Modding

[UesugiKenshin]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OMDbX1zksgI
Look at the dazzling display of sunrise and sunset, the auroral borealis, thunderstorms, the metropolitan lights from space, the whirl of stars...

Nothing about space is mundane. So visiting every planet would inspire an astronaut and fill them with joy.

[UesugiKenshin]

https://bitbucket.org/sarkanyi/bote-lib ... r/android/
That is the source code link.

If it were possible to merely run a Java program on the Android tablet, say with J2ME Loader at the Google Play store app, then maybe we could mod the source code and mod the data assets too. You couldn't share it if you alter the source code. This may be our best option for modding BotE on Android tablets to bypass security features.

Java N-IDE is a Java compiler. AIDE-IDE is developer software. The former allows you to look at the source code.

I am leaving no stone unturned to discover a way to mod this without a windows based computer.
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/qa/id ... e-unturned

'Sorry to use so many idioms given a likely mostly German audience.

[UesugiKenshin]

I am of the opinion that by not directly entering a system, but navigating through it with say a scout or colony ship, this should always give you diplomatic access to that minor race.

As it stands now, it seems like the majority of time, that doing as above will not trigger a battle in orbit when they have a initial fleet, but if you were set to standing orders of "avoid" (not "attack), and navigated through (not into where you get red combat percentages as a warning, then when combat begins, you click details, and again select "avoid", the return back to the combat main page, then click hail. Even if that minor is pugnacious by default, it still should allow diplomatic negotiations to follow the combat.

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... Races.data

5th-10th Line: Relationship to major breeds 1 to 6:
Sir Pustekuchen 06/08/2011: These are outdated values ​​from before the Alpha5. These are currently no longer evaluated in-game. It only depends on the breed characteristics (Note: "Line 12"). This then results in the relationship between two races. You can therefore enter 0 anywhere there, since it is not used.

obsolete: probably how friendly the MinorRace is in principle to the respective main breed, the higher the value, the friendlier. The mean is 50.


technological progress
11th line: Technological progress

The 5 levels are

0 = very underdeveloped

1 = underdeveloped

2 = normal (normal)

3 = advanced

4 = very advanced

Thread: Effects of attributes of small peoples http://forum.birth-of-the-empires.de/vi ... =13&t=1945 (search entry t = 1945)


child
12th line: special ability or type and nature of the race (kind) (see also MajorRaces.data )

Excel file (sheet: "kinds"): http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki_fil ... Values.xls
Threads:

Race characteristics of the Major http://birth-of-the-empires.de/phpBB3/v ... f=7&t=2174 (search entry t = 2174)
(internal): race characteristics http://forum.birth-of-the-empires.de/vi ... f=9&t=1187 (search entry t = 1187)
since 28.12.2013 kind has effort to some productions (see bonuses ) eg normal production of 5 plants might be 45, but with an industrial minor it might be 58 (Thread: http: //forum.birth-of-the-empires. com / viewtopic.php? p = 33327 # p33327 )

The manifestations are
0 = (none) (nothing special)

1 = finance

2 = warlike

3 = agriculture (farmer)

4 = industry

5 = secret service

6 = researcher

7 = producing

8 = pacifist
9 = sneaky

10 = locked alone (soloing) - maybe not used for minors

11 = extremely hostile - maybe not used for minors

12 = religious not implemented yet

Note:
As of version 0.81, several properties can be assigned separated by commas.

For example: 3.8 for an agricultural, pacifist race


Note 2: After 10 and 11 were added later, no MinorRace has these values, as can be seen from the Excel file linked above (column M = kind)
spaceflightnation
13th line: Spaceman nation = own ships (spaceflight nation)

0 = no 1 = yes

If a MinorRace is a space nation, at least the first (ever) colonized planet in the system has a deritium occurrence (Source: botf2Doc.cpp)

[UesugiKenshin]

The way that first contact occurs between a minor race and a major race is determined by attribute #12. That is why some are hostile to you and may never like you.

