I tried it and couldn't get it to work.

I couldn't raise my relationship with the AI high enough to even get a cease fire, let alone a peace treaty. This is important as the relationship requirements are 2-way now and without the ability to raise relationships on the Envoy I was basically dead in the water from a diplomatic standpoint.

Now... I could raise the AI's relationship with me plenty high enough by completing missions or donating resources, but that doesn't affect the reverse relationship points needed.

So basically, I couldn't tell if I liked the Embassies or not.

So far I like the embassies.  I have a 4 player testbed map that I like to use when trying out mods and for changing and testing abilities.  Basically it is set up so that each player area has eight planets (plus a colonizable asteroid as the choke point) linked to 2 other players by an outer asteroid belt.  On my current game, I have a single AI ally and we both have one embassy at each of our planets.  However, even with an embassy at nine planets per player we haven't got a chance to offer each other the last two pacts.  I'll let the game go longer but it's looking like you do need to buff the diplomatic techs some more. Here's my testbed map (I have 2 of each planet in case I am running a mod with custom planets): http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qqsv5dd6uocwdk9

IMO, I really like the embassies and would keep them in the game.  I also really like your culture changes and trade/refinery changes.  I also like the random encounters.  I wish they all had been in the original game.

Probably the last balance change I would make would be to change the Advent's Domina so that it's repair ability actually auto-casts.  Or even better (since it is a higher level research than the TEC or Vasari support cruiser repair abilities), I would either give it an area of effect cast like some of the capital ship repair abilities or make it a passive always on ability that doesn't cost antimatter and slowly and continuously repairs every ship in range.  The ability in its current form requires excessive micromanagement and it too high of a research level compared to the other races.

Other than that the only other thing I would like to see is for you to merge your mod with one of the planet mods that are out there (with the mod maker's permission, of course).

I'll admit I didn't do much testing with nonpreset teams. I've never had to use envoys to get a ceasefire so I assumed others wouldn't either... . However if that assumption is incorrect than yes I will need to do something about that.

That said, if the AI's relationship was the problem, then wouldn't you be needing the AI to send you envoys, not vice versa?

That would be the most elegant way to fix it. However I'm a little worried that it may make getting ceasefires with all the AI player to easy. I need to double check this but I don't think we can mod the negative relationship modifiers for diplomatic actions anymore.

Well that really falls more under Seleuceia's balance mod a bit more than mine. This is more focused on reworking the mechanics of noncombat elements. That said, I have been meaning to raid his mod for the ability changes, as he's taken a few ideas from this mod, so there is a good chance you'll that in the future.

I was taking with AxelDude about that actually, he's released several really good planet textures to the community and sounds like he intends to release his own mod eventually. If that doesn't work out then at the least I should be able to make a version of Sins Plus that works with this.

Are you talking about the actual diplomatic victory condition or making Diplomacy just as worthwhile as pursuing as military? I'm hesitant to do much with the diplomatic victory has its supposed to be completely overhauled in Rebellion, and I'm not sure I could do much with it if I wanted to. As for the later yes, this is just the first step. The big thing with the embassies was to allow players to pursue diplomacy without reducing their fleet sizes, which to me was the big issue with the Vanilla diplomacy. If that was successful then I can move on to the more subtle issues.

I just tested it with Advent and I was able to place an embassy for players I only had a ceasefire with (which is intended). Likewise that player soon built embassies on my planets.

Getting an AI to that ceasefire point can indeed be frustrating (the mod doesn't do anything to fix this), but if you research all the diplomatic modifier techs, fight one of your neighbors and get the trade agreement up you should be able to hit the 3.5 relations necessary for a cease fire with at least one player in a FFA eventually.

Thanks, I'll admit I'm being a bit lazy and was assuming the flavor text when I tried to create an embassy meant I needed them to be a full Ally. I'll try another game and see how it goes.

I'm just reminded why I play locked teams...

Well I guess I just remember testing the capitalship abilities... but yes I'd be interested in anyone's fix for them.

Yeah it seems the only difference between a peace treaty and cease fire is that it takes several minutes to break a peace treaty while a cease fire can be broken instantly. Otherwise they are treated pretty much the same.

Feel free to test on locked teams, you won't be missing out on anything.

Awesome. Where those supposed to have links or are they apart of your mod?

I never have any trouble getting a cease fire. Research as many diplomatic bonuses as you can. Then of the AIs involved in your FFA, choose one which is the same race as you and carry out all of their missions as soon as they crop up. Reject any missions which would have you attack that AI; keep your border with them to a minimum and refrain from attacking them wherever possible. It shouldn't be too long before they offer you a cease fire.

I'm not sure what impact culture/propaganda would have on all that, if any. It seems like it probably should help you along but it's possible it might do the opposite too, in a real world sense.

I feel like maybe an alternative way of garnering pre-cease fire diplomatic support among your would-be allies might be interesting, although it's difficult to say what. Perhaps an espionage or protection racket line. 

We found a small bug in designate target in case anyone downloaded those.

^Keep these tweaks handy for when we gain access to the Rebellion beta.

That's why I'm in no rush...maybe Harpo will come up with some magic...

GoaFan77™, hand making mods in notepad since 2005.

Yeah I made one or two python programs, though that's a good idea to automate the technology costs. I did use a couple of harpos programs, like his manifest maker, but it seems to want to add nonexistant files on me since v1.3 so I now only use it for generating it from scratch.

Hey, don't be hatin' just because SotF has the mass manufactured eclipse aftertaste to it!

Even though I intend to install it someday in the near future.