Advanced Save Game Six Empires Huge Map and Minor Races

[UesugiKenshin]

Medically the presence of a parasite alters the immunoglobulin types as markers in the blood like IgE. You would see elevated percentages upon assay.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunog ... t%20venoms.

Large ones can be detected on some scans: Ultrasound, CT, and MRI would all display these so very low tech is required.

Likely the first thing security forces would do when suspecting infiltration is take a blood sample and do a scan for the presence of the Omega symbiotes. Likely they might be able to suppress IgE elevation, but could do nothing about masking the scanning.

[UesugiKenshin]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xYOQaLgXWm0
Plausibly, the Omega symbiotes would be akin to Taenia solium parasitic infections of the brain. Clinically Taenia causes a triad of elevated IgG, IgA, and IgE in cerebrospinal fluid. You would do a spinal tap and probably something like that would prove an Omega had infiltrated some military officer.

[UesugiKenshin]

The aftereffects are somewhat strange regarding Chernobyl as while radiation fallout drift caused immense issues in Belarus as 70 % fell there and caused an extremely high birth defect rate. On the other hand, with few human beings present, the indigenous fauna saw a rapid repopulation. Nature always finds a way.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E-h15wX14po

With the AI doing en masse bombardment, it likely would cause humongous pollution and sterilize the planet surfaces so in reality, such post-bombardment may be problematic for colonization. It is difficult to grow anything in soil if the soil is sterile as bacteria has nitrogen fixation as part of that process.

If bombardment deposits radioactive isotopes, there is no chance of human habitation. It would fail, but other species may have no such effects. I'm saying that certain species might have this as a coping mechanism that could show up in the game.

Terraforming was so powerful in GalCiv2 Twilight of the Armor that each type had to be researched, with some species having an easier time on some planet classes.

[UesugiKenshin]

What I really like about BotE is it so cerebral and has so much world building, that even without much storytelling, one could use the German BotE wiki and get a lot of scientific and philosophical depth. This is rare in an Android game as most are labeled as "time wasters".

Plus the military aspects seem highly realistic.

The economy is complex and a clever player can manipulate it. This means it resists a pay-to-win model.

You are not wasting your time playing BotE. It forces you to think in a comprehensive synergistic manner.

[UesugiKenshin]

The Exocren battleship when maxed out is a beast that can do 32,500 in beam damage and 11,250 in torpedo damage. But the thing is when you take over a conquered territory, the infrastructure is low and needs lots of work to get everything to top efficiency. Even then, you can make ONE per turn and you will run out of deritium, so have to then wait again.

You think you can take over and then use those beam weapons in every ship, as you can do so with torpedo tubes and payloads. But you can't with beam weapons.

If you could mix and match with beam weapons, then you would redesign standard Omega ship classes.

If you could make Cartare ships that were optimized in every former Cartare sector, that would be great, but you can't.

So the genuine course of action that the Omega would do at advanced levels with advanced tech is have fully optimized subclasses of their own ships.

I want to do that for all major races, but it will be tough to get to those levels, and maybe you defeated all major and minor races by then so it is unnecessary.

That is why modded advanced save games would allow anyone to start in turn #600 when such ships would be available.

Maybe the galactic war begins at turn#600 when all the major races have far better starships as it is in the far future when weaponry is devastating. And if shields and armor and hull integrity don't also improve, the starships don't last as that Exocren beam weapon annihilates the hull as if it is made of wet tissue paper.

[UesugiKenshin]

If that advanced tech results in the last subclass of Vi ships all have the Exocren antiproton beam weapon as standard equipment, then every major race would push to have that or better or risk becoming extinct.

[UesugiKenshin]

If human players have access to that tech and can make new starships with it, there has to be subclasses so the AI makes them as well, or BotE isn't balanced.

[UesugiKenshin]

What makes far more sense is rushing construction only can happen on a sector with a certain morale or above. The people are happy and unified, so pull together plus spend the money and raw materials. And this happens in a war time economy based on history.

Newly conquered sectors could not do it as their morale should be rough and that has to be addressed straight away

[UesugiKenshin]

A player should intentionally not bombard as bombardment creates terrible instability due to all the vaporized citizens and generates terrible morale.

Only the AI should get away with this as the AI does not do ground invasions, but recolonizes after massive bombardment.

This is the way to balance this, and likely for players to do whatever works like gifts and or bribes to improve acceptance to membership or dealing with a very hostile citizenry due to ground invasions and subsequent instability.

The player then struggles by using tetroin if Omega or communication grids and food and morale buildings to alter their sector wide morale.

