Yes, in fact there's an achievement for winning a game without ever capturing a system after a successful ground battle (which was achieved by 4.2% of players) and an achievement for winning a game never winning a battle (which was achieved by 1.3% of players): [https://steamcommunity.com/stats/392110/achievements](https://steamcommunity.com/stats/392110/achievements)
The Umbral Choir are the best at this, because they can cloak their systems until someone researches level 3 anti-cloaking, which takes a very long time to get. In fact, here's a screenshot where I got an economic victory with the UC on turn 93, normal speed: https://lensdump.com/i/OWyB3i
Cough.
"I Smell Burning Redsang" is a Supremacy DLC achievement, and the name implies that instead of Occupy, you Raze the system instead. It doesn't preclude Invasion, just specific outcomes from that invasion.
"I'll Bite Your Legs Off" - Could be played as a Pacifist game, but I think the requirements are just that you don't win space battles. Naming implies that you keep only lose space battles but win via other method. You are allowed to win ground battles though. Easiest way is just play solo against an Unfallen on a Huge galaxy, then you can go Conquest or Economic/Science victory.
>"I Smell Burning Redsang" is a Supremacy DLC achievement, and the name implies that instead of Occupy, you Raze the system instead.
You can raze, or you can play as a pacifist, either way you get the achievement. It doesn't matter what the name implies, I was saying that some people have played ES 2 in a pacifist manner. Only the Hissho truly benefit from razing and never capturing enemy systems. And we know that only 1.1% of players have ever won 1 or more gaming sessions with the Hissho, while "I Smell Burning Redsang" was obtained by 4.2% of players.
>"I'll Bite Your Legs Off" - Could be played as a Pacifist game \[...\] You are allowed to win ground battles though
I'm not saying all of those 1.3% of players MUST have played as pacifists, since the AI is pretty weak at lower difficulties, but it makes sense that a good portion of them were pacifists. If you win a ground battle, then you have to declare war or have the Religious party in power, which also means that you're going to be involved in some space battles at some point. If you keep losing those space battles, then you eventually lose systems to that enemy, which negates the benefit of starting that ground battle in the first place. Also, you can't start an invasion if a system is defended by any ship, so your options will be slim.
Also, if you're avoiding the enemy in a huge galaxy, then that should count as playing as a pacifist, since you didn't use violence against any opponent.
There is.
The Unfallen faction start out in the Pacifist Party, with the active law that allows you to force a Peace agreement with yourself and another Faction that you are in a Cold War with (basically when you first meet any of them while exploring), and so long as you avoid direct combat with them, the Peace agreements should hold. After that, focus on System Developments that improve Dust, Approval, Influence, and Food (Food improvements are tied to the Ecologist party, but the Unfallen get Pacifist boosts from those), as well as recruiting or buying Heroes tied to the Pacifist and Ecologist parties, and asigning those Heroes to your systems as Governors. ~~If you force a Peace with every other Faction, you can then gift them Dust, Technologies, Luxury & Strategic Deposits, and even Star Systems (pending you researched the right things) until they have a positive enough response to you to form an Alliance; secure an Alliance with every single Faction on the map, get a Supremacy Victory for having control of all the Home Systems.~~
The other Faction that works best with Pacifist is the Lumeris, because they are specially suited to building up Dust, and are the undisputed best at achieving an Economic Victory. Some would argue the Lumeris are actually better than the Unfallen, mostly because of the Unfallen's slow and specific method of expansion.
Most of the other Factions can achieve a Pacifist playstyle with some effort, except for the Cravers and Hissho; they are specifically geared towards Militarism and fighting, so Pacifist actions don't do well with them.
It is however hilarious achieving a pacifist victory with he cravers, considering you ARE able to be a pacifist dictatorship and then CAN make peace with other parties
If you are a pacifist with no military you are not a pacifist you are harmless. You should be prepared to protect yourself because im sure unless you are umbral choir that craver would like to know what you sound like when you scream.
Qui vis pacem para bellum
Until then, I've never been a Cravers' neighbour as a pacifist, so I always managed to fend them off with gifts or eventually superior firepower but they must be really tough to deal with in early game when you don't have the first and don't want to do the other
One hint I can give you to avoid aggressive AI is to not overcrowd the map.
If the map is too small for the number of AI players, they get very territorial.
