Advanced Save Game Six Empires Huge Map and Minor Races

[UesugiKenshin]

If that methodology works, then anyone who wants to run Exagear should be able to run BotE for Windows and easily mod BotE and not deal with Android OS at all. Eventually those mods would get ported to run even more smoothly and likely as entirely separate programs.

You could then play Diablo, Civ3, and even GalCiv2 on Android tablets thought the latter is a little laggy. It has to be on the main hard drive not any SDcard as Exagear has trouble recognizing SDcards.

[UesugiKenshin]

It is very weird that I can probably fix things to please players, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if I did fix such things, it would never be allowed to be released as a mod. Is BotE open source or not?

[UesugiKenshin]

It would be perfectly natural to want to develop something new and commercial that is not BotE, but maybe what MoO3 should have been. There probably are at least six very far along in development.

If that is the plan, they will beat you to the punch like the FreeOrion project.

If that is not the plan, then with very small changes, we could do all kinds of things as modders, but only if you facilitate that.

Delaying for the last year has not helped BotE. Nobody is paying attention as BotE is off in the corner dealing with a 50,000 German audience and so is in obscurity when in fact, it is the best, most stable, space 4x game available. There is no reason BotE should be unknown and marginalized. Nobody reviewed it and it has so little bells and whistles to embellish it that some viewers would dismiss it as outmoded. That is a mistake as it is elegant and has potential.

[UesugiKenshin]

Six empires developed at 50 % of current tech with an equivalent logical infrastructure and military strength, would be incredibly popular. That way players can immediately start actively doing things to improve their empire. That is doable now. This was a test that wildly succeeded.

If I fixed sabotage so it is delayed, and add six levels of tech, and add revisions of starships, then BotE would be 200% better and received enthusiastically. I don't know of a wargame where people enthusiastically begin empires. Even the Civ games were notable for mods with developed scenarios and campaigns. Experienced players do not want to start with almost nothing.

What we need is a BotE construction set which is what a comprehensive editor is. Then rapidly mods can be built instead of tentatively played over hundreds of turns requiring a huge amount of hours.

Imagine a save game at 25%, at 50%, at 75%. Then as players have limited time over the course of a year, can play it through. They don't have 1800 hours and if they did, they probably would only spend 300 on BotE.

[UesugiKenshin]

It would be way more interesting if the random events were scripted events with say a ten or twenty turn variable.

Example
Have an event A happen at turn #50 plus or minus 10 so as early as 40 and as late as 60.

Now if modders could mess with that and create their own events, then you could have scripted events like combat in stages and that would make the game interesting. Maybe pirates appear and then disappear from the map. A monster appears in space and his menacing.

Or have an artifact for sure on planet B happen on turn#95 plus or minus ten turns so as early as turn#85 to as late as turn #105. Then whoever is there or visits there, gets that ancient artifact.

If you could mod that, you could have a story and challenges and reward for exploration. And the game would change based on these events. You would have away missions.

The stellar anomaly might grow in intense or become quiescent (dormancy). One could form with warnings something was amiss. These would be emergency events.

You really don't want bad events to happen in the easy game, but based on higher difficulty, players want those as challenges like the labors of Hercules.

[UesugiKenshin]

It would be very interesting to have two empires have to collaborate to deal with a menacing event, such that it improves diplomacy as they develop growing respect in spite of their differences. That is very compelling to fans of old sci-fi shows.

[UesugiKenshin]

Astronauts should die, but it should bring meaning through their deaths, not just randomly subtract them. That reminds the player that life is precious. See there is no personal loss in BotE as there are no names. Faceless soldiers dying has no meaning. They are just numbers.

Instead of just raw numbers of experience, the crew of a starship should get recognition for achievement so when they die, then the player feels regret and loss.

[UesugiKenshin]

While you can colonize a sector that has a theoretical population limit of about 7.4 billion, you will run into issues if you have less than 10.0 billion regarding sector defenses, energy generation, food productions, mining, etc. That undersized sector has trouble producing and you end up getting calculation errors in them.

If you don't colonize the sectors from 7.4 billion to 9.9 billion, it's plausible the foolish AI will colonize them in the middle of your empire and thus you still end up invading and then having both war and dealing with an underperforming sector.

