Diplomacy

This page covers diplomatic actions available to global Factions. For diplomatic interactions between Nations, see Foreign Relations.

Diplomacy is an act of contacting other factions' councilors, usually to trade, or to bribe them to improve relationship.

Faction Hate

Faction relationships are governed by FactionHate score. This is a float value that determines how poorly a faction feels about another; the higher the score for another faction, the more it's hated. Each faction has a separate hatred score for every other faction, including the aliens.

Each faction has a war threshold for every other faction. While the threshold is usually 50 hate, it may vary from 22.2 to 100 hate depending on ideological distance and faction strength. The alien faction's war threshold for each faction is always 50 hate.

In the intel window, there are 3 different tiers of hatred levels for human factions:

• Tolerance: 0
• Conflicted: >0 but not above the war threshold.
• War: >0 and above the war threshold.

Visiting the trade screen allows determining hate score more precisely. From there, faction attitudes can range between following values:

Trade Window Mood	Hate Level
Pleased	Only Aliens feel this way to The Servants
Tolerant	0
Wary	>0
Annoyed	>10
Displeased	>20
Aggreived	>30
Angry	>40
Furious	>50
Outraged	>60
Hate	>70

As hate increases, factions will prioritize aggressive actions and target hated factions more. In addition, they'll also be harder to trade and cooperate with. Once the hate value increases beyond the war threshold, the faction will declare open war, and will begin serious attempts to kill Habs, Spaceships, and Councilors until the hate falls back down beneath the war threshold.

Factions also have a minimum hatred score for each faction. Ideological differences affect this as well as used mission control (MC) cap in the case of alien hate. If the minimum level climbs above the current hate level, the hate level is moved up to the minimum.

Aggressive actions and combat increases hatred against the attacking faction. There is a table of hatred increasing councilor and military actions below.

Every time a hatred modifier is applied, the value is multiplied by a random value between 0.8 and 1.2. This means that the hatred score changes you get in-game can be between 80% to 120% of the values listed in this post.

Human Faction hatred can grow pretty much infinitely, so if you piss off a human faction enough, it can become virtually impossible to get them back to Tolerance.

Minimum Hate Amount

Factions whose ideologies are too opposing have a minimum level of hatred for each other.

Anti-Alien Pro-Alien Divide

Non-moderate factions on opposite sides of the Anti-Alien Pro-Alien divide have a minimum hatred of 20 towards each other. Specifically, the following pairings will always have at least 20 hate for each other:

• Humanity First and The Protectorate
• Humanity First and The Servants
• Humanity First and The Aliens
• The Resistance and The Protectorate
• The Resistance and The Servants
• The Resistance and The Aliens

Alien Hate for Mission Control Usage

SPOILERS INSIDE!

The Alien faction has a minimum hatred level for all human factions except The Servants and The Protectorate. This hatred level depends on the amount of mission control used by the human faction, which roughly represents the amount of human space assets that could be used to threaten the Aliens' dominance over space. This minimum hate level is calculated as follows: The amount of Mission Control currently used by the human faction. Multiply by Difficulty level Multiplier: Difficulty Cinematic Normal Veteran Brutal Multiplier 0.05 0.3 0.6 1 Multiply by 0.8 if Strategic Deception has been researched. Multiply by 0.8 if Maskirovka has been researched. Multiply by 0.8 if Operational Misdirection has been researched. Multiply by 0.8 if Operational Security has been researched (only available to The Resistance). Only used Mission Control, and not Mission Control cap affects hate levels. This means that increasing your Mission Control usage enough will increase the minimum hatred level past the point of being at war with the aliens. For example, if you use 167 Mission Control on normal and have not researched any of the Mission Control hate reducing projects, then it is impossible to be at peace with the aliens (167 Mission Control * 0.3 = 50.1). However, if their attacks destroy enough of your Spaceships and Habs to reduce your Mission Control usage below that critical value, then it is possible to return to peace. Maximum possible used Mission Control without Aliens declaring war. (Does not apply to The Servants or The Protectorate.) Difficulty Cinematic Normal Veteran Brutal No Projects 999 166 83 49 With 1 out of 4 projects 1249 208 104 62 With 2 out of 4 projects 1562 260 130 78 With 3 out of 4 projects 1953 325 162 97 With 4 out of 4 projects 2441 406 203 122

Alien Maximum Hate Amount

SPOILERS INSIDE!

