Modding

[UesugiKenshin]

I've never played the Windows BotE version, either the old Alpha or the latest jolting BotE as I never heard of it at all. I didn't know it existed. Other than this forum which is 90% in German when I first arrived, only one of my internet browsers does autotranslate (Chrome) and it doesn't always work. Luckily the BotE wiki easily autotranslates. The forum software does not always work.

I just happened to have a laptop have a motherboard issue, and started to routinely use a dusty unused Android tablet to browse the web. Then was delighted to play BotE from the GooglePlay app.

Whenever modding, the process for players to run a mod has to be elementary as some are reticent to use mods at first. So that goes for loading the mod for a Windows PC or a Windows tablet or an Android tablet. It has to be seamless process.

If it isn't, they won't play.

Once they start liking a mod, the number who play a famous mod like the Middle Earth mods for Medieval 2 Total War Kingdoms or Europa Barbatorum for Rome 1 Total War or hundreds of mods for Civ2 and Civ3 (WW2 and Sengoku historical mods and Star Trek mods), then thousands and thousands are playing the mods.

Mods extend the life of a game as some players get bored with the basic concept or the game is great on it's own, but a feature like sabotage frustrates at turn #300 and people stop playing.

[UesugiKenshin]

A modder then creates a mod that solves bugs that at some point has features that then might be added to the next release as if the mod has a large niche base of players, they are beta testing the mod concepts. Thus the mod team and the players prove mod ideas are valuable. And if original content like new music, art, minor and major alien races, ships, buildings, and troops are created, and some of the prose is great and so enhances the game, then that gets included in new releases too.

Better translations may get included in new releases.

Civ2 and Civ3 wisely had mods included within the main program and so that greatly facilitated a huge mod community and popularized the idea. Strategy game players then had endless scenarios and campaigns. Civ2 came out in 1996 and people are still playing it when many computer games are only played for a year.

The same is true of Civ3, GalCiv2, RTW, M2TW Kingdoms, etc. These have very large user bases.

The idea took on a life of its own when moddb started hosting thousands of mods across hundreds of popular games.

That is how DLC got popular with later Total War games. Now DLC is just a given in many MMO games for the Android that pays for the game design.

Modders create DLC, it's just that it's for free the majority of the time.

[UesugiKenshin]

The great aspect of BotE is it's open source and is not an MMO. It's hard to find people available for multiplayer, yet those are the most compelling games. Online games lag and people disconnect and a few play so long that they can always beat new players and the new players quit.

BotE being an offline strategy 4x game makes it the best Android strategy game that exists. It's more complex than even new games for the latest Android OS and it even runs on weaker associated OS like Nook and Fire. Those have large user bases as they are entry level tablets.

In many ways, BotE is as historically significant, not just to space games as the venerated Alpha Centauri, but is almost as great. It's almost as great as Homeworld. It is as great as GalCiv2.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Mei ... a_Centauri
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeworld
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galacti ... _the_Arnor

Those are all commercial products. That is amazing for an open source program.

[UesugiKenshin]

For example, resource routing is quite complex after you have 75+ colonies. Most colonies can do 3-4 and max out even when they are powerhouse colonies.

That means none can afford to do trade, yet that concept is invaluable to improve diplomatic relations. Strategy 4x games are not all combat, but diplomacy is so important that in Civ3, some play total diplomacy games for the most part as a virtual community.

So yes, you can create transports and they can "haul resources as freighters", but it's cumbersome to keep track of 75 freighters and they can get hijacked by alien raiders.

So you could have buildings that boost resource and trade routes much much higher and so it's not a problem to establish semi-permanent resource routes that act as hubs and later they do the same for new colonies in a cascade.

That is practical modding as if the players are spending hours and hours looking for a colony they can use to do temporary resource routing, that bores players. They like the economic concepts, but want to wage war.

That is why resource exploitation was so important as then millions can be systematically made by understanding how to inflate and deflate resource values. That requires zero modding; it needs no resource routing micromanagement; it vastly shortens turn times and micromanagement; it faciltates open trade slots so one can do trade with minor races; this facilitates diplomatic relations and leads to eventual membership.

It's understanding the game concepts so well, that instead of modding, it can be done within tactics so anyone can make millions. Players love that. Large treasuries mean players can play on harder difficulty levels. That is a good thing if the AI is progressively better.

[Dennis0078]

Hast du schonmal mit dem Verwalter in der Bauliste gespielt? Der übernimmt einiges an Micromangment.
Es geht aber nur in der Windows Version.

[UesugiKenshin]

Large treasuries create stability. Money and stability mean rulers can have larger standing military forces as vessels and troops. That facilitates defense and offense. Grand galactic war is then possible.

That means you can have 75 spacefreighters roaming across the galaxy, but that also means they need weapons. Eventually they will be quaint anachronistic vessels, but still can be valuable.

But this is a ship designer opportunity to make faster transports with weaponry and armor to resist alien raiders, right? More roaming around mean a higher percentage of piracy and that creates excitement.

"Gosh the Cartare are routinely attacking Terran freighters! I need better freighters and escorts."

"Rats those Terrans are outrunning my Cartare raiders! I need faster privateers and with better range!"

"Nuts! The Cartare pirate adapted! I needed armed freighters who can not only defend but can return fire!"

See this adds nuance to BotE.

[UesugiKenshin]

Hast du schonmal mit dem Verwalter in der Bauliste gespielt? Der übernimmt einiges an Micromangment.
Es geht aber nur in der Windows Version.

