Advanced Save Game Six Empires Huge Map and Minor Races

[UesugiKenshin]

If you have an aggressive spirit, you set the operating tempo and you send out a few warships and attack, then withdraw. Now the AI is like a child.

"Mom, he hit me!"
And the AI gets focused like a laser beam on revenge. And they send a steady stream of ships all the way out and all that does is waste money. They can't afford it. That ties up the economy. They spend less on research and do less terraforming.

You provoked the AI into being impulsive all out of proportion by likely attacking scouts or colony ships. Their losses were minimal, yet they then waste lots of money in a futile fashion.

[UesugiKenshin]

If the Omega or any major race reached a conclusion on what territory they wished to conquer, would they just cease working on their empire? Certainly not. They then have likely eliminated any threat, and might dismantle defensive systems down to a manageable size, and reduce their standing military forces, improve the efficiency of existing infrastructure to theoretical maximums, and look to possibilities.

They may or may not terraform and colonize more. They might want those as recreation areas, as places of scientific study, places where perilous experimentation is far from populated regions, zoological parks, genetic engineering sites, etc.

What goals would further their species?

Elimination of traditional issues that interfere with host species.
Creation of superior host species.
Liberation from host species.
Transcendence. Being plants may not be in the best long term interests of the Omega. Maybe they should be pure energy beings?

[UesugiKenshin]

BotE can keep evolving beyond this incarnation.

The ways to enjoy BotE and "win" are only limited by the human imagination.

If people wanted, BotE could be a space time community where 156 players could just evolve. That was the original MMO concept. I think that likely is a dead end as it costs money to host severs.

It is very difficult to make multiplayer work as people are interested briefly, then are too busy, so their empire sits in stasis or gets overrun by other players. Long term players then get too powerful and want to bully others starting out. When the only way to make that work is the long established player act as patrons to protect species while they get a proper footing.

[UesugiKenshin]

When the concept was not about conquering, but a virtual community. People created trade items and ran economies based on those trade items. That is how Second Life took off.

I was in one of the early virtual communities, and you had all kinds of things like publications about your nation and proposed legislation. It was fascinating.

[UesugiKenshin]

To me, the most fun is creating scenarios that others then can play and test new ideas.

Then you could see what would happen in a defined space where two empires who are equally balanced in power and money, but uniquely so by various methodologies, then compete.

Or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6.

Or what if it's a civil situation, like the USA is now? The Democrats are globalists with the money and big tech and the Republicans are nationalists and have the agriculture and the citizens with weapons...and likely 2/3 of the military.

See you can do that in BotE except it is a Rotharian civil war or Good peaceful Terrans vs Terrans who think that is nonsensical.

[UesugiKenshin]

Whatever BotE is, it can always always be about something more than empire building and conquering. Yes, there always are such fundamental ideological issues that conflict can arise, but it's more interesting to fight when both are powerful. Beating a weaker opponent isn't compelling as any chess player knows only too well.

[UesugiKenshin]

Turn#293

The Omega are attacking former Khaoran inhabited sectors that are still populated with them. Then focusing on Rotharians. 68% of intel points are allocated to Heyoun military sabotage. Doom for them is inevitable. They cannot attack and only get weaker each turn as 3-4 of their ships get stolen.

Terraforming en mass progresses across to the north. It matches forward and denies the Heyoun places to grow from. Their sphere of influence dwindles.

It's a gain of about 10 inhabited sectors per turn, slow and steady. I could make lots of colony ships, but I'm in no hurry.

Three Vi dreadnoughts have been dispatched with seven transports each. That means 21 inhabited sectors can be invaded. I can load veterans from some earlier attacked regions as their morale is high enough and stable, and repeat their efforts in the north.

[UesugiKenshin]

When you have so many inhabited sectors, each turn gets longer and longer as there is so much infrastructure to build and rush along.

Making more colony ships or organizing new fleets or making 21 new transports would make turns double to 2 hours instead of an hour.

The BotE economy makes the highest profit when I rush everything, so if I didn't and just grew at a natural pace, the treasury would evaporate. It is at 28 million now with obviously more being spent per turn than gained as the most profit is from rushing ships which inflates raw material prices.

