[Suggestion] Trading Planets

Its certainly not unheard of to have such systems in RTSs. I've played numerous ones which have allowed the donation of units and buildings aswell as resources.

Would be interesting to see how larger scale trading would impact on diplomacy and the game as a whole. Certainly, in online, it would help protect weaker players and people could work cooperatively, being able to donate planets which would be more of an advantage to a particular player.

interesting, I was thinking more of trading planets for treaties as in 'you get that ice planet, but leave me alone for 10 minutes' or sth. which some empire building games have and which basically really happens in wars. one side is rarely totally obliterated, but rather cedes territory and after that there is peace. for a while at least.

I may be borrowing it a bit from Civ4 where you could demand/buy/trade cities for other concessions.  In terms of Diplomacy, I figure this would be a huge concession towards an AI to get them to consider a Cease Fire or Alliance earlier on.  For multiplayer, an ice planet for a player who has only volcanic planets might be a good bribe to get them to do something for you.

However, how would you be able to create at least a partial guarantee that the planet should be earned for a concession? For example, if it is to create a ceasefire, a player could easily cancel afterwards or would it have to rely on faith?

If it's single player, it'd be an AI Diplomacy factor like when you give them money or resources - It boosts them by 10% (max) favor and it slowly degrades over time.  Since you'd be handing over a planet, I would assume that this boost would be more than 10% - Say closer to 20% (max) for a good quality planet.

For multiplayer, you never know as most of the times you have to rely on things in good faith.  If you're playing with a good friend or two, this would be a simple way to ensure everyone gets an even distribution of resources (metal/crystal).  Currently the only way to trade a planet is to abandon it and allow a friend to recolonize it.

I certainly agree with the ability to donate planets, especially amongst friends and allies.

However, I reckon there would be a lot of work involved in making it a feasible trading tool.

Trading planets isn't on the slate for Diplomacy, sorry.

Either way, thanks for actually letting us know.

Why oh why don't you listen to your customer Stardock/Ironcled?? Many of us asked for more trading options way back when Sins was first published. Having just the option to trade resources is not worthy of an 4X game! (not even worthy of an RTS nowadays)

Exactly, I would like to see this in Diplomacy as well.

Trading x (Planet, Resource, Unit, Building, Research, Technology, Weapons etc) is part of Diplomacy!

Oh you'll get some trading, but nothing that's against Sins canon.

Good to hear, though trading never is against any canon. If your race is on the brink of extinction you would happily trade an unimportant planet for a little peace to rebuild and prepare.

Still, glad to know that you plan on doing some real diplomacy  

actually if you look at things like star trek voyager - trading essential parts of tech is not done, therefore the vasari woulkd be unlikely to trade their phase milles or gate tech.

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This feature definitely gets my vote!
I don't care if you think it's against the "Sins canon". I play multiplayer games for the teamwork, but Sins doesn't have enough teamwork options. I've wanted this feature since I first played Sins online, and was really hoping this would be in Diplomacy. I can't really think of any other diplomatic feature that would be as important as this one.

Another related feature that should definitely be available:
Shared resources for teammates. All credits and resources are divided evenly between the team.

Regarding the Canon of Sins, how out of canon would it be to trade planets with at least your own faction? I'm sure the multiple Advent groups wouldn't mind as much, since they are all one in the Unity. And the Vasari won't be there long anyway, so they shouldn't mind sharing a bit more. It's only slaves, after all. And the TEC trades all the time, this would be no different.

I can understand why you don't want to do it, but I don't think it was in the original canon for these peoples to be talking to each other anyway, let alone embassies.

In Sins, all the human (Trader) worlds are independent and have their own forms of government (the neutral worlds). Some of the larger ones control multiple planets, whereas most are solitary. When the Vasari arrived, the Trade Order realized that they had to form a tighter government for mutual defense or face extinction - which is the TEC (Trader Emergency Coalition). By the time of Entrenchment and Diplomacy, the Trader worlds are realizing that the TEC is becoming so powerful that it's overriding their soveriegnty (as you know from playing, it's submit to TEC will or get bombed into it ).  It's roughly like when Rome stopped being a Republic because Caesar took power and didn't give it back. Certainly the populace of those planets, who feel they should be ruling themselves, probably wouldn't appreciate being traded like chattle.

For Advent and Vasari, while they're all of the same race respectively, much like the TEC they represent different factions of the same overall group. They fight against one another at times, even though their overall goals are the same.

That might be your view, but as I said earlier, if you face extinction it's better to forfeit one small planet to buy you some time than to be extinc now. At least one could have the option to abandon one planet, getting resources and a few colony transporters (dependetn on population) in return to boost population of another planet.

All right, that makes sense. Thank you for clarifying.