So i was sitting in the middle of what i perceived to be a cold war, the Yor had fleets in orbit of my colonies and we were pissed of at each other. He had a military advantage over me so i got into an alliance with the two other remaining Major powers. The description implied they would ride in as Calvary if we got into a war. lo and behold the cold war goes hot... and no help from my beloved allies. i didn't even have the option to bribe them into recreating the Great War on a Galactic scale. Alliances should work like described, allies should leap to your aid and axis's (axis'?) of evil should conquer the universe.
TLDR alliances should act as mutual defense pacts (Ex. NATO):
-if one ally gets invaded all others allies should join in
-any member may negotiate for another to join them in a war of conquest
(If reasons exist please do explain why alliances seem to be inherently useless right now (if just when they involve AI players).)
Thank you.