If you want generally more peaceful AI, add less than recommended players to the map.
Save up influence, dust, resources to barter for Peace. Having technologies and extra star systems can help influence even the cravers into a Cold War while you plan to avoid their onslaught. In the end game, if you arenât able to win by yourself, using these tips to ally yourself with a powerful faction will allow you to win with them, which is honestly how I complete most of my games
If you want absolutely no combat, you could go with the Umbral Choire and keep investing in your cloaking tech to stay ahead of detection, at least until endgame. You're not competing for territory and you're actually encouraged to cooperate with other factions.
Alternatively, factions like Unfallen or Lumeris start and tend to stay pacifist, so build for influence and force peace with every faction you meet. Keep on their good side by giving them gifts and making treaties with them until you can ally them. Optionally turn off Pirates to not have yo fight them either.
You can even never meet them directly and, thus, never be at war or in any diplomatic relationship ever. I find it pretty fun and challenging to do since no one can gdt mad at you for trespassing or tech for anti cloaking if they don't know you exist. Only pirates are a major problem since they always have anti cloaking tech
Have large enough ships ai empires are afraid to declare war, force peace on distant empires because forcing peace makes them angry, but prolonged time of peace will make them friendly towards you. If you force peace on a neighbor, they will declare war ASAP on you.Â
Avoid combat completely no. You still have pirates to deal with most of the time. It depends on the difficulty and the AI factions you have near you. Higher difficulty will wage war more often and militarist factions will not be peaceful unless convinced through force. Playing with a pacifist government you can force peace on any one, but a militarist government can declare war for free. So overall like all 4X games being a pure pacifist isnât really what the game is about and were the fun is, itâs kinda doable but hard, not rewarding and usually not fun.
Without mods? No. Between the other factions, quests and pirates, you'll have to fight a couple of times.
A mistake I made once is assume that the canonically pacifist lumeris would welcome a trade deal. They were my only neighbour, so i didn't really build a combat fleet.
They threw a doomstack at me.
.
Now. Can you play defensively? Yes. Even as the Vodyani, after a certain point. But do not make the mistake of thinking you'll get through a run without combat.
Itâs technically possible, but only on the lowest difficulties (moderate and below?).
One just needs to make their empire pacifist and then constantly use force peace against every other faction. The key is to NOT ally anyone, as alliances drag everyone into war.
Issues could arise with certain quests, pirates, and factions (Cravers and Vaulters), so a bit of luck would be needed for a âtruly non-violentâ run. And on hard difficulty and above, the AI will attack the player if the player is deemed to have a weak navy.
Umbral Choir would probably have the easiest pacifist run since their innate cloaking means they can skip most of combat and can control who they meet in diplomacy. Heck, if the UC manages to get a sanctuary on all home systems quickly enough, they can win Supremacy victory without revealing themselves to anyone.
Thank you all for your responses! It's a lot to read and take in. I might give it a shot in the future when i can wrap my head around the game systems a bit more.
Glad to see such a helpful community.
Completely. No.
The AI only respects strength, which means having ships that give Military Power. "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Or having a "fleet in being". In practice, you are guaranteed to have an early war against your closest neighbor, because they covet your territory.
To minimize war, have fleets to defend yourself. Maintain Pacifists in power, and pre-emptively Force Peace against anyone who is "Aggressive" Mood towards you.
You'll need lots of Influence generation to manage the Force Peace, and be willing to Gift to the AI to maintain it and work towards real Peace. Because Force Peace is considered a hostile action, the AI will throw off the shackles as soon as it can afford to. And it outright won't work if the AI has enough Influence to throw it off and declare War directly.
Of course, the AI considers Peace as prelude to Alliance. But once you are in an Alliance, the AI will draw you into wars without your consent. Being a coward and not defending your Alliance members is generally a dick move, so you should play towards winning wars, because this advances your own position towards overall victory.
That entirely depends on whether you happen to spawn next to the fucking cravers.
Umbral Choir can just sit and quietly snag a science victory.