I've been thinking about this for months on the best solutions. Probably no sector should have less than 10.0 billion as even the Earth's population alone is 7.7 billion, right? And that doesn't include what we would realistically do with L5 colonies, Mars, jovian moons, asteroid mining colonies, etc.

What I have considered is the high likelihood of:
1. Cloning
2. Genetic engineering
3. Artificial life forms like androids
4. Robotic workers

Looking through the BotE wiki, in every case, such lifeforms ultimately resulted in rebellions, so it seems disingenuous to have that as a methodology of superceding population limits in some manner.

With technology, worker efficiency rises over time through automation and robotics.

I would like to have all kinds of technology unlock from tech 15-tech 20+ and there is a theoretical maximum of tech 256. And technology is always a double edged sword as it creates as many issues morally and ethically as well as creating health issues. These kinds of quandaries are very meaningful in BotE as it is a cerebral game that already provokes questions.

Often this 7.6-9.9 population limit could easily be remedied by gas giant terraforming. I have written about what a sector actually is and how in our Earth's sector alone, there are at least 80 solar systems, so never think a sector is a solar system. Thus not only is 10.0 billion too low, even 100 billion is realistically low, but 10.0 billion solves the issue on galaxy map generation.

[UesugiKenshin]

Now I am doing lots of experimenting as I am in turn #460. At this point, the Omega have 1.2 million intel points, so they can totally protect themselves from all sabotage, but also engage in theft of the starships of the following empires.
1. Khaoran
2. Rotharian
3. Cartare
4. Just stared stealing Terran ships

So what has happened is the Khaoran, Rotharian, and Cartare have no starships as I own them all. Realistically in US history, that seizure of military technology by traitors asking for political asylum or crashed equipment meant Americans could reverse engineer Russian technology. I wish that were the case now, as I would stop stealing them and make my own designed versions, as that is my goal.

Most players would probably just squash the other empires like bugs as the Omega empires are like demigods at this point. The main reason I am playing is to consider what changes to make and waiting to conquer to then see if I gain the ability to make that other empire's ships and redesign them.

I'm playing using the most conservative tactics and maximizing gains with zero losses and have at least 50 percent of sectors with maximized mining with full caches and 37 million in the treasury and 1700+ starships. 50 percent have 10-20 level 6 troops just in a holding pattern for ground invasions. The Omega have an immense military force yet only have 350 inhabited sectors as I have intentionally restrained expansion.

What is the delay? I still have alliances with all of the other five empires and theoretically I could end up stealing all the Terran and Heyoun starships. Then the entire galaxy is bare naked and defenseless and so rendered helpless. Not only can they not wage war against the Omega, but they can't war against each other as I have canceled out three empires' ability to do any ranged attacks. All try can do is try each turn to repair infrastructure as those three have no working space docks.

The Omega were being very passive at first and only sabotaging diplomatically then began attacking military targets. In espionage, the Omega can do 1600% espionage against the military targets and 1700% sabotage against the same. This is how unbalanced the intel system is except normally it is the Cartare or Rotharians doing it.

[UesugiKenshin]

In an unmodded multiplayer game, I would play as all six empires, but I would intentionally not engage militarily at least until turn #300 and probably turn #400. But more importantly, I would not build intel agencies until that point as that seems realistic based upon their overwhelming power. Otherwise BotE is just an absurd intel sabotage game ie a magnificent space game is ruined by an unbalanced espionage/sabotage system.

With a modded game, very few intel buildings could be created until turn #300 and mostly after #400. This would prevent this egregious unbalanced situation from arising. There would be no capability to do what I am doing by turn #460 as there would be no way to accumulate so many intel points. Instead, those points would properly be spent on research, energy, profit through mining, starship and troop production.

[UesugiKenshin]

If one played as the Terrans, which take major empire wide morale losses when invading, I would bet the Terrans would wish they could disarm all five empires as the Omega are doing. Then they are neutralized, but the Terrans lack monumental sabotage ability.

Think about it in terms of any science fiction film or serialized drama on television. In which of them could such immense galactic ability ever occur? None of them! Not even the Organians or the Q had such might!