[See other posts as they may not be intrasigent. I have extensively tested this all along and many things like bribes, gifts, terraforming, one sideded sweet deals, can take some very angry minor races and swing them over to talking trade.]

I don't believe in brick walls where no diplomacy is possible. Even President Nixon who hated every Communist he ever met, ended up going to China in 1972. Never say never in politics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard ... t_to_China

Think of the fun if the minor race is very angry and the insults we could mod in the dialogue! Say really hateful things at first! That would be amusing.

You want logical puzzles as strategy games are logical by nature not capricious. The minor race is not a petulalent 2 year old, but an important species with higher order thinking and never one-dimensional. They might be furious or even loath a major race, but still have credibility so as to be believable...and one day even trust may occur.

[UesugiKenshin]

As there is no hailing system, and as the initial scanning capabilities of the scout and colony ships are miserably inadequate, then one can stumble into an extremely powerful fleet. The rationale is space is inherently dangerous and is perhaps potentially the most hostile environment a species may enter. Every astronaut willingly signs up for a demanding career that does not pay well yet places monumental demands upon them.

However, it takes guts to fly a lonely underpowered survey craft into the inky frozen vaccum of the blackness of space and especially knowing that "this is likely a freaking suicide mission",that minor race fleet can fry me with phasers and photon torpedoes.

No guts; no glory!

It's unfair to lose a vessel and then be stingy and not allow diplomatic dialogue too.

[UesugiKenshin]

I rather enjoy the game, but realize I am looking at BotE with fresh eyes so I see both its enormous potential as well as its issues.

You are a budding empire of many colonies, and those minor race systems would be just as successful as you if they were not landlocked. But they are, and that really makes no sense as some have the attribute that they are spacepilots and have massive fleets.

So, largely they see your growing mining facilities, and that you are thriving financially and building research facilities, and slowy they want their system to be a part of your success. But this ignores the facts that even if you don't actually trade with them, their relationship most often improves as a function of a similarity of presumed ethos/attributes. And the minor races ignores the facts that multiple minor races despise you because they are dissimilar.

So honestly, the player is trying to be as financially successful as possible, be an efficient builder, and stumble through systems hoping that if they stumble across a massive minor race fleet, that eventually they can absorb them. Thus not have to build those ships.

It strains all credibilty. But it doesn't have to be this way if there were a hailing system as then you wouldn't irritate so many as to cause them to go to war with you for no reason.

In fact, the smartest strategy is to know who would like the major race you selected, and so intentionally drift through those systems, and avoid the ones that would always hate you. Thus the cheater who knows the diplomatic outcome ahead of time, avoids conflict. Cheating is rewarded.

It's odd. Diplomatic relationships are not based upon trade as initially you have nothing to sell. Your mining is generally insufficent until say turn#200+ to actually have meaningful trade. And it's in such small volume, it's neither profitable or of sufficient quantity to have an effect. Thus it's merely symbolic.

Trade is a hurdle as a metric that indicates discovering each other and a symbolic gesture to improve the relationship to swallow up minor races. It's pure exploitation.

This is why I did a test where 95% of the galaxy is populated by minor races.

I get that success is attractive to others, but trade is honestly not of enough of a volume to actually have been a stimulus to overcome ignoring that 10 species hate the Omega and have declared war, yet 10 more still want an alliance with the Omega. Yet I really only have a single scout so any cooperation or alliance agreement is nonsense.

[UesugiKenshin]

The minor races are classic NPCs until such time that they are subjugated by a successful invasion or they are absorbed by a successful placation through membership (one that is predicated upon fraud as trade was the impetus).

It would actually be more realistic to set up say ten colonies by each of 3-4 empires, then allow the minor races to leave their orbits. Or much more likely, terraform their systems so they are far more powerful and have better economies. And those minor races with ships have very strong economies that would then facilitate such large fleets.

Or a modder would not build such massive fleets by these minor races, but build up their systems so they have highly defensive capabilities. Then the massive minor race fleets would not make the empires covet them as useful military forces. They would just have the potential to make their own ships.

