any kind getting caught against other empires
Invading (not colonising) independent colonies

Do you do any of the above? Does anyone have anything else to add?

My rep always stay very high, however one game it became terrible after I accidently targeted an Ancient Guardian mine station that was a similar colour to another Empire and they went nuts at me and my ships retaliated lol.

[Aures]

I'm pretty sure putting stuff in other empire's systems does not incur a rep hit, I have had a few games where I have done that pretty agressively with no noticeable effect on rep.

[Haree78]

ORIGINAL: Aures

I'm pretty sure putting stuff in other empire's systems does not incur a rep hit, I have had a few games where I have done that pretty agressively with no noticeable effect on rep.

I'll cross that one off the list then, wasn't sure about it.

[adecoy95]

did you do alot of espionage? i dont know about the expansion game (dont have it yet) but in the vanilla game my relations have been hit harder from doing espionage than from enslaving empires

[Tree]

Thanks guys,

Yes it is always them who declare war on me. I guess the problem is I bombard their planets? Would I take a hit for invading the planets instead? I don't think I should be taking a reputation hit for defending myself.

Also, the major issue isn't everyone hating me, it's the fact that I will eventually have a civil war because everyone hates me. What factors affect the chance for civil war? My last setup I had race/government picks that gave me the highest possible happiness output and I still ended up with three civil wars. Is there any way to disable this event?

[Haree78]

Bombarding planets possibly has a rep hit, I never do it myself.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: adecoy95
did you do alot of espionage? i dont know about the expansion game (dont have it yet) but in the vanilla game my relations have been hit harder from doing espionage than from enslaving empires

Detected espionage and sabotage missions will negatively affect your reputation.

I suggest you read up on the topic "Empire Reputation" in the Galactopedia. This contains a list of actions that will affect your reputation both positively and negatively.

[WoodMan]

I guess the problem is I bombard their planets? Would I take a hit for invading the planets instead? I don't think I should be taking a reputation hit for defending myself.

Bombing a planet and killing millions or sometimes even billions of civillians does make you take a rep hit yes, and rightly so if you think about it.[:D]...[:-]

[martok]

ORIGINAL: Tree

I guess the problem is I bombard their planets? Would I take a hit for invading the planets instead?

Yeah, bombarding planets does negatively affect your reputation. Simply invading them won't, however; that's the "safe" option.

[Kayoz]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan
Bombing a planet and killing millions or sometimes even billions of civillians does make you take a rep hit yes, and rightly so if you think about it.[:D]...[:-]

You aren't in America, are you? [:D]

[solops]

ORIGINAL: Tree

Thanks guys,

Yes it is always them who declare war on me. I guess the problem is I bombard their planets? Would I take a hit for invading the planets instead? I don't think I should be taking a reputation hit for defending myself.

Also, the major issue isn't everyone hating me, it's the fact that I will eventually have a civil war because everyone hates me. What factors affect the chance for civil war? My last setup I had race/government picks that gave me the highest possible happiness output and I still ended up with three civil wars. Is there any way to disable this event?

Yes, this is a problem. I have had the same thing happen and experimented. They DOW'd me, I did no spy stuff and strictly defended myself, yet my rep went in the toilet and resulted in ship defections and civil war. this is out of whack.

[Aures]

Simple, don't bombard planets. I have never done it except for testing purposes and I plan to never do it in any of my games (even while being evil). You can get away with doing it a little if the reputation of the empire you bombard is really low. What races your empire is made up of will also have an effect. Bombarding is just not worth it generally, it lowers the planet quality for a start. You can do it if you really want to, if your rep is already rock bottom and your empire isn't splitting apart bombarding isn't going to hurt you much.

Civil wars are caused by low happiness, check the game concepts > colony approval section of the galactopedia for details on what affects happiness. The lower your happiness, the lower the tax rate you can sustain. Civil wars are caused by having taxes too high given your base happiness. So the choice is between causing a civil war and tanking your economy. Neither is very good.

I had a few civil wars when I first started playing, my last one that I didn't cause on purpose was before... well, so long ago I can't remember exactly.

[elliotg]

You can also control most of these reputation-affecting actions in the Empire Policy screen. For example you can control what types of intelligence missions are carried out and when, whether to ever bombard colonies, harass enemies with attacks, use blockades or not, etc.