Modding

[UesugiKenshin]

Some races refuse to allow a scout or colony ship in without it causing a war. I think that is implausible. Such xenophobia is unlikely as then no trade exists in a 20 light year sector in a system. The hostility and paranoia makes sense, but they would boot you out the system in a perfunctory manner. Then diplomatic dialogue exists of some kind.

Truly this is due to no hailing system. You could event fire a warning beacon to tell others not to enter. You could have all kinds of messages fire as events. But to make that system be a brick wall and force the player to attack or ignore the system, seems weird.

"Warning, we have had visitors who brought plague a hundred of your years ago, and so no admittence is possible. Respect our borders." But then the message could be acknowledged and thus diplomatic dialogue exists. And so even such a system might have dialogue that has clues in it and so moves the story along.

[UesugiKenshin]

Since a consequence of being the Terrans means an inevitably large standing mixed military force, then their economy is doomed when playing a sandbox game. The player either has to delay building as they can't afford upgrading and there is no other empire to modulate the demand for say titanium. Their Change to Upkeep level is terribly skewed as they have an extremely high unnatural level of military forces. That induces them to attack to make it worth it. That is not right. It should be open ended.

The overly high numbers in fleets is initially a preventative measure to forestall major races from overrunning them. But this is ineffective due to good diplomatic attributes by the Terrans.

This is why buildings need to generate revenue streams or mined materials would largely be stable or rise in price and not be depressed by sales.

The Trade system makes some sense as more buildings purchased by rapid construction makes the economy rise and the slope of the line results in a steeper one reflecting demand. But economies based on mined materials are inherently stable or rise over time.

And the amount of say at least 60 minor races creating buildings does not seem to have an effect, yet they make up a 33% of the galaxy. By themselves, maybe they seem insigificant, as a corpus they are larger than most empire for the first 300 turns. Thus they would be creating a voracious demand.

[UesugiKenshin]

Something like that dooms the minor races as a single system has an enormous military presence that 99% of the time, is egregously expensive and doesn't do anything.

The way that typically is handled is by scripting ie when attacked, then defensive units spawn, and then are scripted to be removed or stay. Then the expense is low until the siege begins.

I think it handicaps some minor races. It genuinely makes no sense that a defenseless major race would absorb the Xiborg due to diplomacy. It's like vampirism...that siphons off their power. Why would such a powerful minor race ever enter into a cooperation treaty with an impotent major race devoid of even low level ships?

Treaties happen because they are mutually beneficial.

[UesugiKenshin]

Okay, I had a totally rotten start position as nothing within the yellow range that was available for the base colony ships for the Omega Alliance was habitable ie no M class planets. So after fully exploring the red zone (long range) and making 17 farms, 17 factories, and so forth and being bored for 40+ turns, then out of frustration terraformed a N class planet. When it was finally complete at 50+ turns, I colonized it.
[The Omega can scrap their starbase which gives them a lot of titanium recycled plus 20,000 credits.]

So this is standard beta testing. It's possible to terraform and colonize any planet with at least a terraformed world. N class are barren rocks which would be what say the Cardassians faced which caused starvation, which was the impetus for their species turning to raiding and subjugating other worlds in order to survive. And with four farms on a N class planet, that is what they would face. You would need a lot more.
[An analogy could be made with various Viking people who lived in colder regions with less suitable agriculture given a fraction of standard harvest yields so resulted in them becoming raiders as well in the Dark Ages.]

It's not documented anywhere, and takes too long to be meaningful as such a bad random map then ultimately means that empire would lose as others would have colonized at least 3-5 worlds or more by then and likely have begun positive diplomatic relationships with 2 minor races.

The delay for the Omega would most likely set them so far back that they would not win in any meaningful way.

That said, I learned that many systems are available even though no M class planets exist, but almost certainly it would be a miserable life for those colonists. I'm doing a new test with hopefully a better map.

The map array within a yellow zone is identical to Civ2 and Civ3. I suspect the same format influenced BotE.
A row of 3
A row of 5
A row of 5
A row of 5
A row of 3

The red zone then expands upon that base terrain concept.

As I have been saying all along as someone who has created monumental maps way larger than the maximum in BotE, a random map is not a feature, but a bug. I don't think the maps are "random", but rather formulaic ie the parameters for galaxy generation tries to create a standardized range of a class of planets like M class worlds and follows a formula for systems. Thus minor changes in the forumla for galaxy generations would significantly improve the players' experiences.

I suggest that game difficulty should alter the galaxy generation formula. This makes sense as a beginner does not struggle as much and so a beginner and normal difficulty level should generate better maps.

I believe that the only plausible way to have six empires for game mechanics is to create a 40x40 map at 100% stars and likely 33% minimum minor races after playing more than 12 games to turn 200.

The base number of planets should be 9 in a system so there are enough planets to allow all six empires to progress. If you had 3-4 empires, then no increase would be necessary, but an increase would be accurate given the immensity of the Milky Way galaxy and given estimations that Earth like planets (M class) are common, not rare.

