Modding

[UesugiKenshin]

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... Techs.data
Here is a description of the tech data file.

[UesugiKenshin]

To mod what kinds of sabotage could ultimately take place, you could effectively turn some aspects in these files into comment files. For example, you might allow diplomatic or economic sabotage, but turn off all military sabotage as ultimately military sabotage is too unrealistic to occur.
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... abOff.data
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... abDef.data

You could alter the messages as well.

Doing such things could vastly reduce sabotage damage.

Think about military sabotage from the context of history. It most often happens in occupied territory as a consequence of war. It is funded by the enemy and facilitated by resistence movements among partisans. That is not what happens in the game as military sabotage makes zero sense.

[UesugiKenshin]

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... Races.data
This data file controls the racial attributes which confer modifiers to them and so balances the game. Likewise you could entirely change the included options so the Borg might be a race by altering all the pertinent data files for the Ferengi. That would be a huge undertaking.

If comparing BotE to Star Trek, then consider that often you don't even have first contact with a major race until turn #300 due to your major race's long distance range and so you have no history, thus you would not immediately hate each other but likely be neutral or wary.

So either "demeanor" is either hardcoded or it's calculated by racial attributes where some who are sneaky don't like pacifists, and likely all the attributes then result in a varying emotional demeanor in your intentional first contact.

What would be far more interesting would be to set all to uncooperative and then your encounters dynamically set the tone of your next diplomatic contact. Say you initially are all talk about trade,but then are stingy about actual trade taking place. So you major races makes promises but doesn't fulfill them. A better system would have internal reasonable demands through dialogue which then the human player dismisses as unnecessary. Or the opposite where the human player goes out of their way to foster trust by doing favors. But every extraterrestrial may interpret that all along a continuum as altruistic or patronizing.

So the Klingons would not immediately hate the Romulans, but likely there are impediments that likely cause that to happen because of what each major and minor race holds as their ethical standards.

Really the larger philosophical question is, What causes bigotry? Bigotry is the emotional response versus the logical response to inducing antipathy or stronger responses that limit diplomacy plus trustworthiness.

Such diplomacy should be gradually more difficult by progressive levels. On the easy level, I would not expect such vehement responses as war is expensive and moving troops and ships across the galaxy is reaslitically complex. You would not just declare war as you as a major race likely can't back it up. It's horrendously expensive when that money could go to research or the profit or infrastructure.

[UesugiKenshin]

Many minor races are so creatively designed that they certainly would make at least an interesting confederacy of minor races and so represent an alternative major race slot. The strongest would band together as they see all the others are their likely oppressors.

BotE is very well designed in this regard.

The issue is their territory is spread out without a map editor plus campaign designer.

[UesugiKenshin]

Hotseat mode was the term I was looking for. This was a way you could play as all the empires in Medieval 2 Total War, then set up every empire, then after so many turns, turn all but one empire to the AI, then play as the remaining one.

That would be the easiest way to preset game saves.

[UesugiKenshin]

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... ußenposten
Outposts and then the upgraded starbases have a similar role as they do in GalCiv2 of increasing range and thus can create contested overlapping territory and so jointly declared to be within multiple empire's frontiers..

[UesugiKenshin]

We can easily fix security buildings and so limit sabotage and balance BotE by modding. We can limit the intensity of racial characteristics which confer higher intelligence points and signifcantly raise the techlevels to create security buildings and adjust how much energy those buildings require.

What we can't easily fix are the unbalanced economy. The Achilles' heel is the devaluation by 1 integer ever 100 unit sales. High value ore needs to be devalued by 1,000 unit sales, then even better ore by 10,000 units sales, and so forth until there is no devaluation as they are precious metals. Like Detrium which is crucial to warpdrives in the game.

Metal prices would rise and get progressively more valuable over time or I can see whole empires unable to wage war as their upkeep is so high yet taxes so constrained by population limits, that their economies are paralyzed.

You could probably mod the amount of each ore (far less) that is needed to make buildings or ships and so get around it.

What genuinely needs to happen is a program change so ore prices are very stable as there is an upper limit on taxation as systems can only grow so large yet conflict goes on in galactic war. It limits conflict too strongly.

[UesugiKenshin]

This is why we need two things.

A sector of space is 20 light years across. That is immense. A system is not a solar system but all the significant planets within a sector. There is no way to have multiple solar systems owned by different minor and major races in a system. But we could populate multiple planets in more systems in multiples of nine each time.

As an example, with current technology the distance from Earth to Pluto requires about 9.6 years, but it's distance from the sun to Pluto is 4-6 light hours.

