I use diplomacy a lot. My game play is to have fun, build an empire, and win the game, in that order. I play on Normal most of the time. When the game is released and scores get competitive, I may or may not play on higher difficulty. I did a little with GCII, but not much.

Diplomacy and all the resources are a big part of the game for me. I trade with every AI major and minor. I don't put a lot of value on borders since the AI is not going to observe them anyway, so I frequently trade with open borders and I find the AI values them at 500-1000 BC, depending on who,when, and where. I frequently trade for resources. If a minor builds a resource base near me I will either trade for the base or trade for the output. I often trade for over half the planetary resources in the galaxy. I sometimes take 15-20 minutes to play a turn I win some by conquest and a lot by influence, diplomacy, etc.

It is not difficult for me to win the game on normal, but while I am an average, at best, player, I have been playing the GC game for years and I know my way around the game. From reading this forum, I can see that what I get out of the game, is way different from what many others like. Basically, I want a game that does not crash. After that I take what they give me and play it until my interest wanes. It is very likely that I will play this one as long as they are releasing expansions.

At some point I will lose interest like I did with GCII but that's a long way out at this point.

I never bothered because in the early game the AI may declare war, but does nothing otherwise. Later in the game if they do declare war the AI sends barely guarded transports and no real fleet to speak of. Do you feel you need the treaty? Has AI ships attacking been a difficulty without a treaty?

Depends on the resource. +sensor range, while nice, won't do much for you most of the time*. +capacity, however, can give you a slight boost needed over enemy ships. +food is good, as it means you get more raw production. +morale is also good for keeping people happy. Alone, any one of the boosts won't do much, but they can add up. Get enough +morale resources and you don't need any approval buildings - a free tile for something else. Etc. Not everything needs to be a "if you don't have this, you'll lose".

*In colonization-stage, +sensor range might give you the edge over the AI in spotting where the nice planets are. This isn't obvious in Beta 5 since the AI cheats, but in Beta 6 it's (supposedly) fixed, and will become more apparent.

Do you "need" most things in most games? I doubt it. Why should you feel you "need" to do things? As long as you don't feel obligated to do so - that would be horrible.

I don't "need" to use diplomacy at all. Or Ideology. Maybe not research, after a while. But I can use them.

Diplomacy is a bit unbalance in Beta 5 so it will become interesting to see the changes to Beta 6, especially for technology trading or if I have to leave that of again. Unless the AI don't start trading amongst themselves more and start really demanding a high price for technology without you being allies I will leave that option off.

The AI really need to understand that trading technology is very dangerous with someone you don't know if you can trust and should not do it or demand a very high price for it.

The same is true for ships, the AI should not trade ships and bases unless given a very sweet deal. They should only sell military and colony ships if they are allied with someone or if they want to supply them to someone in war with one of their enemies. I really find it super abusive to buy colonizer ships from the AI, these should be super expensive to get.

I usually find it very hard to trade away minor trading resources, but buying them from the AI should be much easier.

I also think that one of payments should be very expensive in comparison with per turn payments, almost to the point where one of payment should ONLY be possible for about half the value of ANY trade deal.

Overall I like diplomacy, especially if it gets better balanced.

Right, so currently how do you use or not use diplomacy?