And alter the minor and major race attributes to modulate such extreme reaction ranges of either totally loathing the major races or liking them. Neutrality would be far more common. And then with meanngful trade, then diplomatic relationships would naturally occur.

[UesugiKenshin]

What should happen is the major races are responsible for the vast majority of their military vessels.

And the unique vessels of the minor races should be of strategic importance as their ships fit useful niches, and so are desirable.

But the battles occur because the major races built up their forces on their own and the minor race ships supplemented these.

Instead, the early game is about who can diplomatically absorb minor race's ships and thus outmuster the other major races. It's backwards.

[UesugiKenshin]

The Exomerians are peaceful wormlike creatures (they appear hostile to the uninnitiated) who use an unusual form of sonic communication, and since they are not bipeds with bilateral symmetry and communuicate in a radically different way, they archived every kind of communication they came across.
http://bote2.square7.ch/en/wiki/Test1#Exomerianer

This is far too interesting from a modding perspective to just absorb them as members, when they may unlock the door to superior communication with many species.

Think of alternative possibilities where such a creature is your communications officer.

I wish there were diplomatic choices where you could suggest a medical mission to Exomer as some of your major race's medicine maybe useful, a cultural exchange since they study languages and all the ways communication manifests (say by encryption methods, or light, or music, or sign language and gestures, etc). Or sponsor one of their best students to study on your home system, in this case Omega Alpha.

There are a lot of compelling subplots that could happen outside of combat.

But their innate sonic communication might end up being like the weirding way in the Dune books too. Scientists study the innate abilities of a variety of species as there may be commercial applications.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TQeP6GWU0e4

Wherever the game begins in the buildings and tech, is just a rich source material from which we can expand.

[UesugiKenshin]

http://bote2.square7.ch/en/wiki/Test1#Eptirel

The Eptirel are a fanatical race of star visionaries and priests. They are relentless towards opponents from their midst, but also loyal friends. They have very good eyesight, which they owe to the difficult and constantly changing light conditions of their planet and ocular implants. A debris field of strongly quartz-containing, bowl-shaped asteroids circles around their planet, which bundles the otherwise evenly strong light of its sun and reflects it wildly. This ensures a constant sea of ​​colors at night and breathtaking light phenomena over the sun-facing planetary hemisphere. The Eptirel developed a strong mystical connection to these phenomena very early and like to do astrology for their lives. Your collection of astrological forecast images and future catalogs is unique in the universe. They are eager for any data material that strangers can give them about the stars and seek contact with other species.

Home system: Eptir

Technological progress: backward

Special ability: none

Bribery: medium bribery

Spaceman nation: no

Special Buildings : Star Vision Conference : -20% Internal Security, +1 Morale across the Empire

The Eptirel have long studied the stars, but turned it into a religion, and so developed astrology versus astronomy. So their internal security is penalized as they are portrayed as naive. Why stop there though?

What if their study of the quartz which casts various light forms then also results in studying the piezzoelectric properties of quartz too?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity
Under pressure this induces an electronic effect that is useful for ignition devices.

And an unusual seismic phenomena called "earthlights" happens as tectonic plates shift and ignite and can cause a prismatic display that is mistaken for ufos.

That is very intriguing and might be utilized for seismic operations say for mining technology, detonation, breakthroughs in warp drives, holograms to fool the enemy by dazzling lights, etc.

The source material is rich, and through a series of upgrades on Eptirel, what is mocked as pseudoscience, then under direction could become very meaningful.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZOvM6NuKM

The earthlights from this tectonic shifting happened an hour prior to a major earthquake. That is useful phenomena that could save lives and then be inserted as a plot element. And most wouldn't be aware it even existed, unless your crewman was an Eptirel.

The minor races are not just NPCs and could be very important particularly in sandbox games.

[UesugiKenshin]

Okay so I'm continuing a test of a maxed out galaxy with 95% minor races. The Omega Alliance managed diplomacy okay, and as to be expected, but gained few members until post turn 250+. The Vulmar and Nundosa joined along with others, but both of them had significant military vessels such that I went from an upkeep from 200-500 to 3300+...which on the one hand is great as I am ten times stronger in military terms versus the Khaoran, but trashing my economy in the process.

