Advanced Save Game Six Empires Huge Map and Minor Races

[UesugiKenshin]

When I am essentially creating scenarios for you folks, I play very conservatively ordinarily especially the last 25 turns as typically the saved game is spectacular and I want you to have the best time. So I second guess every decision, "Wait, would it be better this way? What if I do this?" That makes every turn length very long.

It's good to have cash on hand, plus ore and crystals to sell, plus have so MUCH infrastructure completed, but that million mark then makes you want to preserve it as a cushion or a nest egg.

War is expensive but not about nest eggs as you want to throw overwhelming numbers and crush the enemy. So I literally spend 300,000 each turn in one way or another. Buying whole starships in a single turn like a TZADE HEAVY CRUISER.
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... ga_Allianz

[UesugiKenshin]

But I then manipulate the commodities market and get 325,000 back or more. I was making 100,000 a turn and jumped on some opportunities.

[UesugiKenshin]

If I can't get permission to mod this, I could try creating a campaign by brute force playing as all six empires on a giant galactic map.

There is a beta multiplayer apk. I hesitate to do that as it might change. It would take maybe 3-4 months or as much as six months to create a turn #400 campaign. It would be a huge time investment, but what I would do is intentionally not build intelligence agencies or even actively try to gain minor alien race members.

I would just establish peace and build aggressively. So then, multiplayers would have a scenario and single players would too. It would be perfectly balanced, but spending a half a year on an unfinished version does not seem like wisdom.

It would be very thrilling to play and probably tough as the AI would be very empowered. Their economy would be very established and any might win.

Then the player would race to protect themselves from sabotage. That needs to be solved first and that is what the Balancer mod will do.

[UesugiKenshin]

Turn#282
I went back and reset all the inhabited systems in the manager to refocus on research and internal security points due to obvious Cartare diplomatic sabotage. That put internal security from 250,000 back to 500,000 and now 804,000.

It's a shame and a lost opportunity as the Karrorr have a good dreadnought class but they declared war. The Thremdomas are cooperative (but we lack a treaty) when they were getting close to devoted. They have some good fighters. The Levans still are getting along, but are only at neutral status and we have a cooperative treaty. They have destroyers and heavy destroyers.
I probably will have to spend about 75,000 to get them as members. It's money well spent, but irritating as I was so close prior.

The Omega know many minor races, but many have already declared for one empire. That means another 75,000 to gain them and they lack starships but all confer advantages.

I'm trying to remedy the diplomatic mess wrought probably by the Cartare.

Both the Heyoun and Cartare are outwardly friendly, but the Omega do not have a non-aggression pact with them anymore, but they do have an alliance with the Terrans. A war will eventually happen given I am aggressively taking their claims on territories.

The Omega have 134 inhabited systems. They are scientifically advanced such that they are nearly 5x the average, and 4x the average everywhere else. They are 25% through with level 9 special tech so you probably will begin doing research at level 10. Also try just made the first Vi class dreadnought. It's a great ship but has a short range. You want at least a midrange dreadnought to act as a flagship. I dispatched a fleet to Heracletes to guard that sector, and sent the Heracletes destroyers in to my combat training center to get expeience.

Also, the Storgor joined so I send all their ships in for combat retraining too.

The Terrans and Heyoun have 40 inhabited systems.
The Cartare have 26 inhabited systems.

The turns are quite lengthy as this advanced save game is very complex now as all three empires now can use sabotage. But I am restricting sabotage so I don't cause a diplomatic incident for whoever plays the save game.

See I am unconcerned about the Khaoran, but I am concerned what happens if the Rotharians and the Terrans join forces with the Cartare.

The Omegas are totally badasses right now, but the ships need to be redesigned. That will be your first main task and it is quite complicated. You will likely have a million as a cushion so you can create much more expensive ships as you have a substantial fleet now. You are making level 6 Special units which are powerful robotic tanks. The Omega have many level 5 troops. I have started internment camps everywhere so troops get combat experience training.

[UesugiKenshin]

While anyone should try playing this and obviously will win, most turns approaching #300 are not at all this complicated. This is what happens when most things are turned on.