Have you ever played with the manager in the construction list? It takes on some of the micromangment.
But it only works in the Windows version.

Yes, Dennis. I use the manager 90% of the time, and trim colonial issues with the production screen. It works mostly in the BotE Android version for Android tablets.

The forum software often is buggy with autotranslation, but especially when logged in as a member. I often have to read the German posts as a guest, and or use GoogleTranslate

Realize I am playing on a 40x40 galaxy map on my Android tablet. And so I may have hundreds of colonies.

[Note: the Windows version can have far larger galaxy maps. I think 80x80 so 6400 sectors versus the Android version 40x40 so 1600 sectors.]

[UesugiKenshin]

Look in the Questions and Answers section as I extensively discussed using that Manager feature to help new players.

In a few months time, I made 1431 posts to help document things that new players need to understand as concepts. Hopefully then the learning curve to playing BotE is shorter. BotE needs a better manual and or English translation on the wiki. I volunteered to do that.

[UesugiKenshin]

To play BotE with even three empires like the Omega, Terrans, and Khaoran requires a 40x40 map as otherwise they are too close and the game is unrealistic as a galaxy wargame.

Four empires is ideal for game mechanics especially when there are either no minor aliens as expansion is huge creating stability and minimizing conflict.

Four empires with 50% minor aliens is challenging and helps the Terrans as they have powerful diplomacy and so gain minor alien race fleets.

Four empires with 90% minor aliens is very challenging as the major aliens can expand, but most extensively terraform, and may see the major alien human player as an easy target versus a stronger minor alien race in the first 300 turns. So you have to have a 40x40 galactic map.

[UesugiKenshin]

My next advanced save game will try to create a harmonious 40x40 galaxy map with 90% minor alien races and six major alien empires. To create that harmony, create massive infrastructure, 10 intel agencies per colony, and extreme treasuries, with a standing military force that can defend it.

Then there should be less complaining about sabotage as players can download an advanced turn#400 and not have to micromanage over a week, but can begin as a large stable empire

That is me modding to help popularize BotE for Android tablets.

[UesugiKenshin]

Since BotE is so great, if we can figure out useful game concepts and other helpful aspects like building designs that improve treasuries and cash flow, that means sabotage is easier to deal with as they can efficiently do counterintelligence to catch alien spies.

And many ships could be designed for niche battles like the spacefreighter vs the privateer I discussed above. Then you have more minibattles...instead of late game conflict. In game mechanics, you want a gradual increase in difficulty of combat juxtaposed against improving economies.

You want affordable ships made within budgets that can fulfill pragmatic military roles, operating in a lean fashion (to save on upkeep), and that can be created in a reasonable amount of time.

You want many kinds of combat so there are plenty of logical puzzles for wargamers. They love that.

[UesugiKenshin]

This sounds very Asian, but the best modding is no modding regarding buildings.

See if a player understands how the game software works, they can create tactical and strategic ways of fostering a winning overall goal oriented plan.

And then if there are bugs, then the modders can foresee issues like the inability of trade to exist as there are insufficient trade/resource routes. So in a new release, the building txt file can have slight changes to how many trade/resource routes are made as if 3-4 are insufficient, then 5-6 will solve the issue.

Then modders can do other things like figure out how to exploit the trading of resources to make millions so even a 12 year old could do it. That means no boosting of the economy is necessary in the building text file.

There is no solution to deritium shortages as an intended game balancing aspect. But increased income means better deritium refining comes sooner.

[UesugiKenshin]

Transports as freighters and vastly increasing resource caches by mining, then rushing infrastructure like mines and factories, then means open resource slots. That means the player can use them to improve diplomatic relations with major and minor aliens through trade routes.

This requires escorts though, and that works as long as treasuries are high and stable with excellent cashflow.

The better solution is stronger freighters and that takes modding. Then maybe those get included in the next patch as additional ships. Ships are easily designed, but we need artists to create maybe 2 levels of freighters for six empires so 12 pieces of ship art.

[UesugiKenshin]

The best modding is not a mod, but those mod ideas get included in the next patch, and so BotE gets better and better.

Then by anticipating issues that players will have, and communcating tactics and strategy, then any player can understand how to play successfully. Then the user base doubles in size as playing BotE isn't easier, just understandable.

[UesugiKenshin]

When Apple first got started, they had "product evangelists" and people laughed at the titles. But actually that was clever as they spread the word about how great their products were. Then some like schools bought Apple computers as they were "user friendly" versus the cold calculating IBM models aimed at business use. That triggered PC clones as IBM dismissed the regular user market. What a colossal business error!

See many people don't know BotE exists, and when they do learn and play it, they don't understand how to play. Then the user base narrows. Then of that surviving subset, fewer learn how to deal with sabotage. Then some get irritated and leave a negative score wherever BotE is hosted like Amazon or GooglePlay.

So to change that requires marketing and documentation and players who understand how to win. You have those 3 get together and write a clear manual in many languages. Then include it with the BotE program. Maybe the manual is hyperlinked to the BotE wiki and forum!

Now a better solution is turnkey advanced save games that can start with empires and high treasuries and ships and with middle level research buildings. They don't have to start from a weak single homesector. It jump starts the game and they can learn by following prompts or the manual and with exact instructions on the wiki and particular specific questions in the forum.

Strangely enough, the BotE forum does not show up in Google searches! Any other wargame has searchable forums from Google. So players who do a little more searching, don't find much as the English message for this forum states "this has no forums"!

So there are limited ways a new player can figure out elementary game concepts and strategy.