GameSpot's Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Game Guide

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part 2

Chapter 5: Controlling Your Empire
Chapter 6: Terraforming
Chapter 7: The Art of War
Chapter 8: Diplomacy
    Contact
    Commlink
    Give and Take
    Council Meetings
Chapter 9: Situational Awareness

Part 2: Advanced Tactics

Chapter 8: Diplomacy
A powerful feature of Alpha Centauri is the ability to engage competing factions in rounds of diplomacy. The outcome of a successful discussion can lead to a trading in technologies, military assistance, and even the purchasing of votes in a forthcoming council election. Each faction treats and likes to be treated in certain ways. How you engage each faction in diplomacy will have a big effect on the course of the game. This chapter will guide you down the path of communication, illustrating how best to handle situations as they arise and, better yet, get yourself elected planetary governor!

Contact
You're enjoying a nice life, seemingly secluded in your little corner of the world, when all of a sudden, a foreign unit crests the hill and makes contact with your scout. Suddenly, hailing frequencies are opened, and you find yourself in a face-to-face meeting with the ruler of a rival faction.

When you make contact with another faction, its hailing frequency is immediately transferred to you. When this happens, you are free to contact that faction at any point during the game. Through the process of exploration, you will ultimately gain the frequency number of each faction, opening the door to new diplomatic features such as planetary elections.

TIP
Even if you haven't personally met a rival faction, you can still get its frequency number from a different faction by simply asking. However, you may have to trade some energy or technology to get it.

Commlink
All known hailing frequencies are conveniently displayed on the commlink at the far right of the game screen. Clicking this button once will pop-up a list of known factions, including the current state of your relationship. Your relationship with a faction will be one of four states:


	Diplomacy can get pretty thorny. We're at Vendetta now with Sister Miriam, but she leaves us no choice because her cities stand between us and the rest of the continent.

* Vendetta
* Pact
* Treaty
* Truce

Vendetta
Vendetta represents a state of war between yourself and the rival faction in question. Your units will be engaged in military exchanges with the other faction, and war will ensue until a treaty or truce is ultimately signed.

NOTE
When your status with a faction is a vendetta, you run the risk of irritating any allies of the faction you're at war with. Before you know it, you may have three vendettas against you, so plan your enemies carefully!