Ta campaign Rock & Hard Place - help me!

This mission is driving me absolutely crazy. Beating the korath and yor isn't a problem, it's getting the iconians to ally with me. No matter what I do I can't get relations to "Close" in order to create an alliance.  Even with ++ Trading, ++ Treaties, + My Diplomacy skill, + Military Strength, and + Ethical Alignment relations don't improve past friendly. I think if I could get rid of that annoying -militaristic diplomacy modifier i'd be golden but I have no idea how to. Has anybody here finished that mission to give some pointers?
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Reply #1 Top
Obviously, you need to keep them alive long enough for you two to get to "close" relations.

I know when I managed to beat the mission, the Iconians had many times asked for help, and I offered ships. That would give you a + for "appreciate past help" or something like that.

Perhaps you can give them some gifts to get them to friendly relations sooner.

I do recall focusing all my efforts in a single direction to get control of one side of the map. That pretty much protected the Iconians from attack as the Korath and Yor needed to get through my territories to attack them.

I don't know what else I can say beyond that. I'm currently replaying the campaign again so I'll make a point to check back once I beat that map again. Lets us know if you beat it before then. By the way, if all else fails, you could set the AI to drool mode so the Iconians live for a very long time.
Reply #2 Top
I have the difficult set to "Tough" which probably doesn't help. The problem with trying to control one side of the map is the iconians are on both sides. I wonder if maybe i should let the one or two planets they have in the lower left quadrant of the map be taken by the yor or korath and then move in...hmmm.
Reply #3 Top
I know there is another + for "historic friendship" that you gain after some time (~2 years) at peace with each other.

You could get another + (to make ++) for military rating if you ramp that up a bit.
Reply #4 Top
The appreciation of past help can become a double ++ if you hook them up often enough as well.
Reply #5 Top
Looks like you've done all the necessary things. Now you just have to wait. On harder levels, the wait is longer.
Reply #6 Top
I can't beat this level either. Clean up the map, nothing. Bar won't move past friendly, even when I give him a bunch of stuff and his reply is "we're upgrading our relations with you."

Highly frustrating. Is there some kind of trick, or cheat, or something to say "you win, go to the next level"?
Reply #7 Top
Highly frustrating. Is there some kind of trick, or cheat, or something to say "you win, go to the next level"?


There is a cheat, but it isn't needed. What all pluses and minuses are you seeing with them in your game right now Tridus?
Reply #8 Top
++ Our Treaties Togethre
++ Our Millitary Strength
+ Trade
+ Our Diplomatic Skill
+ Ethical Alignment

- Our close borders seems to come and go, but its not visible right now.

(edit: Now have ++ Trade, but no change. The bar just won't move past friendly.)
Reply #9 Top
Then you may just have to ride the game out a couple more turns until you get "past friendship together" or such for another + as said in the followup posts in the thread.

You also remembered to give them Alliances tech right? Just so you don't need to wait to toss that to them when the time comes...
Reply #10 Top
I didn't get any extra bonuses, but just hitting next turn enough times changed it to close. Strange, but alright.

Thanks for the help. :)
Reply #11 Top
Okay, I am also stuck in this scenario. I have done all of the above, waited it out for MANY turns, gave away planets, cash and trade goods, deactivated my entire fleet(though I am still getting a negative on military strength) I am not sure what I can do to change the "Close borders" negative, or the "We know what you are doing" negative. have all treaties active, trade is good, there are no enemies ( I eliminated them all) but the feelings have not moved at all. Could the upgrade from 1.95 to 1.96 have stuck the game in a loop? Any help here would be appreciated
Reply #12 Top
Well, killing your military definitely hurts you. The "we know what you are doing" may be due to you having (had) some ships or starbases near their planets.
Reply #13 Top
I started an own post but cant transmitted my text, so I will trying it here,
unless I don't know if this has to do with the tactic problems in this scenario:

There is a typo in the TACampaignText_06_Rock&HardPlace.xml

I found it in the file .../Data/English/Campaigns/TACampaignText_06_Rock&HardPlace.xml (still in TA 1.96.027)


at the end of Line 10:

Text Greetings YourLeaderName. The SPEAKING_RACE_NAME hope to have a lot of contact with your species. /Text /Text (originally inclusive brackets)



As you can see the end tag text inclusive brackets is twice a time in there.

I haven't a clue whether this typo can cause any oddities or not.

But in any case this double entry can be managed by using any non-RTF editor, like notepad.
Reply #14 Top
Okay Loupdinour, I will start with rebuilding the fleet. I had thought they were complaining it was too big. As to the starbase, well, they did not complain when it was protecting their capital world... :)
Reply #15 Top
Too large a fleet is never a negative. The militaristic tag comes from your history of finishing off other races. To avoid it, finish races off by culture-flipping their last planet. You can horribly slaughter the first 99 planets, but somehow people get upset at the last one.