The Alien Faction has a maximum amount of hate that it can have for other factions. This maximum hate amount is calculated as follows: Difficulty Cinematic Normal Veteran Brutal Starting Amount 70 1000 1000 1000 Yearly Increase 2 100 100 100 In addition, if at least 25 years have passed since the Campaign began and the hate maximum is below 200, then the hate maximum is increased to 200. Note: All Campaign Duration checks are multiplied by the Alien Progression Speed in the Custom Campaign Settings. Accelerated Campaign mode sets this Alien Progression Slider to 200%, so every year that passes counts as 2 years. Note: Whenever the Minimum Hate level is greater than the Maximum Hate level, the Maximum Hate level will be set to the Minimum Hate level.

Passive Hate Change

Hatred may also passively change over time.

Known Turned Councilor

Every Turned councilor that is known to its employing faction causes that employing faction to passively gain hate for the turning faction. This passive hate is triggered once a week during the first 4 weeks of each month, and is equivalent to the amount of hate that a critical failure on a Turn Councilor mission would generate.

Envy-Based Human Hate

Crabs in a Bucket - A Metaphor for Human Faction Relations

Each human faction considers the human faction with the highest fractional ownership of humanity other than itself as its rival.

The game simulates envy by making human factions slowly gain hatred for their rival based on how much better the rival is doing, while slowly losing hatred for everyone else. So human factions that are falling behind have a tendency to work together to bring down the strongest human faction, like crabs in a bucket.

As a result, if you're doing better than the AI, they'll likely hate you regardless of what you do.

Note: On difficulties below Brutal, AI factions cannot gain envy-based hatred for the player's faction if they are ideologically close enough.

Just after the start of each month, the following happens for every pair of human factions A and B:

1. If B is not A's rival, or the month is even, then A loses 1 hate for B.
2. If A and B share a rival, then A loses another 1 hate for B.
3. If A's rival is on the opposite side of the anti-alien pro-alien divide, then A loses another 1 hate for B.
4. If B is A's rival, then A gains X hate for B, where X is calculated as follows:
   1. If A is ahead, then set X = 0.
   2. If A is on par, then set X = 1.
   3. If A is losing, then set X = 1.75.
   4. If A is losing big, then set X = 2.25.
   5. If A and B are non-moderates on opposite sides of the anti-alien pro-alien divide, then add 1.4 to X. (The moderates are Project Exodus, The Initiative, and The Academy.)
   6. If A and B are on the same side of the anti-alien pro-alien divide, then subtract 0.75 from X. Subtract another 2.25 if it has also been less than 7 years since the campaign began.
   7. If X is less than 0, then set X = 0.
5. If B has unlocked their Victory Objective, then A gains another 1 hate for B.

For example, suppose you are playing The Resistance. It is October 2042, and you have unlocked your victory objective, and you are far ahead of all other human factions. This month, The Protectorate will:

1. Lose 1 hate for you, because the month is even.
2. Gain 2.25 + 1.4 = 3.65 hate for you, because you are their rival, they are losing big, and the two of you are non-moderates on opposite sides of the anti-alien pro-alien divide.
3. Gain another 1 hate for you, because you have unlocked your victory objective.

On odd months, the first 1 hate loss doesn't happen. Thus The Protectorate will gain 49.8 hate for you every year, even if you take absolutely no hostile actions against them.

Alien Passive Hate

SPOILERS INSIDE!

