allying

I can't give you a 100% sure way to get close with an AI civ, but establishing trade routes is probably the best way.

If AI the civ is of good alignment it also helps to be good yourself or at least neutral.

It's usually also better if your military is not significantly weaker the the AI's.

Finally it's my experience that if an AI civ is at war with other AI civs it will tend to try to keep better relations with the remaining civs including yours.

~SDC~

There are four main things that affect how an empire sees you in terms of "closeness".

1) How dependent their economy is on you.

Basically if a large % of their economy comes from trade with you, they will like you more and more as time goes on. Therefore its good to have a lot of trade routes with a race that you want to be allies with.

2) Morality

If they are of the same morality as you, they are a lot more likely to get to "close" relations. If you are both "good", then this is usually pretty easy. Evil races are a little less likely to buddy up.

3) What have done for me lately?

What I mean by this is bribes. You can give an AI a gift in the form of money, ships, IP votes, etc. A gift every 3 or 4 turns can quickly raise your relations level.

4) Military might.

If you be the king of the hill so to speak, everybody is much more likely to love you. They will become "groupies".

Hope this helps

You also have to research ally in the techs....

~SDC~

i see, well 30% comes from me in trade, but i spose i could do more. hmm thanks for the input

30% is pretty good. I suggest giving them free gifts instead.

~SDC~

Another thing that seems to help is to expand your cultural influence towards them in a non-threating way.

By this I mean build starbases in their uncolonized border sectors and add cultural modules. Later in the game, you can also colonize PQ 13 and 14 planets in their 'sectors of influence'. I usually send a fleet of 7 constructors to the same sector before colonizing the planet. Colonize the planet and then immediately build a starbase with a palace and maximization in the same sector. Slide the propoganda to 100% on the details screen or the planet and purchase/build Soil Enhancement, Habitat Improvement, News Network, and Entertainment Network as quickly as possible.

As your influence grows and their influence decreases they seem to be more likely to ally with you.

Hope this helps.

Also, giving gifts improves relations more if you have higher diplomacy skill.

It's quite simple really only ever bother trading with good civilizations and the minors. Beacause they get on extremly well with all other civs (except the evil ones) you can get them to close in no time at all.