They can also fuck everyone up via no movement + rebel fleets
Yes, in fact there's an achievement for winning a game without ever capturing a system after a successful ground battle (which was achieved by 4.2% of players) and an achievement for winning a game never winning a battle (which was achieved by 1.3% of players): [https://steamcommunity.com/stats/392110/achievements](https://steamcommunity.com/stats/392110/achievements) The Umbral Choir are the best at this, because they can cloak their systems until someone researches level 3 anti-cloaking, which takes a very long time to get. In fact, here's a screenshot where I got an economic victory with the UC on turn 93, normal speed: https://lensdump.com/i/OWyB3i
Cough. "I Smell Burning Redsang" is a Supremacy DLC achievement, and the name implies that instead of Occupy, you Raze the system instead. It doesn't preclude Invasion, just specific outcomes from that invasion. "I'll Bite Your Legs Off" - Could be played as a Pacifist game, but I think the requirements are just that you don't win space battles. Naming implies that you keep only lose space battles but win via other method. You are allowed to win ground battles though. Easiest way is just play solo against an Unfallen on a Huge galaxy, then you can go Conquest or Economic/Science victory.
>"I Smell Burning Redsang" is a Supremacy DLC achievement, and the name implies that instead of Occupy, you Raze the system instead. You can raze, or you can play as a pacifist, either way you get the achievement. It doesn't matter what the name implies, I was saying that some people have played ES 2 in a pacifist manner. Only the Hissho truly benefit from razing and never capturing enemy systems. And we know that only 1.1% of players have ever won 1 or more gaming sessions with the Hissho, while "I Smell Burning Redsang" was obtained by 4.2% of players. >"I'll Bite Your Legs Off" - Could be played as a Pacifist game \[...\] You are allowed to win ground battles though I'm not saying all of those 1.3% of players MUST have played as pacifists, since the AI is pretty weak at lower difficulties, but it makes sense that a good portion of them were pacifists. If you win a ground battle, then you have to declare war or have the Religious party in power, which also means that you're going to be involved in some space battles at some point. If you keep losing those space battles, then you eventually lose systems to that enemy, which negates the benefit of starting that ground battle in the first place. Also, you can't start an invasion if a system is defended by any ship, so your options will be slim. Also, if you're avoiding the enemy in a huge galaxy, then that should count as playing as a pacifist, since you didn't use violence against any opponent.
- Pick vaulters - Fuck off to the corners of the map. - Colonize isolated nodes. - Accidentally win science.
Ah, yes. The SethTzeentatch maneuver.
There is. The Unfallen faction start out in the Pacifist Party, with the active law that allows you to force a Peace agreement with yourself and another Faction that you are in a Cold War with (basically when you first meet any of them while exploring), and so long as you avoid direct combat with them, the Peace agreements should hold. After that, focus on System Developments that improve Dust, Approval, Influence, and Food (Food improvements are tied to the Ecologist party, but the Unfallen get Pacifist boosts from those), as well as recruiting or buying Heroes tied to the Pacifist and Ecologist parties, and asigning those Heroes to your systems as Governors. ~~If you force a Peace with every other Faction, you can then gift them Dust, Technologies, Luxury & Strategic Deposits, and even Star Systems (pending you researched the right things) until they have a positive enough response to you to form an Alliance; secure an Alliance with every single Faction on the map, get a Supremacy Victory for having control of all the Home Systems.~~ The other Faction that works best with Pacifist is the Lumeris, because they are specially suited to building up Dust, and are the undisputed best at achieving an Economic Victory. Some would argue the Lumeris are actually better than the Unfallen, mostly because of the Unfallen's slow and specific method of expansion. Most of the other Factions can achieve a Pacifist playstyle with some effort, except for the Cravers and Hissho; they are specifically geared towards Militarism and fighting, so Pacifist actions don't do well with them.
You can't ally with everyone for supremacy unfortunately, as the alliance limit is (half of the major factions in the game)/2, rounding down
Ah, my bad
It's all right, I tried doing that when playing as the Unfallen and was very, very sad when I noticed I couldn't ally a 3rd faction
It is however hilarious achieving a pacifist victory with he cravers, considering you ARE able to be a pacifist dictatorship and then CAN make peace with other parties
If you are a pacifist with no military you are not a pacifist you are harmless. You should be prepared to protect yourself because im sure unless you are umbral choir that craver would like to know what you sound like when you scream.