[UesugiKenshin]

Most major races should not do bombardment and do ground invasions as the negatives outweigh the positives.

The Heyouns straight away lack a balanced plausible military as they cannot make fighters, cruisers, or heavy cruisers, so they must find ways to gain these classes to deal with this big problem. That means they have to find minor races who have those kinds of ships.

Personally this is unbelievable and the Heyoun should be balanced in some other fashion. If a problem exists, it should be for a logical reason. Maybe the Heyoun are weak militarily, but they are not morons who can't figure out what classes of starships they require.

Terrans would never bombard and Khaoran hate bombarding. The Omega get +4 when they don't bombard in testing.

[UesugiKenshin]

Think of post war Germany. Not only did they have the "werewolves" issue of resistance, but even though facilitated by the Marshall Plan, they struggled to rebuild and morale was hammered.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werwolf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear ... in_Germany
The Kahl was the first nuclear plant in 1959 so Germany was having trouble but still managed one of the most difficult, at the time, technical feats. Still that is 13 years postwar.

War torn nations do not rapidly recover.

[UesugiKenshin]

In testing, I struggle to see the logic of war against minor races. I realize that I am attacking for "a sense of completeness" and not because it makes any economic sense. I do it to customize ships that I do not require in any useful way. It helps with research and military sabotage in a few instances. The latter unbalances theft of starships as 1.6 million intel points are generated. So actually it negates actual military conflict which provokes incredulity.

It is counterproductive to war as players desire battles.

If there are 1600 sectors, why is that one that a minor race inhabits a legitimate military target? Most of the time, they are not. It is merely occasionally useful as a staging area or to deny the opponent some attribute which the minor race possesses.

War is fought based on the value of resources or toward a furthering of the accomplishment of certain goals, or if attacked thus you have a casus belli. No intelligent commander fight battles just because. He or she may fight due to duty as the politicians say it is a military necessity.

Proxy wars are the least motivating for soldiers and an ethical morass. See Vietnam, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, etc.

[UesugiKenshin]

As a beginner, you presume BotE is going to be about conquest, but on the largest galactic map, as the enemy is so far away, your priority is colonization. You build large numbers of colony ships to work together to jointly terraform as that process is not fast when as many minor races are present as possible. This means the lesser class of planets are available, so it takes a lot of time to process.

If you do this and complete research early, then when you do colonize a totally terraformed sector, you get FOUR OF EVERYTHING that can be made in that sector at the highest level. This saves not only a fortune in rushing construction, but TIME which is intangible, yet that means you can speed along and colonize far faster than the AI.

The AI takes useless shortcuts to control a sector and most of the time that results in abysmal management of infrastructure and profitability and later conquered by a smart player. But you are inheriting a headache underperforming sector. You think, "why in the world did the AI build this way"?

Half the battle in Birth of the Empires is doing counterintuitive actions. When you think, "it has to be faster to do it this way," that is likely incorrect. That goes for, "it has to be cheaper or more profitable to do this instead," and that will be wrong. You have to do the opposite of what you think would be best. I really struggled with than for many hundred turns when first playing and kept testing that as it seemed wrong.

It seems like it would be wiser to create resource routes rather than buy what raw materials you need, but that results in less profit.

Your assumptions while seemingly correct are likely wrong under analysis.

[UesugiKenshin]

To succeed at BotE, just ignore gut hunches, and sit down and logically analyze the most thorough infrastructure plan, and 90% of the time, you can stick to a certain construction plan without deviations unless there is alternative energy available. Then capitalize on exploiting those projects. Build every special project if it actually pays off. At certain points, you have finished research, so it makes no sense to do those projects.

It is awful to finish all research so early as you have amazing facilities doing nothing which would never happen.

If there was a loan program where as a major race I could loan money to minor races to curry favor, I would do so. Essentially I have often given money to minor races as gifts towards that purpose just to not have to conquer them and kill billions.

What difference does 20,000 credits matter when you have infinite money? Money only becomes a method of accomplishing goals when you have at least 5 million in the treasury. Spending 20,000 to gain acceptance seems worth a billion lives saved.

[UesugiKenshin]

Imagine massive research facilities across 25% of the galaxy. They likely could solve any problems just to have something to do. Then imagine you could easily push that to 40% of all research.

All these noble goals could be done. That would have MASSIVE APPEAL to Trekkers. Conquering the galaxy is so small compared to that. How about solving it so there is no more old age and disease?

Omega scientist "Well we weren't actually doing anything so we ended old age and disease as restraints to perfection."

If money is infinite, you just do whatever satisfies your passions and likely they are for others, not just selfish bachanalia...especially if you don't get old.