[UesugiKenshin]

For players, it is far better to create maps as the map design is an intelligent process to either allow true riches to expand by colonization, but at the expense of indigeneous people. See 1600-1900 AD. That is our paradigm for colonization or we wouldn't even be discussing colonization as being a worthwhile activity. Europeans faced stagnation as the aristocracy through feudalism had seized all the land, thus creating a rich and poor class with a budding middle class due to specialization and largely to serve the aristocrats.

The only mechanism to grow was colonization. So as map designer, if you make colonization an unpleasant experience, then it's irritating not exciting to set up logistics so supply chains can happen and deployment of the military forces.

In this analogy, the indigenous are the minor races landlocked on their home systems as they cannot colonize.

The natural expansion of BotE 2.0 would be either more choices of major races with far different outlooks and goals (like cultural victory) or minor race colonization or BOTH...and likely on a larger map.

But the caveat is such intensity would slow down turn times significantly.

[UesugiKenshin]

What is a difficulty level in game mechanics and design?

Some players intuit the game designer's "rules" for reality within the game. They compare and contrast these rules with other rules in another 4X strategy game. They then utilize likely ways to circumvent the rules to allow better expansion, exploration, exploitation, and extermination than the AI.

So progressive difficulty either alters the map and with more rigorous requirements or penalizes the player by rewarding the AI so it provides more difficulty.

For what purpose? Some like more risk or more struggle to acquire a reward.

[UesugiKenshin]

So you have two paradigms: make the map be less rewarding or create issues likely logistical ones that create choke points or make some worlds better than others so create a spirit of covetousness ie GREED. Likely the AI gets better map regions and more easily defensible regions which the player who is smarter and more ingenious, then devises stratagems to invade these tough areas and uses better tactics than the AI to overcome them.

The second generally irritates the player as the AI is cheating as the players are handicapped. The latter is the theme of Kurt Vonegutt's Harrison Bergeron.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

The death of 4X games is this handicapping as it's not a better AI but a weak cheating AI.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SICa0tWHzJQ
In Harrison Bergeron, the best ballet dancers have to wear heavy weights so they do not excel more than normal people. It's a biting political satire that is totally appropriate for a world that rewards millenials with participation trophies. It's mocking fools spouting equality that do not raise others up, but push the wise and strong down.

Julius Caesar, Hannibal, and Alexander the Great were not better commanders because they were handicapped unfairly, but because they devised stratagems and used better tactics to defeat their peers.

Think about it.

[UesugiKenshin]

What is tall poppy syndrome and how is it applicable in game design?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome

The tall poppy rises up due to genetic advantages and so excels as there is less competition as it can get more sun and grow versus the shorter ones.

In game design, the AI prioritizes attacking the tall poppy and not necessarily the human player.
A good AI consolidates their power by attacking its biggest foe.

In the Rome tv series, Marc Anthony is distracted as the Senate assasinates Julius Caesar. There is nothing he can do as he is mortally wounded and close to death. Then they send a gang of soldiers against him.

Atia remarks that she would have killed them where they stand.

Anthony remarks that 12 mangy dogs can kill a lion. Pack mentality is an AI tactic of joining forces to defeat the human. Why? Tall poppy syndrome.

[UesugiKenshin]

It's a supposition, but I believe the data discovered in beta testing points to monopolies and megacredits being generated requires 3 empires at the minimum. Otherwise, I doubt monopolies are plausible given they are so expensive.

They are not monopolies but an initially expensive mechanism for doubling production of mined material.

[UesugiKenshin]

For the sake of trying everything I know how to do, I tried the following. You may have more luck.

Since the program is written in Java, there is a java emulator for Android tablets in the Google Play app store. It was unable to run the java app in say the XP downloaded version. One Java editor was able to read the Java. If you can write Java or just are clever, you mod the program code and make some interesting changes. I believe that would solely be for your own purposes and would not be allowed as a mod.

I tried the Linux version and was unable to run it too.

A long time ago, Exagear was available and that was a Wine port and with various success, one can run old Windows programs on the Android tablets. If you ever downloaded and used Exagear, then it's still in your Google Play app store library. It didn't work on the Windows XP version. Too bad as I was hopeful that would work. Then modders could easily change the datafiles and run the Windows XP version on Android tablets.

I have tried every way I know how to try to alter the BotE apk but then it isn't accepted as a legitimate program source for installation.

I have scruitinized the save games and bote.ini. I believe they are now either encrypted or there are no hints in the hex address versus the ASCII (right side) to indicate what might be modded.

At one time you could use terminal emulation to defeat the security installation of non Google Play apps. Nope,not anymore with the Android OS updates.

At one time there were rumors you could use Google Drive to upload an app and then install from there to defeat the security protocol. Nope.

On non-rooted Androids, you often can't directly get to the app regardless. You can only do a "backup" and alter that, and that fails to overcome the Google Play security check.

I also tried an alternative launcher several times. A program like "DEX" is an alternative launcher that bypasses the standard launcher function in the Android OS and can subvert the security feature. This did not work for me, but it did try.

It seems like there are three possibilities.

One
You use a windows computer and use sideloading through the ADB cable.

Two
You root the tablet to bypass the security features.