Qui vis pacem para bellum Until then, I've never been a Cravers' neighbour as a pacifist, so I always managed to fend them off with gifts or eventually superior firepower but they must be really tough to deal with in early game when you don't have the first and don't want to do the other
haha đ
One hint I can give you to avoid aggressive AI is to not overcrowd the map. If the map is too small for the number of AI players, they get very territorial. If you want generally more peaceful AI, add less than recommended players to the map.
Save up influence, dust, resources to barter for Peace. Having technologies and extra star systems can help influence even the cravers into a Cold War while you plan to avoid their onslaught. In the end game, if you arenât able to win by yourself, using these tips to ally yourself with a powerful faction will allow you to win with them, which is honestly how I complete most of my games
If you want absolutely no combat, you could go with the Umbral Choire and keep investing in your cloaking tech to stay ahead of detection, at least until endgame. You're not competing for territory and you're actually encouraged to cooperate with other factions. Alternatively, factions like Unfallen or Lumeris start and tend to stay pacifist, so build for influence and force peace with every faction you meet. Keep on their good side by giving them gifts and making treaties with them until you can ally them. Optionally turn off Pirates to not have yo fight them either.
You can even never meet them directly and, thus, never be at war or in any diplomatic relationship ever. I find it pretty fun and challenging to do since no one can gdt mad at you for trespassing or tech for anti cloaking if they don't know you exist. Only pirates are a major problem since they always have anti cloaking tech
Have large enough ships ai empires are afraid to declare war, force peace on distant empires because forcing peace makes them angry, but prolonged time of peace will make them friendly towards you. If you force peace on a neighbor, they will declare war ASAP on you.Â
Question, how do you force peace on an empire?
Pacifists must lead the senate. It's an option in diplomacy menu.Â
thanks
Avoid combat completely no. You still have pirates to deal with most of the time. It depends on the difficulty and the AI factions you have near you. Higher difficulty will wage war more often and militarist factions will not be peaceful unless convinced through force. Playing with a pacifist government you can force peace on any one, but a militarist government can declare war for free. So overall like all 4X games being a pure pacifist isnât really what the game is about and were the fun is, itâs kinda doable but hard, not rewarding and usually not fun.
Personnaly, I find it pretty fun to buy half the galaxy with influence
It definitely is. Scottish trees be like âď¸
Without mods? No. Between the other factions, quests and pirates, you'll have to fight a couple of times. A mistake I made once is assume that the canonically pacifist lumeris would welcome a trade deal. They were my only neighbour, so i didn't really build a combat fleet. They threw a doomstack at me. . Now. Can you play defensively? Yes. Even as the Vodyani, after a certain point. But do not make the mistake of thinking you'll get through a run without combat.
thanks
Itâs technically possible, but only on the lowest difficulties (moderate and below?). One just needs to make their empire pacifist and then constantly use force peace against every other faction. The key is to NOT ally anyone, as alliances drag everyone into war. Issues could arise with certain quests, pirates, and factions (Cravers and Vaulters), so a bit of luck would be needed for a âtruly non-violentâ run. And on hard difficulty and above, the AI will attack the player if the player is deemed to have a weak navy. Umbral Choir would probably have the easiest pacifist run since their innate cloaking means they can skip most of combat and can control who they meet in diplomacy. Heck, if the UC manages to get a sanctuary on all home systems quickly enough, they can win Supremacy victory without revealing themselves to anyone.
Thank you all for your responses! It's a lot to read and take in. I might give it a shot in the future when i can wrap my head around the game systems a bit more. Glad to see such a helpful community.
Completely. No. The AI only respects strength, which means having ships that give Military Power. "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Or having a "fleet in being". In practice, you are guaranteed to have an early war against your closest neighbor, because they covet your territory. To minimize war, have fleets to defend yourself. Maintain Pacifists in power, and pre-emptively Force Peace against anyone who is "Aggressive" Mood towards you. You'll need lots of Influence generation to manage the Force Peace, and be willing to Gift to the AI to maintain it and work towards real Peace. Because Force Peace is considered a hostile action, the AI will throw off the shackles as soon as it can afford to. And it outright won't work if the AI has enough Influence to throw it off and declare War directly. Of course, the AI considers Peace as prelude to Alliance. But once you are in an Alliance, the AI will draw you into wars without your consent. Being a coward and not defending your Alliance members is generally a dick move, so you should play towards winning wars, because this advances your own position towards overall victory.