Political Stance

The political stance of one empire toward another empire defines their relationship. People in the game perceive units as Empire, Friendly, Neutral, or Enemy, depending upon their empire's political stance toward that other empire.

Political stance determines the influence of players on the flags of other empires when they stand near them, either acting to capture or to defend them. Only the emperor can change the political stance toward other empires.


 Empire
 Empire stance identifies members of your empire.

Friend
 Friendly empires are your allies in the war. Players are penalized for harming friendly units, with the exception of succession by assassination in the organized crime government type.

Neutral
 Neutral empires are neither friends nor enemies of your empire. There is no reward or penalty for harming neutral units.

Enemy
 Enemy empires are your opponents in the war. Players are rewarded for harming enemy units.

Political stance can only be established for empires "known" to your empire. Unknown empires become known to your empire when any of their units appears in the scene of a unit of your empire. The default political stance toward newly discovered empires is set by the emperor on the Governance (F10) window.

When the political stance toward another empire is set to Enemy, that other empire's political stance is automatically set to be Enemy toward your empire. Note that changing your stance to anything else does not cause a reciprocal change in the other empire's stance.
The political stance of your empire toward another empire might not be reciprocal. While your empire may regard them as friends, they may regard you as enemies.

Political stance determines the consequences for harming units of other empires. There are positive rewards for capturing and destroying units of enemy empires. There are negative consequences for doing those things to friendly units.

Political stance is used to regulate commerce with other empires. The Governance (F10) window enables the emperor to configure the export policy of every commodity individually, based on the empire's political stance toward other empires. This enables simple commodities to be traded with everyone while limiting sales of arms and ammunition to friends and neutrals.