How to form alliances?

[Dhaeman]

Hey all. I just finished my first Civ 4 game and I was happily impressed. One thing bothered me though. It seems as though I had all the prereqs for forming a permanent alliance (fascism and friendly standings if that even matters). But the option simply wasn't on the trading screen. I didn't have mutual defense pact as an option either. So I went through the world editor, gave myself all of the techs and I still can't form alliances. So I have no idea how to do. Hence I'm asking here how to get it done since I'm sure I'm missing something simple that's just not listed in the Civilopedia.

 

[ZippyRiver]

I think you have to activate permanent alliances in the custom game menu.

This is bass-ackwards completly. An option to "disable permanet alliances" would have been correct. Namely because PA is mentioned in the game normally started.

I suspect, turning this on though, could make the AIs much much tougher towards end game. Facing 4 civs on perm alliance is not appealing. Which might be why they have it the way it is.