What eventually happens is the last enemy empire, the Heyoun, just implodes. Then their members abandon them. Then I could just progress without rushing and things slow down as no genuine threats exist as minor races, even with starships and fleets, cannot leave their inhabited sectors except to evade.

Most minor races are not space faring so they are defenseless. They lack the money to put up a fight at this point. They can't afford planetary defenses in general.

[UesugiKenshin]

If I spent six months and made not only the major races, but minor races properly defensible, everything would change...for the better. It would be TOUGH going in. You probably have to bombard or use extra ground forces. You likely get attacked.

[UesugiKenshin]

The Rotharians are still alive in a crumbling defenseless empire of 22 inhabited sectors. Imagine Rome with the barbarians at the gates, and that is the indignity the Rotharians likely feel. I have all their ships and 10% of 1.5 million intel points keeps it that way. Their task is to just keep their economy going so they stay alive and repair infrastructure.

[UesugiKenshin]

Don't be shy if you are a new member to the forum. Someone could load the advanced save game turn#300 as the Omega and put all the intel points to internal security and play an entirely different game. Then do a sequential after action report (AAR). There is no wrong way to play. You learning how to play helps new people.

I have an old tablet and stream Pandora on that or play playlists on Youtube or play mp3s through for player. Then play on another new tablet. That way, there is no risk of BotE being laggy. I can do both on the new tablet, but why risk being unable to properly save a game? I don't want to waste an hour replaying.

Believe it or not, I was playing BotE on a Nook which is really an ereader not a tablet, but it works. It does not handle really advanced turns with thousands of ships well. It works, but just okay. One admirable aspect of BotE is it has such low requirements. You do need a minimum 7" tablet if you are a big guy. It is too frustrating clicking on tiny lines then as it is smaller.

[UesugiKenshin]

I could make many advanced save games of all different configurations, but they take at least 2-4 weeks. My initial plan was to just offer 10 advanced save games that blotunga could include in subsequent patches. That would make far less frustrated players.

But now, I want to offer some alternatives to enhance the game. In my opinion, they will be vastly better. I still don't have a simple way to offer a mod that won't confuse people when loading it. A batch file might work and substitute files written to the Android root directory? It is a valid alternative.

My hope is blotunga returns and adds:
1. Mod loading like unciv.
2. Editors working within BotE for Android.
3. Multiplayer
4. A genuine scenario editor
5. A map editor
6. A save game editor
7. A mechanism to add storylines through subplots that either help by adding like random events do, or just are spice and flavor so it seems like BotE is a dynamic galaxy.
8. Named characters, mostly for commanding space battles and ground invasions. They can wildly succeed or wildly fail all on a continuum and so the then affect things like governance of inhabited sectors or the outcome of future battles.

[UesugiKenshin]

Storyline example
"Little Kara Summers' parents are soldier astronauts. Grandma says they are brave. She has never known them. They send video messages back, but they are a thousand light-years away. She has no idea how far that is. Grandma says when she gets married and has her own babies, they may come back. It makes her cry."

Things like this have no effect on the game, but make the game seem poignant and players understand the cost to advance science and to grow empires and lots of other elements. Maybe their star is dying and their inhabited sector is doomed. Maybe her parents die aboard ship in a space battle. Maybe a space walk to deal with meteorite damage kills them. Maybe they die in a ground invasion. Maybe they are defenders and the Cartare enslave them. Maybe they escape and get Kara and create a new life on another inhabited sector colony. Maybe Kara's parents are space pirates. Maybe they are part of the underworld and had to leave a planet to avoid jail. They are saving up money so Kara and her grandma can have the passage on a colony ship and join them.

[UesugiKenshin]

Imagine playing 700 turns and every turn up to five of those fire. Some are one shots. Some are sequential. Some are helpful with clues. Some give you advantages. Some lower attribute values like morale.

[UesugiKenshin]

Even though you might think the Cartare are brutes, what if you have read 200 such messages about their citizens and soldier astronauts and leaders. You start to understand their culture. You find that you like some of them. It humanizes them.

Maybe there are valid reasons that the Cartare act they way they do. It does not justify their actions, but maybe there is more to the story. Maybe they are acting out of revenge in some cases as they suffered at the hands of some now enslaved?