Advanced Save Game Six Empires Huge Map and Minor Races

[UesugiKenshin]

It is a shame that you can communicate without being delayed as that time period creates dread due to fear of the unknown.

Lovecraft wrote cosmic horror where bizarre otherworldly beings dispassionately crushed human beings for their own nefarious purposes which is like John Carpenter's The Thing. They may be 100% hostile.

Trust in human relationships is gained slowly by commonality and shared experiences.

In BotE, gifts and bribes are the mechanism of building trust through credits and ore and crystals with deritium having the strongest effect.
"I trust you so much, that I am giving you the very essential rare component to making starships which could threaten my people."

But it happens in stages based upon the preponderance of shared attributes between those two societies.

[UesugiKenshin]

A new major race could have the same kind of diplomatic power as the Terrans, but be entirely duplicitous. They inspire a dangerous sort of trust that beguiles a minor or major race.

[UesugiKenshin]

BotE really is a game of conquest thus there is no other way to win than crushing the enemy. Every other victory condition is genuinely just halting the game by some arbitrary benchmarks.

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... e=Bote.ini

When a far more interesting set of victory conditions might exist like transcendence from doing all research plus some other benchmarks.

Even the diplomacy victory condition is by a set number of minor races being achieved.

The research victory goal is merely gaining 10 special techs when there are 14, so easily achieved.

And so if you create such victory conditions, then conflict will always happen. It is inevitable, thus you cannot trust the AI for any empires...just as when you play chess, it is based on war and victory.

[UesugiKenshin]

What could be done is every minor race has an artifact that is revealed through difficult excavation. And so all the minor races have to be your members and have all those artifacts excavated, and that unlocks a diplomatic victory.

Some would be bribes, gifts, leading to diplomacy and membership, but others gained by conquering. And they are distributed so quite difficult to attain.

[UesugiKenshin]

If you had transcendence and diplomacy as I have described it by artifact building, and elimination are turned on, the AI might choose transcendence and so there is far less conflict even than diplomacy. BotE might feel entirely different as the AI focuses on very high levels of research.

If we had a campaign editor, then certain empires might have different goals like the Khaoran might be trying to eliminate, and the Terrans might be doing an artifact diplomatic victory, and the Omega are trying to do transcendence. That would greatly alter diplomatic relations.

[UesugiKenshin]

The Khaoran may love to engage in combat to hone their martial ability, but dismiss the need to do actual ground invasions as they do not want to actually manage some minor or major species in that sector. That would be too much like the Cartare and enslavement. They just want to be the finest warriors...not kill civilians. There is a purity to that victory condition.

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

Ship combat victories / Combat
Victories in ship combat

Thus, victory can be achieved through many space battles .

Version 0.81: at least 125, otherwise the number of laps divided into 2.25

Round 200 = 125 wins (minimum)
Round 300 = 133 wins
Round 400 = 178 wins
Round 500 = 222 wins
Round 600 = 267 wins

Suggestion Reginald : Round times round divided 300 (maximum 1000 ??) (or divided 400)

Round 200 = 133 wins (divided 400 = 100 wins)
Round 300 = 300 wins (divided 400 = 225 wins)
Round 400 = 533 wins (divided 400 = 400 wins)
Round 500 = 833 wins (divided 400 = 625 wins)
Round 600 = 1200 wins (divided 400 = 900 wins)

The problem is this should not include colony ships or transports as they may be entirely peaceful, so not legitimate military combat as both are defenseless.

[UesugiKenshin]

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

In English, individuals have a moral code and a people have a standard of shared values labeled ethics. But in BotE that is the moral data.

This affects your morale empire wide by various actions. Don't pick an empire very different than you wish to play or the conflict will arise with large command decisions...as your citizens are upset with your choices.

There are big differences between what the people want in different empires making it extremely difficult for the Terrans to wage an elimination victory condition.

[UesugiKenshin]

Turn #410 75% done.

At this point, the Omega know they can intervene and save lives especially within their sphere of influence as the war will go hot and hundreds of billions of lives may be lost. The Omega have the money to fully expand all infrastructure and create a utopia throughout their borders for sure.

They have so much money and patience, that they can wear down any reticence and it will result in totally protected colonial sector defenses and ground troops such that all will have 100% security. But the price is bending the knee.

