I played the original game over a year ago and while it had some nice ideas, it seemed to come down to whether or not you drew the best cards (where the best cards changed slightly depending on which alien you got). To me at least it seemed like Negotation was kind of a balance to that but losing a fight on purpose just didn't gain you anything.
I was wondering if this would somehow change in the latest iteration however after reading the rules for the latest version of Cosmic Encounter, I still don't see the point in using a Negotiate card to gain compensation. In fact compensation seems to help my opponent more than hurt them as when they run out of cards to use they will get 8 more. Since I usually have no idea what cards my opponent has, nor does it usually matter as whatever random cards they were given are the same as what they are likely to draw once they run out of cards again.(totally unknown to me and completely random)
Am I missing something completely? (I know there are some aliens that make cards useful but I would think all cards should be useful if all players had no powers)