The Alien Faction sets their rival to be the human faction that possesses the highest fractional ownership of humanity, excluding The Servants and The Protectorate. The Aliens will slowly gain hate for their rival, as well as for all anti-alien factions. Unlike Human Envy however, Alien Frustration with Humanity's continued refusal to fall means that their passive hate gain rate constantly accelerates as the campaign continues. Just after the start of each month, the following happens for every human faction B that is not The Servants: If B is not the Alien Faction's rival, or the month is even, then the Alien Faction loses X hate for B, where X is calculated as follows: Set X = 0.8. If B is anti-alien, then set X = 0.64. If B is not the Alien Faction's rival, and the Aliens are already at war with at least 3 human factions, then multiply X by 1.5. If the Alien Faction and B share a rival, then the Alien Faction loses another 0.33 hate for B. If the Alien Faction's rival is on the opposite side of the anti-alien pro-alien divide, then the Alien Faction loses another 1 hate for B. If B is The Protectorate, then the Alien Faction loses X hate for B, where X is calculated as follows: Set X to 1. If B can contact the Alien, then increase X to 4. If B has unlocked its victory objective, then increase X to 10. If B is not The Protectorate, then the Alien Faction gains X hate for B, where X is calculated as follows: Set X to 0. If B is the Alien Faction's Rival, then add 0.65 to X. If B is the human faction that possesses the highest fractional ownership of humanity, then add another 0.65 to X. If B has unlocked its victory objective, then add 0.5 to X. If B is Project Exodus, then add 0.07 to X. If B is The Resistance, then add 0.17 to X. If B is Humanity First, then add 0.34 to X. If B is The Academy, then multiply X by 0.75. Multiply X by 0, 1, 1.9, and 3.3 for Cinematic, Normal, Veteran, and Brutal Difficulties respectively. Divide X by 60. Multiply X by the number of years since the Campaign began. Multiply X by the Alien Progression Speed. This is a slider you can adjust in Custom Campaign Settings. It is 100% on Long Campaign mode and 200% on Accelerated Campaign mode. For example, suppose you are playing The Resistance on Normal Difficulty, Long Campaign mode. It is October 2042, and you have unlocked your victory objective, and you are far ahead of all other human factions. This month, the Alien Faction will: Lose 0.64 hate for you, because the month is even and you are anti-alien. Gain (0.65+0.65+0.5+0.17) * 1 / 60 * 20 = roughly 0.66 hate for you, because you are their rival, the strongest human faction, have unlocked your victory objective, are the resistance, are on normal difficulty, and it has been 20 years since the Campaign began. On odd months, the first 0.64 hate loss doesn't happen. Thus the Alien Faction will gain roughly 4.2 hate for you this year, even if you take absolutely no hostile actions against them. Furthermore, since Alien Frustration is constantly growing, they will gain roughly 4.6 hate for you next year, roughly 5 the next, and so on, accelerating by roughly 0.4 per year. In practice, the Alien Faction will usually pick the Player's faction as its rival simply because the player will be developing that much faster than the Human AI factions. So the best a player can do to avoid passive alien hate gain is to avoid unlocking their victory objective as long as possible. Under these conditions, there are two rough deadlines to keep in mind: Hate Start: The time after which you would be gaining passive alien hate faster than you lose it, on average. War Start: The time after which the aliens would declare war on you, assuming you never did a single thing to change their hate amount, not even use Mission Control. Faction Hate Decay Hate Gain Per Month Per Month Hate Start Year War Start Year Bimonthly Monthly Normal Veteran Brutal Normal Veteran Brutal Normal Veteran Brutal The Academy 0.8 0.4 0.00135 0.00257 0.00447 25 13 8 47 29 20 The Initiative 0.8 0.4 0.00181 0.00343 0.00596 19 10 6 38 24 17 Project Exodus 0.64 0.32 0.00190 0.00362 0.00628 14 7 4 33 21 15 The Resistance 0.64 0.32 0.00204 0.00388 0.00674 13 7 4 27 17 12 Humanity First 0.64 0.32 0.00228 0.00433 0.00752 12 6 4 25 16 11

Actions that affect hatred

Missions

Base Hate generated by missions

Mission	Base Hate Generated when Outcome is:
	Critical Failure	Normal Failure	Normal Success	Critical Success
Protect Target			0
Turn Councilor	3	3	0	0
Contact			0
Crackdown	0	0	2	0
Deorbit			0
Extract Councilor	0	0	1	1
Coup d'Etat	3	0	5	5
Orbit			0
Assassinate	5	0	10	0
Inspire	0	0	0	0
Go To Ground			0
Public Campaign	0	0	0	0
Stabilize Nation	0	0	0	0
Control Nation	0	0	0	0
Purge	1	1	5	5
Advise			0
Assault Alien Asset	2	2	10	10
Increase Unrest	2	0	0	0
Transfer			0
Sabotage Hab Module	2	2	0	0
Steal Project	2	0	3	0
Surveil Location			0
Set National Policy			0
Assault Enemy Space Asset	2	2	10	10
Sabotage Project	2	0	3	0
Sabotage Facilities	2	0	3	0
Defend Interests			0
Investigate Alien Activity			0
Investigate Councilor	0	0	0	0
Detain Councilor	1	1	2	3
Control Space Asset	2	2	7	7
Hostile Takeover	1	0	2	2

SPOILERS INSIDE!