Even in turn #1000, no empire should have such power. And any empire with such ability would become corrupt and take those systems, especially from the Cartare as they enslave people. And this is hypocrisy as in the final analysis as the Omega think of themselves as symbiotes, they really are parasites and really demonic as they suppress the free will thus self-determination and autonomy of every minor and major race they encounter. The Omega are the true villains and any player who spends thousands of hours playing as them, gets that.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Parasitic_being
They are as bad as the ones who took over Star Fleet humans and Vulcans and marginally better than the Borg.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Borg

Given sufficient time and technology, in a modded game, the Omega are the true threat to the galaxy.

[UesugiKenshin]

In a one dimensional game, who cares as merely to become a galactic emperor is inherently malevolent?

In a cerebral game like BotE with very intelligent players as your niche audience, I think it will bother them.

I've suggested alternatives like becoming godlike and transcending as a goal, or becoming beneficent like a bodhisattva and intentionally helping other species through acts of kindness. No other game is like this currently, but Alpha Centauri was like that. You would have players endlessly engaging through stories and dialogue and doing humanitarian missions and likely fighting defensive battles against space monsters and other powerful empires and earn medals just as every Starfleet officer did, and get ranked from cadet up to admiral.

And when the Federation fought space monsters, some were sentient lifeforms and it ultimately was a chance for diplomacy and peaceful coexistence.

I think that is the way to go as that would have a HUGE appeal to Trekkers. The Federation did not go conquering and the Klingons would love conquering until it happened, then the Klingon empire would unravel as there would be no more war, and that would destroy their whole basis of life.

BotE has a future if that future is unlike what every boring MMO is doing. Rather than being online and pay to win as the business model, it should be about DLC where missions are unlocked and beautiful tech, troops, and starships. The former is boring and you can't compete graphically with combat RTS. The latter is elegant and in the spirit of science fiction where conquering in a galaxy that is just about limitless, thus is unnecessary. There is no impetus to galactic war unless we have a scenario editor where wars can be planned so they are organized with immense troops and starship fleets.

[UesugiKenshin]

There are several space entities that are filling the niche of space monsters, and some more constructed in such a way that killing them only increases their number as it provides energy or they take over ships.

It would be far more interesting to have those as mediators ie space faring minor aliens. Why not give them a planet through diplomacy? That is no different than Kirk giving Khan a planet?

In game design, you want battles especially as BotE is 95 % an economic simulation.

In Medieval 2 Total War, you configured barbarians to give the player this routine opportunity as well as scripting battles. I think that is superior. Space pirates we highly likely and blockades might be one way they attack.

The primary reason BotE has insufficient battles is it lacks the above and it lacks campaign design. Most wargames do not start from turn#1, but have established empires, thus it really only gets compelling after turn#300. I bet a million players would love BotE from turn#300 onward as they don't have 150-300 hours just to waste building an empire. From turn #1 through #300, on a giant galactic map, you mostly are terraforming, colonizing and building a profitable infrastructure. Only having accomplished this can you make great starships and better troops.

BotE is a strange wargame without war as it's a builder to 300 hours, when builders are not that popular. The Civ franchise and the Total War franchise would never have been profitable as primarily builders.

[UesugiKenshin]

Here is the space monsters page for BotE.
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... itle=Alien

It is turned off in this advanced save game. If I do make a mod and an advanced save game at turns #300 and #400, then they will be turned on next time.

I probably won't turn on random events. That has enormous potential to actually tell stories, but only by making program changes. Randomly changing diplomacy sounds terrible as you work so hard to gain acceptance and the worst is just killing off billions! That seems insane. I do not see random events as being useful as currently configured.

Note: it appears in the original BotE you could turn things off and on in the BotE.ini file. Now if I could carefully create all six empires and then turn on space monsters at turn #300, that would be great! The player is not strong enough to handle them earlier, so it is too disruptive. Honestly, you want scripting of space monsters as a routine way to defend your empire, and then have galactic war after turn #400 so all empires develop.

What a shame it would be to end empires prior, and frankly even take over minor alien races too before turn#300. Better serious battles than half-ass battles.

[UesugiKenshin]

Don't be confused. BotE deals with attacking sectors not planets and a sector is a HUGE amount of real estate. To attack and conquer a sector should take a strong fleet of ships and a huge ground invasion. And doing so begins a monumental war with an empire who likely would have 100 sectors of territory.

This is why, in my opinion, you really want battles to begin after turn #300 with minor races and a battle with a major race should be after turn#400. Earlier just feels wrong.