Three
You submit the modded files and the developer creates an official apk that is downloadable through the Google Play app or your modded datafiles are included in a new revision or the program is changed (not likely) and alternative datafiles can be read in a subdirectory.

Something I haven't tried is at one time there was a rumor you could email an app, and since entering your tablet by that mechanism, you could load an app and bypass the security functions. The total size makes it implausible as it's likely 200 MB+ which exceeds standard email. I doubt the Android OS would allow it.

[UesugiKenshin]

What makes perfect sense is that the first few levels of intelligence buildings do not enable sabotage at all. They are like Homeland Security and stamp out subversives and so would dampen creativity some (probaby reduce some research as academics are usually leftists and subversive), but increases morale.

Maybe a Level 14 intelligence building allows limited sabotage and likely diplomatic. Think about it. How is it plausible that up to 39 sectors over times 20 light years (per sector) that Catare are sabotaging 780!!! light years away when they can't travel that far in their fastest ships?

Long range either has meaning in the mythos, or it's an artificial limiter meant to cripple advancement.

But they would likely try to do disinformation campaigns. They might try to harm the relationships with minor races to harm the economy of major races. Blow up research buildings? No way. Blow up military vessels? ABSURD.

There are logical ways to fix this.

[UesugiKenshin]

By the way, sometimes try the following to give you new ideas.

Set nearby neighbors to 8 as the Terrans and they absorb 75% of them.

Set minor races to 75% and colonization is largely implausible,but the galaxy is fantastic.

Set minor races to 0% and it induces pop rushing ie a massive colonization land grab. Diplomacy is neutralized and every empire has to build what they need. No minor races fleets to throw monkey wrenches in the works.

Set the rate of expansion to fastest and you have the STTNG era where you can cross the galaxy as long range is nullified by say turn #300.

Set stellar anomalies to 25% and navigation is precarious. Space is extremely hostile which is why being an astronaut means extreme physical fitness plus genius level scientific ability.

[UesugiKenshin]

Most of the time, a programmer puts in a maximum number of building slots. Like in every game so far, on the "structures" tab, it shows where farms are located. I doubt there are 3 pages of structures.

So smart modding creates levels of building upgrades or a player could hit that wall of slot limitation and be unable to build a meaningful one.

I truly believe the minor races should have many levels of cultural buildings. That way they only take up a single building slot. Then they are not just exploited by membership or subjugation, but pacified.

So far most buildings seem unique to their homesystems regarding minor race technology. But realistically such minor race technology would either be limited to classes of planets ie you can only build this on a glaciated class planet. Or such technology would be so great, it would be emulated elsewhere. "We need this building in the capitol." The latter is very likely and historically correct.

Once archs were discovered in the East, they were replicated in western civilization. Genetic engineering or metallury practices did not just stay in the countries where they began.

[UesugiKenshin]

The most valuable resource the minor races possess is their unique technology.

But you could mod a galaxy where 150 minor races died due to some calamity. So your xeno-archeologists find artifacts and so their buildings and vessels and troops can be recreated on your worlds. This includes the minor races as concepts, but releases their systems for colonization,not diplomacy.

I think that would be a very interesting mod.

Or mod it that your empire has advanced genetic engineering or cryogenics and can resuscitate sleeping minor races.

That would always be a double edged sword as some might be like the xenomorphs in the Alien franchise.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XpqHfcV99mM

"Whoops we thought bringing them back would benefit us all. Sorry."

"Ripley, this is obviously a very important species that would be useful the military weapons division, and I can't authorize you destroying them." Famous last words.

[UesugiKenshin]

Aliens 1986

Burke : [about the facehuggers] Look, those two specimens are worth millions to the bio-weapons division. Now, if you're smart, we can both come out of it as heroes and we'll be set up for life.
Ripley : You're crazy Burke, you know that? You really think that you can get a dangerous organism like that past ICC quarantine?
Burke : How can they impound it if they don't know about it?
Ripley : Oh, they *will* know about it, Burke, from me. Just like they'll know that you were responsible for the deaths of 158 colonists here.
Burke : Wait a second...
Ripley : You sent them to that ship.
Burke : You're wrong.
Ripley : I just checked the colony log. Dated 0-6-1-2-7-9, signed Burke, Carter J. You sent them out there and you didn't even warn them. Why didn't you warn them, Burke?
Burke : Okay, look. What if that ship didn't even exist, huh? Did you ever think about that? I didn't know! So now, if I went in and made a major security issue out of it, everybody steps in. Administration steps in, and there are no exclusive rights for anybody; nobody wins. So I made a decision and it was... wrong. It was a bad call, Ripley. It was a bad call.
Ripley : Bad call?
[Ripley grabs Burke by his vest and shoves him against a wall]
Ripley : These people are *dead*, Burke! Don't you have any idea what you have done here? Well, I'm gonna make sure they nail you right to the wall for this! You're not gonna sleaze your way out of this one! Right to the wall!
[Ripley lets go of Burke]
Burke : Ripley...! You know, I... I expected more from you. I thought you'd be smarter than this.
Ripley : I'm happy to disappoint you.
[Ripley leaves]