Base Hate generated by missions Mission Base Hate Generated when Outcome is: Critical Failure Normal Failure Normal Success Critical Success Build Facility 0 Grant Alien Control 0 Enthrall Elites 0 0 5 5 Dominate Nation 30 20 5 5 Herald Our Masters 0 Terrorize Region 0 0 0 0 Abductions 0 0 0 0 Enthrall Unaligned Elites 0 0 0 0 Enthrall Public 0 0 0 0 Tame the Enemy 0 Xenoform 0 0 0 0 Forge an Alliance 0 Launch the Bifrost 0 Claim Hegemony 0 Trigger the Weapon 0 Close the Gate 0 Pass Technology 0 Enthrall Org 0 0 3 3

When targeting a region or a nation, each faction that has at least one control point in the nation (that owns the region) will gain the stated amount of hate. This applies even if the control point is abandoned or cracked.

There are a number of Missions that may generate different amounts of hate depending on the situation:

• If the target Faction(s) is intel sharing with the Faction that performed the mission, and the hate gained would be 0, then the hate gained is instead the maximum hate that any outcome of the mission could give.
• If the target Faction(s) has a mole in the Faction that performed the mission, and the hate gained would be 0, then the hate gained for successful outcomes is instead the maximum hate that any successful outcome of the mission could give, and the hate gained for failing outcomes is instead the maximum hate that any failing outcome of the mission could give.
• If the Faction that performed the mission is the Aliens and the target Faction(s) cannot detect the mission when it is done by Aliens, then the hate is gained towards The Servants instead of the Aliens.
• For the Assault Alien Asset mission, if the target is merely xenoflora, then there is no hate gain.
• For the Assassinate mission, if the target is an Alien Councilor and the outcome is a critical success (that hides the culprit's identity), then the Aliens will blame everyone equally, spreading 10 hate evenly among all human factions except The Servants and The Protectorate.
• For the Detain Councilor mission, if the target is an Alien Councilor, then normal successes give 10 hate, while critical successes give 0 hate.

Combat

Action	Hatred generated
Destroying a ship	0.35 × hull structural integrity
Destroying a hab module	hab tier level
Destroying a hab	3 × hab tier level + all the hate for blowing up the hab modules on board.
Assaulting a hab	8 × hab tier level + all the hate for any hab modules that blow up as a result.
Initiating bombardment on any target	1
Entering combat against a hab	2 × hab tier
Declaring war on another nation	Number of CPs owned in nation × 3 (for faction with executive control of target nation only, dragged in allies don't count.)

Note: As a general rule of thumb, factions will never gain hate for any assets that they destroy in self-defense.

For example, if a faction A sends a fleet of ships over to a faction B's hab, and faction B kills all of the ships in that fleet, faction A does not gain any hate for faction B.

However, pre-emptive self-defense does not necessarily count. If faction B had seen this fleet of ships coming from faction A, and sent its own fleet of ships to intercept faction A's fleet before it arrives at faction B's hab, then any of faction A's ships that are killed in that battle could cause faction A to hate faction B. Also, if you send a fleet to encounter a rival fleet, you still count as the attacker even if you merely choose to "Accept" battle rather than "Engage".

The exact rules are deliberately tricky to make them difficult to exploit. In general, if a player wishes to destroy enemy assets without incurring hate, they must first wait for the target faction to start an attack at the player, and then they must defeat that attack before that attack kills its target.

SPOILERS INSIDE!

A destroyed ship gives no hate if any of the following are true: The combat that destroyed the ship occurred at the hab. Note: If the fleet pursues an evading fleet, then it might not count as being at the hab! The ship was part of a fleet that transferred to the hab or fleet that destroyed it. The ship was part of a fleet that has or had a goal to attack the faction that destroyed it within the last 14 days. Note: Attack goals are generally only used for starting transfers and bombardment operations. Deciding whether to use the Engage stance or the Destroy Hab operation could happen entirely without an attack goal. So this is much more iffy to rely on.

Alien Specific

SPOILERS INSIDE!

