this probably sounds stupid but in the pre-release how do you engage in diplomacy wth the minor races... ive met a few and want to do diplomacy with them but jsut cant work out how. can someone help?

Welcome lukesea
The game is in Pre Alpha. This feature is not yet fully implemented. Sorry but there is only limited function.

Hey lukesea, welcome to the forums!

As Kenneth said, diplomacy is very much at the early development stage, but some basic actions are available -such as sending frindship/membership treaties to minor races and the other empires. There is no way to break these treaties other than by declaring war though. And as there is no AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the game yet, all other races will ALWAYS accept your treaties.

Conducting Diplomacy is very similar to how it was done in BOTF. If you right-click in the game, it will bring up a menu that can take you to several different screens. You can access the diplomacy screen if you select the top-right option (Embassy) that appears in this right-click menu.

The first screen you will see is the overview screen. IF you have met any other races in the game, portraits of those races will be displayed in this screen, with lines connecting them that tell you the relationships between those races. This screen will be empty if you haven't yet met anyone. Double-clicking on one of the portraits will refocus the entire contact tree so that you can see the status of the relationships for the race you selected instead of your own.

To actually conduct Diplomacy, look at the left-hand side of the screen. You will see four options - Overview, Agreements, Inbox, Outbox. Click on the Outbox option to send messages. The next screen that appears will have a list of all the races you can contact at the top of the screen. Select one of these races, then click on the Make Proposal button that is hilighted on the left. (Or you could alternatively Declare War if you're feeling evil. For the time being i'll assume you're in a nice mood and have clicked the Make Proposal button ) You may also notice there are buttons above the Make Proposal button that are greyed out. These buttons are greyed out because these features have not yet been implemented. Future updates will eventually add these options in.

Assuming you decided to be nice and you sent your contact a proposal, The next screen that appears will have three boxes in it. The left most box contains all of the options that are available to you. Simply select one of these, eg. Membership, and a summary of the message that you will send will appear in the middle screen. If you change your mind about the message, simply click on the cross that appears at the end of the message to cancel it. To actually send the message you MUST then click on the Send button, which is on the left-hand side of the screen. As I said above, the game does not yet have an AI, so any proposals you send will ALWAYS be accepted. For the time being, this means you can send Membership proposals without first needing to be friends or allies with that race.

Once you've clicked the Send button, you can exit the Diplomacy screen. There are two ways to do this - pres the Escape key on your keyboard, or access the right-click menu and select one of the other screens. Main will take you back to the map.

When you click turn, your proposal will be received by the race you sent it to. The summary screen will then appear to remind you of the proposal you just sent. On the turn AFTER this, you will then receive the response for the race you contacted.

To make it a bit easier, I just made a video for you. In it, I meet the Mintakans, I open Diplomacy, and send them a Membership request, which they accept. You can download this video Here. (9.75mb .avi file)

We are looking forward to the time when you can nuc on those pointe eared proto Vulcan hobgoblins. Just hand on for that happy day.