The new Alcubierre drive would grant us warp drive.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JafY92PhgKU

20 light years is a very large amount of space time. The distance from Earth to Gliese 1214b is 40 light years or two sectors by comparison.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_1214_b

That makes the galaxy truly larger on a 40x40 map array at 100% star density as scant systems with 3 planets would then have 9. So far more planets equate to far more terraforming and thus far more population... so far more taxes.

So in reality from the sun to Proxima Centauri is 4.6 light years. So multiple solar systems are in a sector of space and 100 planets is very likely in 20 light year sectors. Most would not be significant so on the map. Some would be exoplanets and very significant...much more than Mercury.
https://qz.com/1117466/nasa-has-found-a ... -colonize/

40x40 is small compared to a Star Trek map with quadrants. 40x40 is less than the alpha and beta quadrants.

So in the best of all worlds the program size for randomizing allows nine planets as a constant as it's not just one solar system, but the significant mapped planets in a sector of space. A tiny planetoid like Ceres might exist but isn't mapped, yet is there. There may be 100 planets but only 9 are mapped on the array.

Or a map editor so certain maps could be played. I would always max out with 9 in every system . I made the Star Trek map have 21 planets per sector so much more income and ships could be generated. So much so that only 25-33% of the galaxy was actually colonized.

[UesugiKenshin]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starflight
Way back in 1986, there was a galactic space game called Starflight (I think as it was so long ago) and you explored 800 planets. And every time you visited, there was a number generated. And you consulted a series of booklets and there were texts which then described what you encountered. It was amazing in terms of storytelling as it was so diverse and had an effect in game and made just surveying the planets to be a big deal.

Something like that could be done for BotE where writers would create the texts but the program randomizes a code and then that has an effect on some variables in the game. The galaxy becomes very dynamic then.

That stuff is abandonware now, and so maybe could be editted and adapted and then used as a starting point for new text. So for the human player only, then just moving a ship from system to system and landing on a world would do something like be humorous, or be a problem to overcome, or generate a crew issue, or find an artifact. It's spice and flavor too so maybe has no effect but is just storytelling.

Something like that would make BotE be truly a sandbox game. We could make a master list of these unique events in a pdf and you look up the code based on a generated text message. All text doesn't have to be programed to display in game but could be consulted if you wanted to.

[UesugiKenshin]

Screenshot_2020-04-13-09-12-30.png

Look at this screencap from the diplomacy screen. When a minor race is a member of your empire, their rate of acceptance varies and when it reaches 80%, they cannot be bribed away. You can also build a communications grid ie you are staying in constant contact and so enforcing the membership and this resists major races bribing them away too.

But this "gift" of ore or crystals would make more sense in diplomacy of minor races prior to actual trade. The minor races' attitude is a function of initial first contact based on racial attributes. So some won't like you as your major race is so different that trade can't be established. Yet those are the very ones you should give gifts to. Bribery only works based on corruptibilty scores, so has a very limited effectiveness.

And think...gifts or bribes mean you have adequate credits. You don't and never truly will as population is limited all the time so taxes are limited. And any ore you have when sold to get credits are always devalued by their sale as a function of the ore's 15% tax and by the programming which devalues 1 integer per unit of 100 sale.

So the very best way to modify attitude would be gifts of ore and it's less expensive. It's a gift so it benefits the minor race reciprient and may have zero effect. But with such galactic diplomacy, such gifts of ore and crystal would be routine to begin diplomatic negotiations.

It should enabled all the time, not just when they are members. Probably 100% of the time, you can create a resource route from your other mining producing systems to member systems so never need the function in the diplomacy screen for members.

But giving gifts or ore or crystal is better than credits for the giver as likely they have LOTS of mined materials. What hurts them is to sell it credits as the Trade system ends up penalizing them for being productive miners as it devaluesthe material when sold.

Note that in this screen you can specify the kind of ore and from what system you send it from. Thus that gift could be across the vastness of the galaxy. Likely you would give ore or crystals to get angry or hostile or uncooperative minor races to change their attitude to begin trade negotiations.

Transfers of ore should always be enabled. They might halt wars and are not bribes so not subject to corruptability attributes.

The Fenegi unfairly have better exonomies so can give gifts and bribes all the time. That is their superpower. But a balancer would be intentionally building better mining facilities and so facilitates this through ore transfers to improve diplomatic relations.

Most minor races would trade just to maintain self-determination as long aa possible, then would end up being absorbed by the enfolding major race's sphere of influence. It's stupid not to trade and most cannot wage war with any level of effectiveness, only defend. Minor races cannot grow as they can't colonize so they ultimately have no other choice.