Action Hatred Formation of the Alien Nation The Academy and The Initiative gain 40 hatred towards the Aliens and 100 hatred towards The Servants. Project Exodus gains 70 hatred towards the Aliens and 100 hatred towards The Servants. Humanity First and The Resistance gain 100 hatred towards the Aliens and 100 hatred towards The Servants. For every pair of human factions A and B that is not The Servants or The Protectorate: If A was at war with B, then A's hate for B is set to 9, effectively ending the war. Otherwise if A's hate for B was at least 18, then that hate is set to 8. Otherwise A's hate for B is reduced by 10. Destroying Landed UFO Aliens gain 80 hatred towards the faction responsible. (Only 10 hatred if a Councilor did it.) Destroying Alien Facility Aliens gain 10 hatred towards the faction responsible. Conquering or causing a revolution the Alien Nation Aliens gain 80 hatred divided up among the factions responsible.

Alien Hate Vent

SPOILERS INSIDE!

Aliens may lose hate when they destroy specific assets of their enemies: Destroyed Target Conditions Hatred Vented Councilor Must be assassinated. Average of all of the councilor's attributes without orgs or traits. Army Must not be at Total War. Must be bombarded. Must be targeted by Aliens. 1 Space Facility Must not be at Total War. Must be bombarded. Must be targeted by Aliens. Nation is fully controlled by one faction. 1 Ship Must not be at Total War. Must not be Trespassing. Must be targeted by Aliens. The Construction Tier of the Ship's Hull. Complete Hab Module Must not be at Total War. Must not be Trespassing. Must be targeted by Aliens. Module Tier ^ 2. +Module Tier if Module is a Mining Complex. +Module Tier if Module is a Construction Module. Divide by 2/3/4/5 for Cinematic/Normal/Veteran/Brutal Difficulty. Incomplete Hab Module with Previous Module Must not be at Total War. Must not be Trespassing. Must be targeted by Aliens. (Minimum of this Module and Previous Module Tier) ^ 2. Divide by 2/3/4/5 for Cinematic/Normal/Veteran/Brutal Difficulty. Incomplete Hab Module with No Previous Module Must not be at Total War. Must not be Trespassing. Must be targeted by Aliens. Hab Core must be complete at some point in the past. Module Tier ^ 2. Divide by 16. Divide by 2/3/4/5 for Cinematic/Normal/Veteran/Brutal Difficulty. Entire Hab Must not be at Total War. Must not be Trespassing. Must be targeted by Aliens. The Maximum of: Sum of hate vented if each individual module was blown up. Hab tier if Hab Core was complete at some point in the past. Hab tier / 2 if Hab Core is not currently being boosted over from Earth. Any of the Above Must not be on Brutal Difficulty. Fractional Ownership over Space Humanity must have recently decreased by >35% 50% of Alien hate for faction on Cinematic Difficulty. 35% of Alien hate for faction on Normal Difficulty. 15% of Alien hate for faction on Veteran Difficulty. As a general rule of thumb, the Aliens will only vent hate after destroying a target if: They are not at total war with the target's faction. They actually wanted to kill the target (not self-defense against stuff being thrown at them or their territory).

Contact with Other Factions

By using the Contact mission on a councilor from another faction, a councilor may initiate trade discussions with the leader of that faction. Successful trades can serve to lower hostility between factions.

However, all human factions ultimately have incompatible ideologies and antithetical goals, and they will regard any cordial relations as transient at best.

~ Terra Invicta Codex, 0.4.85.

To conduct diplomacy, a councilor needs to do Contact mission on an agent of target faction.

Trade interface

It's possible to trade following things:

• Resources
• Orgs (including assigned orgs)
• Habs
• Engineering projects
• Truce, non-aggression pact, and intel sharing.

For more detail on trading options, see Factions#Trade_Negotiations.

Trade is the only action that decreases hatred directly. Equal trades decrease hatred by -9 and favorable trades decrease hatred by -18. Having a hatred score above a 6 with a faction hampers your ability to trade with them, so it's important to trade early and often with factions you want to ally.

Faction hatred significantly affects trade favorability:

• Each faction computes a score for a trade by weighing it against what they have, what they're prioritizing, etc.
• If hatred is greater than 6, that score is divided by hatred / 5, significantly reducing the trade's favorability score

Faction hatred may also reduce the amount of resources that a faction is willing to sell to another.

Interpreting Trade Messages: What the other faction is really saying.

