There have been a ton of threads on this, but I'll go ahead and post some thoughts in this one... What Sins really needs to do is rip a page out of the Total War handbook... As many people have suggested, factions need to start out as neutral with eachother. In addition, there needs to be different levels of relations... At War, Hostile, Neutral, Amiable, Allied... Missions and requests from different Empires will depend on the level of relations... The problem there is figuring out how to end a war with a faction if you begin one... If an Empire no longer gives you missions there will be no way to improve standing... So perhaps a "surrender" type function needs to be included so an Empire can recognize the need to end hostilities. Then it can present some other kind of mission... not necessarily one requesting that you attack or defend, but maybe just one that asks you stop attacking... you agree, and automatically your standing is improved.