Game Settings

Antworten
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
phpbb forum styles
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

To find a happy medium in which a military simulation is both challening, fun to play, and historically accurate is a taxing or demanding undertaking. It's largely about setting the pace or operating tempo versus realistic logistics ie the movement of troops and ships around a map within a plausible scale of time. In BotE, that is governed by stardates if the time scale is emulating Star Trek, and that is quite a complex subject.

See here.
http://trekguide.com/Stardates.htm

Example
It's April 3, 2020 which based on Stardates used for TOS ie Star Trek the original series is 73720.8 as I write this.

BotE uses a solar date, and like many functions of the game engine, it's a bit of a mystery what the solar date means.

Example
When you start a new game, you choose which empire and I would bet that most players just use the default settings. However I am trying to find a way to set up the game so that based on TOS (Star Trek the original series), the game begins with the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Ferengi, and Dominion are all expanding at an appropriate stardate and with a rate of expansion that is logical.

So the next question is when? The first ships are clearly faster than say Cochrane's first warp engine. Let's presume that it begins in TOS technically 2265 AD and a star date of

...and not in 2151-2152 AD which is the time period for Star Trek Enterprise.


2265 is equivalent to a stardate of 1000–1499
Star Trek " Where No Man Has Gone Before " (1965)
2266–2267 Is equivalent to a stardate of 1500–3299
Star Trek season 1 (1966–1967)
Zuletzt geändert von UesugiKenshin am Freitag 3. April 2020, 15:09, insgesamt 1-mal geändert.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

Screenshot_2020-04-03-08-32-52.png
Here is the game settings menu that the player sees after choosing which empire to play.

Note I set the game settings to an irregular galaxy (as the Star Trek official map is set in that manner for the Alpha and Beta quadrants).

Then I maximized the map array to be 40 x 40.
Then I set the star density to 100%.
Then set the expansion rate to slow so the galaxy is not explored too quickly and so warp speed is hopefully realistic. (Note the conversations that will follow later).

Then set it to easy mode.

Then set the number of minor races to 33 % ie a third of the systems/sectors will be under their control (because the other six empires need to try to take the other 67%).

Stellar anomalies like wormholes, ion storms, nebula will comprise 5% of the galaxy (that seems reasonable to strike a balance between novelty and not sacrifice too many sectors and lose valuable solar systems).

And most importantly, only 1 % of the time will anomalious entities will be encountered as some are very overpowered and in my opinion would be fine at the time of STTNG Star Trek the Next generation but that is

2364 AD which has stardates from 41000–41999
The Next Generation season 1 (1987–1988)
The Next Generation " All Good Things... " (1994) [past timeline]

Then I turned on total conquest as the goal, but turned off all other goals like a diplomatic, research, intel, etc victories. I find those boring.

I don't want random events as they likely interrupt the flow of the game to offer an additional challenge.

I do want the other AI races to at least once join against me as a challenge appropriate for easy level.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

That begins with a solar date of
121000.0 for the 1st turn.
121731.0 for the 2nd turn.
122462.0 for the 3rd turn.
123193.0 for the 4th turn.
123924.0 for the 5th turn.

So straight away we can deduce that stardates and solar date are not equivalent but BotE merely has its own internal time scale. At which point it's arbitrary as we cannot discern what the time scale is.

We don't know what the warp speed is as an average but instead know that there are green, yellow, and red ranges which limit the rate of expansion as certain scout ships have medium range from the start but colony ships are quite limited.

We don't know if it is months or quarters of time based upon say the Klingon homeworld in the home sector. And time dilution (see Einstein) is ignored as that would make it needlessly complex as when traveling at warp speed, time flows at different rates on Q'onos than out in space...a game breaking concept as not only would communication break down (and be like time travel), but any sense of timescale breaks down too.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

If you set the expansion rate to slow, then that might be appropriate for a Star Trek Enterprise mod as the galaxy is quite unexplored and while the captains of starships could travel faster, they actually are uncertain of much of the alpha and beta quadrant and doing so consistently would be reckless and ill advised and would detract from their mission as explorers.

