Engaged in an endless war

[James Beadle]

I'm sure my problem is ignorance with how this works. I joined a proposed war against a rival thinking it would be beneficial to me. I'm handidly the greatest power, and now I find myself embroiled in an endless fight I cannot extricate myself from. I don't even remember who the main attacker is anymore this has ground on for so long. It's staring to ruin the game experience for me. What's the solution, or is this some kind of horrible bug?

 

[Lykus Cerebros]

Only the war leader can make peace.

Open the war screen and look who is on top. I am pretty sure its given there.


To answer your question no there is no way you can get out, but the war exhaustion will tick up and once one side will reach 100% it will start a timer and then this side will be forced to sign a status quo

 

[James Beadle]

Thank you. Do you have any idea why the dev's designed it this way? I'm sure I'm not the only player who has learned to his frustration that accepting a war invitation is a horrible idea in this game. I can see that they might want to give you penalties to withdrawing before the war goals are achieved, but to simply decide not to let you do it seems like a very big design flaw in a game that is working so hard to give players agency.

 

[Masked Ermine]

Thank you. Do you have any idea why the dev's designed it this way? I'm sure I'm not the only player who has learned to his frustration that accepting a war invitation is a horrible idea in this game. I can see that they might want to give you penalties to withdrawing before the war goals are achieved, but to simply decide not to let you do it seems like a very big design flaw in a game that is working so hard to give players agency.

You could also look to see what the hell the war goals are. If they are something practical like 'control a territory' you just need to take the territories (which is often easier said than done, we really need better UI for what systems are left to take....the current system of just skimming the map looking for 'allied claimed' symbols is excruciatingly tedious especially in particularly gory borders or with multiple war parties). If it's something less practical (influence, or subsidization or governmental change) you still could probably just about do it if you occupy all enemy systems and worlds, as there are unlikely some systems that are being claimed as well....

If you've done all that, and the AI is still refusing to ask for surrender (despite meeting the war goals) then you'll simply have to wait....which can be horrible, especially if you're a megacorp and you just want to spin off a bunch of captured sectors or something which can't be done until war time is over....

Ultimately if you aren't the one declaring war, you're not the one that gets to decide when the war is over. One way to circumvent this is declaring war first, or refusing to be a co-sponsor of a war (which will hurt you diplomatically). You could opt to fight parallel wars but be aware that can make things....real ugly if your borders and your parallel warring peer have the same territories claimed or have territories claimed that are near the others' frontline....

 

[James Beadle]

I've learned my lesson, I generally always play the militant game, if I go diplomancy I may do it differently, but for the near future I'm going to tell folks to take a hike if they ask me to join them in war. Your advice made me stick it out, and the war just ended (and I'm going to bed). It ended with extra-dimensional invaders attacking the galaxy, and I've just about wrapped them up. They made swiss cheese out of my captured territories and some small holes in my Empire. Now the endgame threat just awoke with one of the ancient empires stirring. Fortunately it isn't near my territory, my empire is war weary and needs to replenish it's military might.

 

[fusei]

The thing that usually prevents an enemy from surrendering is unclaimed planets. You can check how many there are by hovering over the number on the "Achieve War Goals" button; each unclaimed planet will contribute -100.

To find these planets you can switch to diplomatic mapmode and select your war ally to see all their claims highlighted. Claim all of these and your war ally should force the enemy to surrender.