more ambassadors?

[slicksyster]

How does an empire acquire more ambassadors? I'm in a large galaxy with a dozen other empires and yet I've only got 4 ambassadors. You'd think an empire with 1.2 trillion citizens spread across 150 colonies could find a few more diplomats. What's up with that???

[OrnluWolfjarl]

You get ambassadors by signing treaties. Any treaties with anyone will work, though I believe higher level treaties have a better chance. I think you also get them by making exchange deals.

[slicksyster]

Ah.... that explains it. I've only made limited trade treaties with other empires as eventually my empire will have to conquer most of them. Victory conditions are 75% across the board. On the flip side, what's the chance of empires wanting to join the my wonderfully epic empire? Is there a tried and true path to convincing other empires my way beats the (distant world's) highway? I've had several individual colonies up and join. Is it possible for entire empires?

[thegreybetween]

An empire can become your vassal. It is something that they could choose to do, but is usually something that you demand at the end of a successful war. Once they are your vassal, certain treaty benefits are automatically triggered and cannot be cut off by the vassal empire (free trade, defense, etc), and the vassal is not allowed to conduct their own diplomacy with other empires. So, in essence, they become a semi-autonomous part of your empire. They can only end the arrangement by declaring war on you, but if you were able to vassalize them in the first place, it is usually pretty easy to just keep your foot on the tiger's throat. I believe that their population/territory/etc count towards your victory thresholds while they are your vassal, so you can win without having to directly conquer the rest of the galaxy if you can be a shiny enough beacon to get them to voluntarily become vassals.