That is consistent with season one and based on the limitations by the Vulcan High Command as there is no Federation...yet.

That pace or operating tempo would be glacial for most players, thus classic is more akin to TOS.

The next expansion rate would be akin to STTNG.

The following expansion rate would be like DS9 ie Deep Space Nine. It would have to be to get ships in the Alpha and Beta quadrant (think how much further the Klingons and Romulans have to plan in advance...truly logistical nightmares to then help the Federation and get their ships to the Gamma quadrant in some realistic fashion and without a consistent designated wormhole.

The next expansion rate would likely be like Voyager in which you have a limited Federation ship competing with the Borg at times and trying to get back to Earth. Then sometimes using the Borg's transwarp conduit.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

A very interesting way to play, especially if wanting lots of minor races to realistically be like TOS is to have the minor races at 50% and so have the Federation having many diplomatic issues and lots of subjugation by the Cardassians and lots of conquest by the Klingons and lots of subversion by the Romulans.

A challenging way to play emulating STTNG is to have presets star systems under the empires but have 75-90% of the systems controlled by the minor races.

Either would be excellent save game positions (albeit very time consuming to set up) but likely only plausible if multiplayer can be turned on in the Android version. That at a minimum needs a classic expansion rate setting and meticulously controlling every turn for 200+ turns for all six empires so 1200 turns just to recreate a fairly accurate Star Trek map for the TOS period.

More would be required at an expansion rate exceeding classic to recreate an accurate STTNG map.

In both cases, a campaign designer would first use multiplayer to get all the empires to be accurate acording to Star Trek canon, but then turn off all but one to be under the human player's control, where the other five empires are under the AI control. It has to be meticulously set up so their economies allow adequate treasuries and cashflow. Then the AI empires would be powerhouses and the starting empire for the players be very thrilling as they could have many midlevel game options available.

Either way would provide an exciting nuanced game with high complexity.
Zuletzt geändert von UesugiKenshin am Freitag 3. April 2020, 15:51, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

Based on Star Trek canon, severe famines affected the Cardassian expansion rate and likely many barren worlds and so a mod designer would severely limit this even terraforming to recreate their particular challenges.

While the audience perceives the Cardassians as vile, actually there are contrarians who see them as acting in very realistic ways, something that deeply affected the writing style of DS9. That is why the Federation are likely the bad guys in actuality.

Many of these elements could be recreated if there was not only a scenario/campaign editor, but cheat commands to alter the class of planets, the placement of stellar anomalies, the placement of ships and troops and infrastructure, the adjusting of advancement in the techtree to appropriate levels, and reveal the whole map.

Games like Civ2, Civ3, GalCiv 2 and GalCiv3 have these features.

Minor campaign scripting allows elements to adjust ways to compensate for AI deficits and so autospawn troops and ships to oppose human players.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

If one used the above settings but raised the minor races settings significantly like 66% then the game would largely be about negotiation, subterfuge, back stabbing of the minor races, as then few planets would be available for colonization. That would slow down the game and be very "grindy" ie playing many close battles.

Using presets of slowly building up the infrastructure, in quite a militaristic fashion, then I bet most would have difficulty, but the federation, using diplomacy, might end up winning.

You could design a Cardassian war against the Bajorans and other minor races this way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiR6316zvRc&app=desktop
Episodes like these from DS9 discussed the Bajoran holcaust and then resistance.

Episodes like this from STTNG demonstrated Cardassian cruelty when torture and drugs failed to gather intelligence, yet the interrogator persisted anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ3EDTYZTOU&app=desktop
Imagine the depravity of not shielding this from your children.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

Typically gaming and modding communities end up discerning what the level settings do and interview the programmers. So then they display what handicaps the AI has if any on the easy level and in a progression to the impossible setting. Typically above normal settings then the AI is able to acomplish goals easier.

