The Diplomacy seems very strong right now (was able to maintain peace for the first 100 turns with everyone through common placation tactics) which is not something I'd say for any of the previous MoO games (we come in peace, we declare war on you)

my only complaint so far was that when I was grinding the sakkra to dust, they refused to make peace with me. so I obliterated them for stubbornness :D

Only issue I've encountered so far was in asking for a non-aggression pact with the Bulrathi with who I had good relations and a research pact. They refused so I asked "what would make this deal work" and they requested all my money and all my star systems. Seems a bit off given that we had good relations.

One thing that I found missing from diplomacy, is the option to make counter-offers.
If a proposition is made to me, I don't want to decline because it lowers their disposition towards me. I want to be able to tell them "No, but what about this..."

Yes! Counter offers!

First: Way better then Master of Orion 3 (oh man was that anoying!)

Second: Getting closer to the old Master of Orion 2, but not there still yet.

The first 100 turns you can have peace. After that good luck!

When you are getting to big, colonizing as fast as you can, the AI's all begin to hate you. Even when you stay clear of their territory, and keep one system distance to them, they hate you.

At one point they are getting suicidal. My empire had roughly the tripple number of occupants and those catfolks DEMANDED money from you. I denied and they went to war. Suffice to say it did not went well for them. When I wiped out the first system, with lots of lots forces incoming for reenforcements, the bulrahti came around and wanted money too. That made even sense cause I did not wanted to fronts. So I gave them what they demanend.

Some turns later, I had that foolish catfolk nearly extinct, the bulrathi came around again. They wanted MORE money and a planet. Luckily those catfolks were his neighbours so I could disarm mexican style, when I denied and he went to war.

I mean, what are they thinking? hmm .. lets see what he got: Hundreds of frigates, dozends of destroyrs, lots of battleships, some titans and even a death star inbound. All around in the neighbourhood. That catfolk had only four planets left and practically no fleet anymore. How long they will last? Yup .. great idea .. let's demand a planet from them and go to war when they refuse!

In the old Master of Orion II, they were happy to team up with you. You are big? Great, let's win this game together!

Things are looking dark? They tried to bribe you, befriend you and so on.

I actually had a very similar situation - I intentionally left the Sakkra with a single planet and kept destroying any ships they made to see what they would do. They never even tried to contact me!

In MOO2 this type of gameplay usually led to any species begrudgingly seeking a truce, often with a lot of nice incentives for me, but the Sakkra never did. I approached them and offered a truce multiple times, but the conditions they wanted to impose upon me were always ridiculous - most (if not all) of my wealth, a huge annual payment and a handful of star systems.

I had a similar war with the Mrrshan later in the same game, and once they got down to a single planet they offered peace - but nothing else. I'd like it if the AI recognized who was actually winning the war, rather than acting as though we're totally even (or being in complete denial and considering themselves the ones doing me a favour).

The bizarre contrast is that, for any of the species that I wasn't at war, once they were afraid of me (as in, the relationship status is marked 'AFRAID') I could demand just about anything from them and they'd hand it over. Tech, money, treaties, even star systems - so long as I was wiping the floor with somebody else, they knew who was boss.

(Note that this doesn't mean I'm not having an absolute blast with this game! :D)

I am near the end of my first game and it seems the AI should learn to surrender. I have some Titans with about 25.000 power and the entire enemy fleet had about 15.000. I destroy everything and get almost 0 damage and fully repaired ships at the end. I just fly from planet to planet and everything is bombed to hell. Its quite useless and maybe he should surrender and give me his planets if there is absolutely no chance of winning against me.

Lots of issues with diplomacy.

I got the Alkari down to one planet and then declared a truce with him, and next turn got him to alliance (which was good as he was being attacked by the other AI as well). The truce notifications didn't go away even though we were allied.

He remained "hostile" towards me so that later when I asked for his vote he made ridiculous demands.

Finally I offered him a small colony + numerous techs + money for his vote, still refused (again despite being down to just one planet at that point).

One bug did pop up: after being allied I was able to attack a human fleet without war breaking out because Alkari were already at war with him. Had to manually declare war against the humans.

The Ai loves to make extra demands for a peace treaty even when they are listed as fearful towards you and on the verge of destruction.

1. Counter-offers. These need to be included.

2. I've had several instances of the AI making absolutely ridiculous demands for very simple things. For example, when I asked the Psilons last game to share charts and asked "what it would take to make this work," they responded by asking for nearly my entire treasury, three techs and a star system.

3. I'm really not a fan of the xeno diplomacy tech function. I don't think diplomacy should be gated behind any form of technology beyond maybe some universal translator. It gets obnoxious when another race hasn't researched that tech yet. You kinds get stuck in neutral as far as diplomacy goes.

I've also been unable to just give them the tech for some reason, which would be a fine solution if the game allowed it. I think a better solution would just be to eliminate it entirely. I know you guys seem to be cribbing from Civilization really hard, and that has worked in some cases, but MOO needs to be its own thing. it feels like that tech got included just because Civilization has it.

Yes you are right. All the options should be there from the start.

But it should give you a bonus in bartering.

Definitely a valid point. In my most recent game I discovered early on that I had unwittingly boxed the Humans into a corner. They hadn't developed Xenodiplomacy, so my interactions with them were severely limited, and with only one planet they weren't going to research it for quite a long time. If the shoe were on the other foot, and I was the one getting cornered by some other race, then I'd be significantly disadvantaged.

Having to dedicate time to developing it myself feels like a waste of my own time, and as ctwinchester mentioned, not even being able to give away that tech to other races just seems unnecessarily frustrating.

So last game as humans (and with the xeno tech that improves relations). I met the Alkari and did some really basic interaction with them (open embassy, establish trade agreement, exchange charts). They went from neutral to pretty far into the green.

About 2 turns later I met the Mrrshan and did exactly the same thing, opened embassy, trade agreement, map exchange. The Alkari immediately went to pure red and declared war because they hated the Mrrshan.

Another game I was playing I met the Bulrathi (again as humans) and worked up positive relations with them through trade. They came to me and demanded a tribute of money (we were green relations). I declined and they went to pure red.

I have a couple thoughts after these and other interactions... the AI seems to react too extremely to both positive and negative stimulus. Opening a trade agreement should bump relations, but not as much as it does. Likewise, trading with an enemy should decrease relations, but not as extremely as it does (at least not the first time you do it). I'd suggest more of a snowball effect where the first trade agreement gives a little boost, second gives a greater boost, third gives a big boost, etc. Same with negative interactions. First time you trade with an enemy you get a warning. Second time a warning and relations decrease. Third time STRONG warning and probably other repercussions.

I'd also like an easier way to tell who likes/hates who in a particular game. If I'm trying to woo the sakkra I want to know who their allies and enemies are so I can avoid making a faux pas.

The empire basics (money and money per turn, etc.) should be visible in the diplomacy screen (in fact in all screens).
I made a pact with another race which cost a lot. In fact it cost more money than I had, and as a result of my negative budget some of my fleets were scrapped.