This should not be your first time playing BotE as you might spend 45 minutes to an hour making decisions per turn.

[UesugiKenshin]

Turn #283 early
It appears the Rotharians are in the northeast corner meaning the Khaoran (yet to be revealed are in the northwest corner.

Why do I build so much redundancy? This is a good question with a peculiar answer. Government construction causes inflation of natural resources. Inflation is the wise player's friend to manipulate resource prices.

One ideally would analyze the population max in a sector and based on the actual population and required work, then anticipate construction not infrastruture. But you do not do that, as you want your economy as hot as possible, then if you overbuilt, to scrap it. It is incredibly wasteful government spending, but maximizes your economy in every test I have done.

Sadly, unlike most strategy games, scrapping of infrastructure seemingly does not get recycled. A Viking pillaging strategy is to ruthlessly scrap sectors you cannot hold, and running off with the plunder. That is not possible in BotE.

Perhaps wisely so that such plundering does not occur as it would be terribly expensive to rebuild.

But it's ironic that such massive rebuilding might make you millions through commodity price manipulation.

At the highest levels, you only need 4 mines of each resource in a sector. But that is at turn #700 which is over 400 turns away.

See if your population averaged 30 billion, that would be okay, but what does a player do when the whole sector has 7 to 10 billion? Well it's dumb, but you overbuilt and then scrap too.

This is why I want to mod the population limits to be routinely higher and for resources to be frequently found as I do NOT subscribe to a paradigm of galactic scarcity. If that existed, then interstellar travel would never happen.

[UesugiKenshin]

For game design, scarcity of arable land on a map drives war and conflict. That is land that will support agriculture like crops and livestock and fodder. That includes tree crops like acorns. Coastal lands produce vast marine life and in history, all great civilizations in ancient times were connected to large rivers so fishing. Both together spawned trade far before roads existed.

But wild game and wild edible plants also can be gathered. I actually am an experienced bushcrafter and promote ancestral skills.

Here the issue. Agriculture and gathering wild edibles would be plausibly irrelevant as food may be replicated, thus not grown and subject to weather and infestation and plant and animal disease.

So scarcity of arable land may be irrelevant. Especially in the Balancer mod from level 15+, space platforms that rotated to create gravity and weather means arable land is even more irrelevant.

Scarcity of natural resources may be irrelevant as if there is asteroid mining, IMMENSE riches are waiting to be found and probably would occur on moons. And molecular replication might just as easily used to replicate finished products, not just natural resources, thus eliminate all the waste.

Pollution would plummet as a big issue is ground water pollution from mining effluent. That fluid is toxic to aquatic life, poisons the soil, and would leach into the aquifers.

So while scarcity is a game design element to promote artificial conflict due to competition, it may not actually exist in reality.

[UesugiKenshin]

Would BotE be boring if the AI had plenty of resources and room to grow? I don't think so. Everyone loves watching a space battle, but what percentage of science fiction shows are space battles? 5% probably as the more you show them, the less impact they have.

In fact, if you want the AI to be powerful, as it can't play like a human being, you can do two things.

1 You write code called campaign scripts so the AI can spawn an invasion fleet as they may never create a good fleet that is diverse and experienced with veterans, right?

2. Your difficulty levels give better research and economic benefits to the AI.

If the AI has better sectors that are richer, they have more money in their treasuries, and the sector is full of defenders too.

[UesugiKenshin]

BotE is so well written that I think it poses philosophical questions to intelligent players. BotE can be enjoyed by anyone, but it is made for thinkers...like future intelligentsia.

I think BotE could have rich potential missions in the diplomatic dialogue where players roleplaying as malevolent empires could exploit situations, but altruistic players could strive to help less advanced species in kindness and mercy.

Imagine how wonderful a kid's version of BotE would be where the AI helped the human children and teenagers who are playing. See that is an admirable goal. It would be exactly like the film Arrival where extraterrestrials or interdimensional beings are benevolent as they know at some point they will require help. And maybe some other species helped them too.

BotE does not have to be competitive to succeed. Every wise parent would love a game like BotE where young people learn about economics and strategy but also altruism and compassion.

Millions would play that game as it's not just about playing war. The AI would have a priority to be helpful to some players to help them be entertained and to learn.