And lots of other kind of similar details. Then new players know what level they should choose based on what handicaps there are.

All kind of art can be generated like planet class settings, or ships in a forum entry, or troops. I'm happy to create these things of it's helpful.

I could make a techtree graphic per empire and then it logically follows to show what is the fastest methodology to acquire certain units versus what is the best strategy to develop say research buildings or foundaries.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

If you like a game where the minor races already have taken prime spots, then change the setting from 30 to 50%. Then it's largely about diplomacy at first, trade, friendship,.cooperation, alliances and terraforming their planets so they want membership.

You create trade routes to persuade them it's wise to get along, and so end up absorbing half encountered. Then many declare war when they cannot back it up, though some have very high defensive ability so preventing ground invasions but no ships, but others have ships and no troops. Or both.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

Though everyone imagines they want a content life devoid of conflict, then there is no personal growth and no challenges to overcome or adapt to. Within the game, it appears that when too many minor races like you, the game will upset the apple cart, and invoke a "change of government". That happened three times where I was getting along as the Romulans, and minor races liked me, then they had changes of government, and were suddenly angry.

I imagine it gets far worse as the difficulty level rises.

There honestly is no easy level even with only one major race opponent. The map is not large enough for six empires to have enough settled systems by the AI choosing them. Perhaps so by clever map design or by a campaign designer using unorthodox empire creation?
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

If we had a save game editor or a map editor, I could create standardized systems in sectors based on star classes. So if that type of star exists, then they would be likely to have certain flavor and spice and so when the scouts do surveying, then patterns would emerge, and players would focus on the most likely systems based on star classes as priorities.
General star classes
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... tle=Sterne
Correlated stars in home systems of major races with planet types.
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... und_Sonnen
Versus planet classes
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... tenklassen
Someone like Kirk would think, "Okay that is a white dwarf star and so likely to have these planet classes...so ideal for colonization. Mr. Sulu, set a course for it and do a long range scan outside the sector."

And likely create cheap probes the captains can use and launch one in there... just to be safe and not end up dying, if there are cloaked ships as this is a plausible Rotharian system...just not colonized yet. Even a barebones Rotharian scout can cloak!

All empires would straight away have a survey class ship with long range travel and better sensor accuracy for scanning. Some would have plodding early colony ships with better scanning ranges as essentially diplomatic class prototypes . So if scanning showed the system was populated, then the major races know to send a diplomatic class prototype to do a first contact missionas the scout of survey is likely going to inadvertently trigger either a sour attitude (and ruin trade) or start a skirmish with an unpowered scout or survey as it is considered possibly hostile by some minor races.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

With standard star classes having a pattern of development, then some stellar anomalies might consistently cause phenomena. "Mr. Chekov, match up the stellar cartography database with this star class."

"Sir, dere is a continuum rift here with this purple class system, just as ve saw on Deneb homesystem."

Lt Commander Nella Daren is in charge of the astrometrics lab and stellar cartography. She has to dim the lights as she and her whole staff are doing an experiment. A curious Capt. Picard ruins it as he just happens to flood in light as he opens the door unannounced.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=elhh7lbXpmY
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lessons ... eneration)
As I recall she even calls him an idiot without knowing he's the captain.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DrpCYNojfQk
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Benutzeravatar
UesugiKenshin
Admiral
Admiral
Beiträge: 3561
Registriert: Dienstag 31. März 2020, 03:51

Re: Game Settings

Beitrag von UesugiKenshin »

You can derive a very unique scenario by using high levels of minor races on the map (like 50%+) and also have players begin with 8 neighbors. So straight away you have little expansion without a lot of surveying other systems and the AI has to deal with minor races and not just colonize using brute force calculations.

Better have lots of colony and scout ships.
Minor Race Database http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... r_(Minors)
Minor Race Ships http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... nen_Völker
Chrome and Opera autotranslates German.
Antworten

Zurück zu „BotE Android - Questions and Answers“