Diplomacy

You are not alone in the galaxy. Nova lets you talk to the other commanders and strike deals with them. Diplomacy is a whole parallel game: an alliance held together by a few messages, or a well-timed bribe, can decide a theatre as surely as a fleet.

Diplomacy has two tools — messages and contracts — both in the Diplomacy panel. Both keep working even while the theatre is paused, so you can negotiate around a break.

Messages

A message is simply text you send to another commander. There are two kinds of channel:

• Global — a broadcast that every commander in the game can read. Use it for public declarations, taunts, or an open call for allies.
• A private thread — a one-to-one conversation with a single commander. Only the two of you can read it. There are no group chats; a private message has exactly one recipient.

Open Diplomacy, pick the Global channel or a commander's thread, type your message (up to 2,000 characters), and press Send. New messages notify you in the app and by push, and each channel carries an unread badge so you can see who is waiting on a reply. Pause-and-resume requests are logged in the Global channel too, so it doubles as the theatre's public record.

Contracts

Talk is cheap; a contract puts credits behind it. A contract is a formal offer of payment from one commander to another, made inside a private thread. Open a commander's thread, choose Offer a contract…, and set it up:

• Amount (¢) — the credits you will pay.
• Optionally tick Only if they send a fleet — a condition. You name a From star, a To star, and a number of Ships, and the payment happens only if that exact fleet is sent.

Send the offer and the other commander sees an actionable card in the thread with Accept and Decline; you can Withdraw it while it is still pending.

How a contract settles:

• Unconditional — accepting simply transfers the credits from you to them.
• Conditional (send a fleet) — accepting does two things at once, all-or-nothing: the fleet you named departs on their behalf, and the credits move. If you cannot afford the payment or they cannot make the dispatch, nothing happens and the offer simply stays open.

A few rules worth knowing:

• No escrow. The money is not set aside when you offer — affordability is checked at the moment the other commander accepts. Don't promise more than you'll have.
• A contracted fleet cannot be recalled. Once accepted, that dispatch is locked in.
• Contracts are private to the two parties — no one else sees the terms.
• Offers expire after 24 hours of real time. An unanswered offer lapses, and the thread notes it.

Why bother?

Diplomacy turns a free-for-all into a game of alliances and leverage:

• Pay a neighbour to attack your rival — a conditional contract that sends their ships at your enemy.
• Buy breathing room — a payment for a promise of peace (kept on trust; a contract enforces only the credits, never the goodwill).
• Coordinate a pincer — private threads let two commanders plan a joint strike the target never sees coming.

Because everything outside the Global channel is private, information itself is a weapon: what you choose to say — and to whom — shapes the whole theatre.

In Try NOVA: your practice opponent is a passive bot that won't answer, but the Diplomacy panel works exactly the same — send a message or draft a contract to get the feel of it before you face real commanders.