I sent out an explorer and discovered Griffons. Under their trade information it states: Attitude: hostile
What does this mean? The Lizards I found are friendly to the Kittens. Is there a way to get the Griffons to a friendly attitude?
Races marked "hostile" have a chance to not give you anything in trade, with a message of "<race> hate you for no reason" in the log instead; this still costs the resources you sent them.
Friendly races, on the other hand, have a chance to produce a "<race> thinks your kittens are adorable" message, meaning they give you 25% more resources than they otherwise would have.
The odds of these events happening are based on your standing with the various races. The best way to improve this, is through purchasing Tradeposts, and having the Caravanserai upgrade; this improves your chance of a successful trade with a hostile race, or a boosted trade with friendly races by a small amount for each Tradepost.
The actual math involved is as follows:
Each non-neutral race has a "standing" number. The values are as follows:
Each Caravanserai-boosted Tradepost then increases hostile races' standing by .0035, and friendly races' standing by half as much.
For hostile races, the result is the chance of a successful trade. For friendly races, it is the chance for a boosted trade.
Also, the boost given for a friendly race thinking your kittens are adorable will only affect how much you get of the base resources listed; spice or blueprints gained won't get the 25% boost. Hostile races, however, will absolutely fail to give any spice, blueprints, or in the case of Zebras, titanium, if they hate you for no reason.