also, to all the people who have been thoughtlessly giving away all their money, tech, planets, etc to get a nation to be CLOSE to them, i've noticed that sometimes a faction will be put off by all your gift giving, and actually think LESS of you, i know it's happened to me

msnevil, the higher your influence the less they will think of you. If you go to report, I think, it will tell you the +\- of your relationship and a greater influence on your part will always be a - or --.

Frankly, in gigantic galaxies, alliance wins seem virtually impossible. The amount of space allows empires to become extremely independent of one another. Because of the way I run my empire, I don't go picking fights, and I tend to build a research heavy set up, so in one game where I put a LOT of effort into trying for an Alliance win, I actually ran out of technology to research and ended up in a Tech win by default.

I play an ethical society, but I do make a concerted effort to remain friendly with the evil societies, and tend to succeed. In my last Tech win, I was a fairly median empire in terms of military strength, in a VERY distant 3rd behind the Iconians and Torians, but absolutely rock solid on research and influence, having taken a number of worlds from the Altarians, Torians, Yor and Iconians due to incredible influence strength within my border. I had about 10% of the galaxy under control and all the evil races were down. The Drengin had an alignment reversal hit (talk about some funny dialogue happening..."Don't mind how we look, we really love everyone"  ), the Kvorx went down hard to the Iconians (#1 military by a margin of 4 to 1 over the pack), and the Yor never seemed to get it together. Military action just didn't make sense for me. The Torians (#2 Military) and the Iconians would have ripped me six ways to Sunday. I had aligned with the Drath and Iconians (despite relative lack of strength and the "We know what you're doing" because I was building up my border fleet to counter a possible Kvorx invasion when the Iconians flattened them).

Really, if I can't get into a major war with a buncha evil races, I've got little option but to punt for a Tech win. Sad because the treaty monitor showed blue lines all over the place for them...

Personally I have found that in V1.3 and V1.31 that alliances are possible, but incredibly difficult to do. Too difficult, in my opinion. Also, I am guessing here, but the races that were Close to me seem to have been races that I agreed to tech trades too, or that got into trouble and begged for any help I could give (I gave them a little cash, they became Close, then they surrendered to someone else, which didn't exactly help me win a Diplomatic Victory). It may not be random, but I could put with a system, however difficult, if I actually knew what that system was. Right now, I am just guessing, and reading these posts isn't helping. I am not complaining, it is just that different systems seem to work, or not work, for different people. There must be some consistency that no one has found yet.

also, to all the people who have been thoughtlessly giving away all their money, tech, planets, etc to get a nation to be CLOSE to them, i've noticed that sometimes a faction will be put off by all your gift giving, and actually think LESS of you, i know it's happened to me

This actually happens all the time in Master of Orion. You start giving people too much over a period of time they're going to start being suspicious of you. I can't remember how you're supposed to get friendly with other civilizations in that game anymore.

I've won in 1.31 via alliances before, it was on a gigantic set to tough. I think I had all the AI char's in the game as well. I kept things low key and waited as the stronger "evil" and "good" AI fought and killed each other off, then went after the strongest AI with a vengance for getting to close. Focusing most of my trade on them along with consistent "gifts" of tech and money helped. I checked the Reports every single turn until I saw "close" and then started offering them ships, tech, and money untll they accepted the alliance. Rinse and repeat for all the other characters, I even was "good" and got an alliance with an "evil" race IIRC (could be wrong, I might have been neutral).

I enjoy playing to Political and Tech victories more than Conquest, it seems that it takes a bit more to keep a civ. surviving as non-conquest than otherwise.