[UesugiKenshin]

The Chamora are a warlike people who live next to the Romulans. Eventually the Romulans will conquer them, but it's silly to have poor relations such that no trade exists. They begin in a state of war, yet cannot wage war, only defend. That is nonsensical.

It is logical the Romulans (Rotharian Star Network) would send them a transfer of ore or crystals just to acknowledge their worth and try to break the diplomatic stalemate.

"We see that you are a strong race of people well equipped at defending your homesystem. We would like to offer you some transfers of titanium, deuterium, and duranium as gifts. We can help terraform your planets so you grow. We hope to establish trade but these are free gifts."

This absolutely makes sense. Maybe it fails but does help the angry or hostile or minor race who declares war get stronger too.

The Federation (Terran Alliance) wouldn't do that as it breaks the Prime Directive.

The Ferengi probably wouldn't do it as it's not profitable in the beginning. It would break the Rules of Acquisition.

The Klingons wouldn't do it as they prefer fighting as that is honorable.

The Dominion see them as lesser beings who exist to serve the Founders.

The Cardassians see them as minor race slaves to work in the mines and so need to be subjugated.

But the Romulans are brilliant manipulators.

[UesugiKenshin]

I was curious about the peculiar growth rates of systems as they seem to grow enormously fast versus the effects of bombardment during combat. The Romulans have crappy by comparison warriors to the Klingons who have the best. None are on one of their systems. It's defenseless with no ships and troops and being continuously bombarded by two battleships for five turns...yet even though once 2 billion died and subsequently is losing 0.2-0.4 billion per turn and 4-5 buildings, it's actually growing??? The growth rate is too high.

I don't unstand how Klingon civilians can do much versus Romulans troops. I agree Klingon warriors are vastly better.

I read somewhere in the forums that you need twice the invading force, which is a misnomer as you can generate two units to fill an early transport but they aren't BILLIONS of troops. So say the population of a system is 41 billion so you would need 82 billion troops to invade against civilians???

In history, 2-3 times the number of invaders of a siege was common and a big problem too because yeah, you can seize the farms outside a city's walls and so facilitate the invasion by feeding your soldiers crops and livestock from those farms, but that is used up quickly. So I believe twice the troops versus other troops.

Seiges often took too long due to supply chain issues moving food to the invaders plus disease during wartime.

[UesugiKenshin]

The point was to provoke the Klingons who are unnaturally even foolishly warlike as they can't actually wage war as they can't defend a single borderland system and left it undefended. So each turn more infrastructure is being destroyed on that system.

This is where a cheat like "reveal map" helps a campaign designer so you can see what the AI is doing in terms of redeploying troops to cope with an invasion. "I've attacked so how is the AI moving troops to the front."

I'm surprised the Klingons would leave the frontier effectively undefended...of all the races.

This is the second attempt as prior the Klingons declared war on the same system as I just innocently had a scout around (outside that system) and sent a colony ship there (to that system to initiate first contact).

On the easy level, this does not make sense as there are limited ways of initiating first contact with major races. They should not be initially hostile as they have no shared history yet.

[UesugiKenshin]

I bet that primarily those playtesting as the Romulans used the horrendously overpowered sabotage tactics to annihilate the Klingons in ways that would never be plausible let alone possible. And that the Romulan ships and troops are not balanced.

Yet actually the Romulans have stymied Klingon growth and why a neutral zone does exist between the two. Not because of sabotage, but because Romulan ships and troops can hold their own. Maybe with higher numbers but not tremendously so.

[UesugiKenshin]

The standard way is to launch X number of citizens on a colony ship to begin a new colony elsewhere and so relieve pressure on one planet from which they originated. And then having begun a colony, they multiplied some, but immigration was established. You see the latter as immigration spreads as soon as terraforming is complete on a formerly uninhabitable planet wthout any colony ships required.

But they are growing too fast probably to keep up economically.

When likely this truly means you need better economy buildings that get unlocked. Revenue through taxation is limited. Usually it's a function of private property ownership and crop yields and livestock sales and commerce. And that causes smuggling as unofficial trade, then actual trade.

But actual trade does not exist in BotE. What you have are mining exchanges for profit. That is very limited to trade between minor races and the major races, and then subsequently lost when they are subjugated and or become members of the empire.

Trade is not properly developed and usually it's a function of distance as the rarest trade items that people desire come from far away and so are the most profitable due to the risks taken by the freighters. And then you have piracy of those freighters as an unofficial way to declare war and capture spoils or or just "freebooters" who plunder. And so subsequent eras of freighters have better armaments and shields and cargo carriers.

That means patroling of the trade lanes and typically a command to cycle some classes of ships to drive back-and-forth across those trade lanesor else a big part of your economy is lost.