I never seem to have much problem with diplomacy in regular games of GalCiv. But I'm playing the Altaran Prophecy expansion campaign and I can't seem to keep on the good side of the Altarans. I'm only on scenario two, where I need to boost my relationship to "close" to win. I'm playing on "Crippling" difficulty.
In my current game, I've got 5 trade routes with the Altarans. I'm constantly giving them gifts of tech, probably one technology every 4-5 turns. I'm giving them massive amounts of $$$. Every 15 or 20 turns I give them $101 per turn for 15 or 20 turns. And yet my relations with them keep dropping. The turn after I give them the $$$, my relations boost up one notch, but by the end of the 15 or 20 turns, our relations are lower than when they started. Right now I'm hovering around "cool" and have never gotten above Friendly.
Why do they keep getting mad at me? Does giving them too many tech gifts tick them off or something?
Perhaps I should have played more smaller maps. My regular game is Gigantic with difficulty at Crippling or Masochistic.
What is your alignment? Good, Neutral, Evil? If you are a different alignment that the Altarans then this could be a big issue. I believe they are good so you need to choose all the good options in random events.
Also, how does your military stack up against theirs? Make sure that you are not much weaker or they may be viewing you as a potential invasion target.
Hmmm...remember what your goals are for the scenarios in the campaign. If the goal is become "close" with a specific race without being destroyed, then when you reach friendly, try gifting sytems to reach close relations. As long as you have one system left when close is reached, you win.