The people are not treated cruelly and even the percentage allocated to the military is miniscule as a total percentage. The Omega will build everything which benefits the people and they will never know hunger and every project they want which builds morale will be built. Essentially the new citizens will have wealth and become fanatical as a result.

Or they choose independence and face total uncertainty under the other five empires.

[UesugiKenshin]

No empire can withstand the might of the Omega armada. It is impossible.

This is why random events can be useful to have some disaster befall an empire as the Mongols, no doubt, felt the same way. The Spanish at the height of controlling the vast wealth from the New World felt the same way. As Jerusalem was won back by the crusaders, they felt as pompous, and it did not last.

[UesugiKenshin]

Now it becomes a philosophical struggle.

I can be a little cruel and save the galaxy from a horrendous war, or I can watch from the sidelines and not intervene and death and destruction will occur. Does the loss of a nominal amount of freedom offset the loss of 300 billion lives across the galaxy? What is the ethical thing to do?

I could wait and then the end result would be the Omega save money and get richer and barely flex their muscles and defeat the ones who are cruel as they will all suffer attrition and be easier to defeat. That seems far less ethical.

[UesugiKenshin]

When some minor race resists like the Chamora, and finally agrees, their sector is at abysmal living standards to such a degree that horrible suffering and near famine is their daily experience. Then the Omega are throwing millions at the plethora of critical problems to remediate their horrible domestic leadership.
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... E#Chamorer
They are a proud worthy people, and also an extremely backward undeveloped people. I bet the Omega have invested 40,000 to 50,000 and watched over them so the Cartare would not exploit them, and nothing has improved because their leadership are fools.

Autonomy and self-determination are wonderful goals with enlightened leadership, and not worth a bucket of warm spit when by corrupt leadership.

[UesugiKenshin]

In the Omega's benevolence, they have not raised taxes though they certainly could. Not a single colonial sector pays extra. The pittance received in miniscule taxes does nothing at all to pay for huge complete infrastructure. The entire Omega empire has no delay in any construction. It magically is paid for in single turn increments costing the empire hundreds of accumulated millions. That is the benefit of my commodity manipulation.

[UesugiKenshin]

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... -E#Eptirel
You can't help every minor species like the Eptirel or they will drag down the whole empire's security.

You can spend a fortune helping others and it just is not worth it. I really didn't need to help the Nuumbar, but it was the right thing to do or their entire culture would suffer en masse genocide.

BotE is not a game for simpletons. It is a game for thinkers.

At some point, the Cartare, if left unchecked, will advance on the Eptirel, or the Rotharians or Khaorans will. The Terrans and Heyoun's will treat them fairly. What do the Omega do if the former en masse bombard them into annihilation?

[UesugiKenshin]

BotE can be programmed so one scores the highest based on total population size so whoever spreads the farthest and is the most prolific wins.

Or it could reward acts of kindness where whoever terraform the most and so not only terraforming your empire, but do so across the galaxy gets the highest score.

Or everytime you learn new technology above level 14, then have a score increment, and whoever totally finishes level 20 then wins as the most knowledgeable greatest scientists.

Think outside the box. It could be based on having a devoted score from 100 races or higher, thus popularity, and being beneficent.

Don't you wonder what the AI would do if all of these other goals and scoring is turned on like transcendence? Probably the most interesting game would be where each empire has a different philosophy and so seeks very different goals.

In such an open ended game, where elimination is the most demanding, I doubt the AI would be as hostile, but having learned far more technology, they sure could be extremely efficient at killing if pressed.

[UesugiKenshin]

With a race like the Khaoran, and them wanting to improve their combat skills, then they might actually get very devoted and admire a race who fights them with their starships, yet never invades. It might delight them as every battle is an opportunity to learn.

Then your race understands them when all others do not and they would see you as worthy peers, not as an adversary. And if you fought with them as well so they conquered, but never to take territory, your friendly help proved the deepest unselfish loyalty.

All these other races developed very differently and so while some ethics may be similar, the manner in which they affect diplomacy may be vastly different.

Offering gifts may offend another species as they see it as paternalistic. They see merit as valuable only if they achieve it themselves...and you robbed that from them as now it is easier.