Step 1: I am 3rd in power rank as Altarian, 2nd in power rank Yor declare war on me.
Step 2: Offer all other races Non-aggression pacts in exchange for every single one of their ships
Result1: I am now way ahead in power of any other race and own most of the ships in the galaxy.
Flaw: Diplo AI seems to overrate planets (they seem completely unwilling to give them up for anything, even if they are losing badly) and either underrate their ships or overrate nonagression pacts with slightly more powerful players ( I think I was 68,000 to around 59,000 for one of the races).
Step3: Now that I am ahead in power, I have every other race give me all of their ships, money, and starbases for non-aggression pacts.
Step4: I was going for a peaceful victory anyway, but now the Yor will give me all of their ships, money, and starbases in exchange for peace, since I am so far ahead in power (up to 177,000 in one turn wheras other races are down below 10,000). Or I could crush them with every other race in the galaxy's fleet and take their planets.
Seems like all you would need to do in any game is pass a couple of races in power and go for an peaceful victory by way of non-aggression pacting (verbing, yay!) everyone into the dust. For influence victory I could buy up every influence-able race's stuff, then crush any influence immune races (Malevolent, etc).
Note: A UP resolution prevented technology trading in the current game so I wasn't able to see how much I could get there, and possibly that had an impact on the AI decisions?