Trade Value	Trade Messages
Very Low	This isn't going to work. You need to offer more. This is insufficient. We will need more than that. Not a chance. We'll need more. Not even close. Unacceptable. We will need significantly more concessions to consider this offer.
Low	We're going to need a little more from your end of the bargain. While this has some merit, we would need a bit more incentive to agree. This isn't quite in our interest to accept. We're getting there. What else can you throw in? Not bad. Just need a little more. Close, but not quite. Improve your offer, and we may be able to reach an agreement.
Equal	This is a fair trade. I accept. Very well. We agree. This is adequate. Agreed. Not what we had hoped for, but good enough. We accept. Acceptable. Agreed. We would have preferred more, but this will suffice. Agreed.
High	A generous trade! I accept. A beneficial agreement for both sides! Agreed. This is more than adequate. This is ample compensation. We agree. Agreed! We accept and will look forward to future discussions. Well done. We're pleased with this outcome.

Contact with Aliens

SPOILERS INSIDE!

Pro-Alien Human Factions may contact alien councilors after completing certain story objectives. In addition to opening up a trade window, this also resets the estimated alien hate level to match the actual alien hate level. Furthermore, it completes the Access Alien Tech and Alien Diplomacy milestones if the Acting Faction is The Servants or The Protectorate. However, trade with Aliens is limited in some ways: Habs cannot be traded. Engineering Projects cannot be traded. Non-aggression pacts cannot be traded if one party is The Academy. There are lines of alien diplomatic contact dialogue in game files: Servants: Greetings, faithful servant (Kneel, domestic animal). You are loved (you are nothing). Protectorate/War: Yield (die). Protectorate/in conflict: Submission=survival (Resistance=obliteration). Protectorate/Tolerance: You are tolerated (You present no threat). Academy/War: Undesired obstacle (Expunge the threat). Academy/In conflict: Cease. Cease. Cease. (Threat. Threat. Threat.). Academy/Tolerance: Communication=acceptable (Human=persuadable?).

Pro-Alien Hate Sharing

SPOILERS INSIDE!

Servant hatred and Alien hatred scores are related. Gaining hatred with one will increase hatred for the other according to the following relationships: If The Servants gain hatred on a faction and can contact the Aliens, then the Aliens gain the same amount of hatred / 4. Otherwise, the Aliens gain the same amount of hatred / 8. If the Aliens gain hatred on a faction and can contact The Servants, then The Servants gain the same amount of hatred / 2. Otherwise, The Servants gain the same amount of hatred / 4. Same situation applies to The Protectorate, but only if they can contact the Aliens and to a much smaller extent: Amount / 10 given to the Aliens for actions against The Protectorate. Amount / 3 given to The Protectorate for actions against the Aliens. For The Servants and The Protectorate factions, the Aliens can be contacted if either of these two conditions are true: The faction has researched Hydra Diplomacy. The faction is has unlocked but not completed the Contact The Aliens objective (Called "Find the Alien Path" for The Servants). This objective is unlocked the moment Alien Movements is researched. This objective is completed the moment the faction performs a Contact mission on an Alien Councilor. Note: This hate sharing mechanic only applies when gaining hate through action: Passive Hate Changes are never shared. Hate loss, such as from trade, is never shared. Hate changes that are the result of the minimum or maximum hate level changing are also never shared. Furthermore, if The Protectorate has unlocked its Victory Objective, then any hate gained by The Servants towards The Protectorate is no longer shared with The Aliens.

Estimated Alien Hate Level

Estimated Alien Hate Level

Each faction has a separate hatred score for every other faction, including the aliens. But while a human faction's hatred scores can be seen in the intel page, the alien faction's hatred scores are shrouded in mystery:

• A player can never see how much hatred the alien faction has for any faction other than the player's faction.
• An estimate of the alien faction's hatred score for the player's faction becomes visible after the Alien Operations project is researched.

This estimated alien hate level is displayed as a meter with 5 diamonds that can be lit up one by one, from top to bottom, each with a different color:

Lit Diamonds	(Estimated) Hate Level
0	<10
1	≥10
2	≥20
3	≥30
4	≥40
5	≥50

Total War Declared

In dire circumstances, all five diamonds on the meter will turn red. This indicates that the aliens have declared Total War upon the player's faction.

Estimation Accuracy

In practice, the estimated alien hate level is extremely accurate. Notably, if the aliens have declared war upon the player's faction, the estimated alien hate level can never lie about it.