I completely get protecting the minor races, but with so many military vessels, I don't see how the Vulmar's and Nundosa's homesystems could afford such intense military expenditures.

My economy was thriving and set to take off in less than 50 turns. Now I'm in an ugly position of scuttling beautiful magnificent ships. Yikes. It's nauseating.

I think the modding community could find a better solution so the best minor races would not have to have such a build up, and then AI and human players would have to protect themselves with their own ships. Otherwise, while exciting when suddenly you have LOTS of frigates, cruisers, heavy cruisers, and sometime battleships, it honestly makes no sense.

In terms of game dynamics, such high minor race fleets translates to high turnovers as the AI is tempted to use them to destroy their "enemies". When in fact, conflict may not be wise as they may be fairly balanced, thus it's not about tactics but about bludegeoning hammers or brute force head-on battle royales. All very thrilling, but a collosal waste of lives and ships.

[UesugiKenshin]

Another point of this last test was to show that when the player and the AI has very limited options for colonization ie the minor races have taken most of them as they are set to 95%, the players can still terraform say a P, a K, an O class planet and colonize that instead. See the terraforming topic.
viewtopic.php?f=107&t=7060&start=15

It works, but it is significantly harder as unless you physically send colonists to some planets who are terraformed later, then even though terraformed, BotE doesn't recognize that mining is possible...even if the natural resources are there. As soon as colonists colonize that terraformed ancillary planet, then basic mines are available say for titanium.

Thus though not readily apparent, many systems that would be dismissed as useless,actually are useful.

So far only one poor system with on terraformable planet is struggling with 2 billion colonists out of 50 systems. There are 3 planets in that system, but only one is a miserable planet I terraformed as a test and colonized. I knew it was a poor candidate, but was beta testing if I could balance it out with a handful of colonists. It would take a lot of micromanagement. But then few players would even bother with it.

Due to randomization, the Orion system has three type O planets and so only deuterium meaning they require titaium sent through resource routing at one point to get inititated.

Think outside the box.

[UesugiKenshin]

Players presume they would want to be in a position where they wish to absorb whole armadas through membership, but in reality, they probably cannot afford it until after turn 400+. And that is probably true only with the smarter players who understand economics and have gamed the commodity system by manipulating prices by routine accelerated buildings programs.

There is quite a learning curve here versus a standard 4x game. BotE is magnificent software; it just needs better documentation and some pragmatism and marketing and minor modding.

[UesugiKenshin]

Okay,you were a peaceful race although written as a dominant cruel major race. You absorbed so many military vessels that you are ten times stronger than your sole major race opponent. What are your options as your economy has come to a standstill when it formerly was thriving?

1. Continue on as before and slowly upgrade and train up your new military vessels. Build transports and troops, let them gain experience through buildings and go crush your enemies.
2. Scuttle expensive military vessels as having a massive armada beyond your desires actually limits you.
3. Do half measures until the Khaoran come calling.

[UesugiKenshin]

Options 1, 2, and 3 all were lousy options.

I chose option 4. I had multiple outposts, I believe eight at various levels as they were built at various stages and it's turn 302. This liberated an unbelievable 218,000 credits. I then accelerated construction on all 25 colonies. That drove up the price of not just titanium,but deuterium, duranium, and crystals.

I then sold some titanium, deuterium, duranim, and crystals...even though it was unnecessary as a test. What it does is it creates a self-feeding situation ie a feedback loop where extremely rapid construction occurs. It even gains the attention of some minor races as it seems they notice the rapid construction and then are not so intractable in their diplomatic position.

This only works with disciplined players who have carefully built up their mining capabilities. Then they are sitting on quite a surplus.

I don't like limited options, nor accept them. If the players have outposts and starbases, and suddenly they are massively stronger regarding their standing army, then they can afford to scrap outposts and starbases, and this extricates them from suddenly a stalled eonomy due to absorbing an entirely too large military force from the minor races.

Otherwise, they likely would start a stupid war just because they have the equipment for it.