[UesugiKenshin]

With this advanced turn#300 save game, you can rule the galaxy if you want, or you can be the wisest species who helps others too as some minor species struggle...and so does the major species too at times.

If you get so powerful early, at some point by turn#700, you would be of such extraordinary caliber as to be legendary heroic figures. You would be demigods, not mere mortals.

Would you as the Omega and being godlike then be concerned with semi-intelligent species? You would respect them, but benignly as they are like immature children not opponents anymore.

Especially with the Balancer mod, where technology keeps going to fulfill a thousand turns, some species would be at most minor irritations. Some would bully others, and you would stop them. Or ignore them. You would approach omnipotence.

[UesugiKenshin]

When modding good strategy games, the AI can have a tone and so has priorities. So they may not be warlike and be annoyed to have to fight and defeat you. Others are warrior species, but that does not mean they hate you. Maybe in their culture, they realize a life without obstacles is boring. Winning is not important, but conflict reveals one's character and depth of personal sacrifice.

So with some tools, then the opponents are tailored to act with certain motivations, but cognizant that conflict with your race can create a grudge and a bias.
"Well we have so much in common, but they cheated us. They are not worthy of our friendship as they are an exploitative species and without honor."

[UesugiKenshin]

In an immense galaxy, six or even more major species can get along IF most sectors are huge with large amounts of resources and 20 levels of technology.

Would you rather fight puny beings with daggers in tiny ships or with demigods with magnificent starships in fleets?

The latter is far more interesting.

If you can imagine a perfect game, what does winning look like? There is no right or wrong answer as every player has different motivations.

[UesugiKenshin]

Turn #290
I'm still plugging away. Since the Omega have about a million per turn, and they're making 200,000 to 300000 per turn, I'm rushing lots of infrastructure and sending gifts to all the minor races. The effect then is like a massive Rush for every Colonial sector and many minor races have joined in membership. I'm going to do that for the next 10 turns. For some stupid reason the Khaoran attacked at Heracletus, which was insane. The Omega had a 99% chance of winning and they were crushed. Now they're angry that they lost. It was completely pointless except that it showed they are in the northwest corner of the map. So I added 10% for espionage. The America have about 1.2 million in internal security. If I wanted I could start sabotaging but I'm going to let you do that whenever you elect to. I'm going to try to push for peace and stability instead. I sent them an opportunity to do a non-aggression pact. I've noticed in the past that the Khaoran will naturally attack for dumb reasons which is you know possibly like a racial characteristic but it doesn't seem very wise as they will attack regardless of the situation, but they are pugnacious by Nature.

[UesugiKenshin]

By manipulating the Commodities Market, the Omega can consistently keep a million in the treasury, so I don't think the AI can even compete anymore. This is why learning how to manipulate the Commodities Market is crucial to winning the game. You know people may think it's an exploit however I see it as legitimate way an intelligent player can learn how to better operate the economy. You know it took me a couple months to even figure out that that was a possibility. I looked at all possibilities like buying monopolies and you know it took weeks and months to figure out the most efficient way of doing that so I do not believe it's an exploit as it came from extensive work to figure out how to make the system operate consistently across many saved games. So what happens by consistently using the Commodities manipulation is the the profits will consistently grow where instead of a million maintained it'll be 2 million and then it'll be four million, and then it'll be 8 million, and then it'll be 16 million and so forth that are maintained. So as you can see, a clever player can make so much money that it really makes no sense to trade with minor or major aliens. Instead by buying and selling in a single turn, then you can make so much money... it's unbelievable.

What I want to do is mod the game so that there is legitimate trade of finished products instead of commodities from mining. Historically trade and the loss of trade income is what ends wars because so much profit is being lost in the economy while waging war is horrendously expensive.

[UesugiKenshin]

Birth of the Empire's is more than a mere game, one realizes why playing it, it's a simulation posing many philosophical questions on the nature of War, on scarcity causing conflict leading to war, on what computer AI are programmed to do in order to stimulate and entertain the player etc. I do not subscribe to the idea of scarcity in a galaxy so immediately one has to question the nature of War and what is the impetus of for war.