It wasn't cheating in GalCiv3. There was a nice screen that summarized the relationships between civs.

And I don't see why it should be different in GalCiv4.

Personally I prefer the idea of using espionage to learn about the relations of other civilizations. It doesn't make sense for you to know the details of how civs view one other or their treaties with a few exceptions. Everything is an extrapolation in a game though.

This has been requested on multiple occasions during the beta..

This would be a good feature - especially with known races - I means - why could you not ask about how a race feels about other races?

Perhaps if they are secretive they would be less sharing - but this should be influenced by the strength of your relationship with that race.

We appreciate it Frog, and we appreciate you.

This isn't a bad idea insofar as ideas go.  However, 'Espionage' isn't in the game yet.  If you recall that this was in an Expansion (pretty sure it wasn't just DLC) for GC3 - so I would expect this type of thing to be addressed in the espionage system, rather than doing it via diplos now, and then having to redo it with spies later (this is also more confusing).

So I think that assuming that we're just going to wait for additional systems in this space is probably a safe bet.

Having said that - having a diplo overlay /does/ make sense now though, because already have access to the information - it just doesn't really make sense to have to click on all other of the 17 civs just to see who they're at war with. 

Cheers,

-tid242