Nevertheless, it is possible for the estimated alien hate level to be incorrect. The reason for this is that every time a hatred modifier is applied, the value is multiplied by a random value between 0.8 and 1.2 before it is applied to the actual hate level. This means that the actual hatred level changes can be between 80% to 120% of the values listed in this page. In contrast, the estimated alien hate level does not apply this randomization: the estimated hatred level changes are always exactly 100% of the values listed in this page.

Therefore, if the player has exceptionally strange luck, then the actual hatred level may differ wildly from the estimated hatred level simply because the randomization factor rolled low for hate changes in one direction but rolled high for hate changes in the other direction.

To address this, the estimated alien hatred level is reset to match the actual alien hatred level whenever any of the following happen:

SPOILERS INSIDE!

The Alien Faction declares a new war on the player's faction. The player researches Hydra Diplomacy. The player researches Their Purpose. The player researches Their Demands. The player researches Coexistence Pact. The player completes a trade with the Alien faction. (Does not count if the trade is cancelled.) The player captures an alien hab. The player Detains an alien councilor. The player initiates Contact with an alien councilor. (Does not count if it is the alien councilor initiates Contact.)

War

When diplomacy breaks down, War is the result.

Once a faction's hatred level for another faction becomes high enough, they will declare open war on that faction. For AI Factions, open war enables several options that are normally locked away or only available in highly restrictive conditions (such as trespassing on alien territory). These options include but are not limited to:

• Conducting Assassinate Missions on the Enemy Faction's Councilors.
• Conducting Control Space Asset Missions on the Enemy Faction's Habs.
• Using Fleets to attacking the Enemy Faction's space assets.

A player who is not prepared for such aggression should seriously consider taking measures to bring the hatred level back down when open war is declared upon them.

Human War Threshold

The amount of hate needed for a human faction to declare open war upon another faction varies dynamically throughout the game, and depends on three factors:

• Ideological distance between the two factions.
• The faction's self assessment of how well it is doing.
• Whether the other faction is the most threatening human faction other than itself.

More specifically, the threshold is 100 hate divided by X, where X is calculated as follows:

1. Set X to the ideological distance between the two factions, but capped at 2.5.
2. If the other faction is the most threatening human faction other than itself, then add to X:
   1. -2 if the faction believes itself to be way ahead.
   2. -1 if the faction believes itself to be ahead.
   3. 0 if the faction believes itself to be on par.
   4. 1 if the faction believes itself to be losing.
   5. 2 if the faction believes itself to be losing big.
3. If X is less than 1, then set X = 1.

As a result, the war threshold for a human faction can vary wildly, from 22.2 to 100 hatred.

In practice, the human AI factions will usually believe themselves to be losing big and the player faction will be the most threatening human faction. This means that the human AI faction war thresholds against the player faction will be as follows:

Faction	Humanity First	The Resistance	Project Exodus	The Initiative	The Academy	The Protectorate	The Servants
Humanity First		32.1	24.3	24.6	22.2	22.2	22.2
The Resistance	32.1		32.1	29.3	26.3	22.2	22.2
Project Exodus	24.3	32.1		24.6	33.3	22.2	22.2
The Initiative	24.6	29.3	24.6		24.6	27.9	22.2
The Academy	22.2	26.3	33.3	24.6		26.3	28.6
The Protectorate	22.2	22.2	22.2	27.9	26.3		27.9
The Servants	22.2	22.2	22.2	22.2	28.6	27.9

Alien War Threshold

The Alien faction always has a war threshold of 50 hatred.

Alien Total War

SPOILERS INSIDE!

The Alien faction will declare total war on a human faction if and only if two conditions are both met: The Alien faction has at least 200 hate for that faction. It has been at least X years since the Campaign began, where X is determined by Campaign Difficulty as follows: Campaign Difficulty Cinematic Normal Veteran Brutal Years since Campaign Began 25 20 10 0 These values are divided by the Alien Progression Speed. This is a slider you can adjust in Custom Campaign Settings. It is 100% on Long Campaign mode and 200% on Accelerated Campaign mode. Total war is a special state of war where the rules for alien hate venting become significantly more restrictive. This makes it extremely difficult to reduce the alien hate level, which usually means that the human faction will henceforth be stuck in an eternal war with the alien faction.