So what then, is a pressing reason for an AI to go against their personality? Well, one such reason is Threat. Threat is a mechanic somewhat similar to Aggressive Expansion in Europa Universalis 4. Conquering planets, subjugating other Empires and destroying space installations will generate Threat towards other Empires. The amount of Threat generated depends both on how far away the Empire is from what's happening and on their Personality. Xenophobic Isolationists won't care if you're purging aliens half a galaxy away, but if all the planets around them being swallowed up by an expanionistic Empire, they'll definitely take note.*
Empires that are threatened by the same aggressor will get an opinion boost towards each other, and will be more likely to join in Alliances and Federations - if you go on a rampage, you may find the rest of the Galaxy uniting to take you down, and while Threat decays naturally over time, there's no guarantee that the alliances formed by your imperialism will break up even if you take a timeout from conquering... so expand with care.
Hmm. This sounds familiar...
Just as with the shattered retreat mechanic we took inspiration from Europa Universalis 4 in our decision to add Coalitions. Our coalitions however are based on an Infamy value instead of Aggressive Expansion. You might recognize the name Infamy from our old games, but even though it shares the name it will work quite differently.
remembers Pope joining up with kebab to stop DEUS VULT
twitches heavily