Advanced Save Game Six Empires Huge Map and Minor Races

[UesugiKenshin]

If I was developing multiplayer games, I would start small with a one on one match on a 10*10 map and go to turn #400, no security buildings, perhaps no minor aliens, and build up a sizeable force, say 500 ships and 100 level 6 troops and 30 transports.

So the two wargamers would begin in turn#401.

Perhaps two wargamers could at least have fun for 3 x 8 hour sessions, but that would be up to them as they might play far longer. I presume by 24 turns (1 turn per hour), one side would be winning, but with it all built up and depending on how they configure fleets, it could be decisive in 4 turns if they commit forces in an intense way. If it's series of coordinated attacks, it could go the entire 24 turns.

It's very difficult to schedule multiplayer over many weeks.

Just as chess has a clock, the fun way is spend an hour looking at the assembled forces with a timer. You both would be in analyze mode and trying to assess where you're strong and where you are weak and where you would attack if playing the other side?

Now they have one hour to deploy. End turn and watch the fireworks. Then do the same timer with some set number. This isn't like chess and moving a single piece. You might take the whole time just to psych out your opponent.
"Man, he is taking the whole hour. I better be ready for anything."

There is no timer in war. So you could flip a coin and that person prepares the ambush, and the 2nd player has to respond quickly and cannot take the whole hour as they had a sneak attack. That is the whole point that your forces would be in disarray.

BotE is exponentially harder than chess.

[UesugiKenshin]

Setting up six of those, using the beta multiplayer, would be good testing for blotunga, so the least you could do is post feedback and do an AAR. Beginners could learn from that. That is useful data.

When the map is bigger, the dynamic changes and it isn't as intense as you are further away, but it is harder as now you have to plan just getting there with waves of attack that are relevant. Get their too late, and your first wave is screwed.

[UesugiKenshin]

The original BotE had a very useful feature. You could save the game, and then somehow load and play as another major race. If we could do that now, then though cumbersome, play as every major race, especially using the commodity manipulation system, and build up a scenario at turns #300 or #400 or whatever. A modder could design a scenario. Players could have been playing as the Cartare and then just switch to the Khaoran.

The rationale back then was to handicap a major race. I want to do the opposite and make all the major races equally strong in some way. You could leave the security buildings alone, just influence it so they are not built so early.

It still needs more research, more subclasses, and delayed security builds though to be ten times better.

In the original BotE, the save games could be read and altered too as players used to alter the map data. To properly mod, we desperately need to be able to understand and change the save game data. We could build maps. We could alter treasuries. We could change acceptance in diplomacy and create treaties. We could build infrastructure and add ships and troops.

Doing that is quite ordinary in modding.

[UesugiKenshin]

The way it is now to mod takes an inordinate amount of time. I have never modded like this before. It is brute force modding and trying to do so in an errorless way for months. That is weird. It is not about cheating, but making something creative to benefit any player.

BotE will really shine when the AI is empowered or when six tough respectable empires exist with large at-the-ready experienced veteran starships exist and strong troops. There is no way the AI can beat the human player now, not with profit and not with properly designed starships. The AI does not buy and sell commodities. The AI does not use the shipdesigner. Certainly the AI does not invade. If troops are on transports because a modder configured them for the AI empires, what happens then? I bet they use them.

The AI does not properly make fleets. As yet, I haven't discussed how to do this fully as fleets can have 4+ of the same class ships or more and that can confer up to a 30% improvement in combat, so a rather significant advantage. But the AI likely can't do that, but a modder could make an extremely strong game of late game fleet battles.

Those giant fleet battles likely will never happen unless a modder configured them as you would need 2000+ ships and millions in the treasury which is one reason I am experimenting to push the envelope and see what BotE is capable of.

[UesugiKenshin]

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

Mixed Fleet Bonuses
in general: + 5% damage bonus for each additional ship class after the first, in detail:

1 ship class - any number of ships 0% (= no bonus)
2 ship classes - at least 2 ships per ship class 10%, otherwise 5%
3 ship classes - at least 2 ships per ship class 15%, otherwise 5%
4 ship classes - at least 3 ships per ship class 20%, otherwise 15% or 5%
5 ship classes - at least 4 ships per ship class 25%, otherwise 20%, 15% or 5%
6 ship classes - at least 5 ships per ship class 30%, otherwise 25%, 20%, 15% or 5%
etc.

[UesugiKenshin]

Diversity of ships by many types in sufficient numbers can confer a lot of damage as much as 30%.

There are lots of little things like that in the German wiki by using command ships and experienced crews.

These elements are mostly hidden as I doubt many have extensively read the wiki and these are expensive in practice and late stage events as only if one has sizable treasuries and the raw materials to make them, not to mention to devastating effect if customized in the ship designer.

Rather than this being rare, I want all players to have the opportunity of commanding such fleets if they desire to do so. Otherwise, they could play for years and never see this happen. Then you have a battle of titans rather than a ship vs ship battle.

[UesugiKenshin]

http://beloko.com/hw.html
This is a beta Homeworld homage port to Android for anyone hungry to do any actual fleet tactics.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LEaCqTZdcG8

...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VwBueyqGZHk
This is Homeworld Emergence running through Exagear which works due to software rendering.

[UesugiKenshin]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lFvahxqM1c0
Tool "Lateralus"
Push the envelope...

[UesugiKenshin]

You absolutely don't ever want to use copyrighted material about our favorite tv show. A long time ago, there was such a mod for GalCiv 2 with accurate ship models and it was so much fun because you could make upgrades. I played as the Borg and devasted the galaxy. Later there was a GalCiv3 mod too. Both taken down in every way on moddb and nexus. Immense amounts of work just vaporized. Don't even go there. Nobody will host it.

It's peculiar because the Third Age wargame mods still exist.

One old school way was pushing mods to users through torrents. Die hard modders would do that.

You can't even find a good old youtube video showing very much gameplay. Even the sound effects were authentic. It is highly selective as other games have no issues and others get completely hassled.

[UesugiKenshin]

Much of what I am doing now as the superpower of the galaxy is the following.
1. I go in and attempt to persuade the minor races who are unaligned to accept membership with a perk of 5000 credits. The alternative is to lose up to 50% of their sector population. So it is a no-brainer as it is a binary decision of utopia versus carnage. Few take me upon it. Sometimes I offer twice. Two accepted.

2. So you would think I would have issues, but that isn't true. I win 100% of the combats and haven't lost any soldiers or starships. That artificially boosts empire wide morale, so rapidly in these newly conquered spots, between rushing constructions for 100% of buildings, then at least 90% of inhabited sectors have 200 morale.

3. Really the AI for diplomacy is nonsensical as those devoid of shipmaking and special defensive buildings should automatically 90% of the time capitulate as they have a 0% chance of holding out. I took out the former Khaoran homesector and I expected them to resist. The same happened with the Rotharian homesector. But why in the world would some puny minor race with bad infrastructure and no defenses resist???

4. Why? The AI is very poor at construction as likely my commodity manipulation is making mining unprofitable for them, but grotesquely profitable for the Omega. Their construction is piecemeal as they immediately colonize one planet and build everything and likely cannot rush construction. On the other hand, the Omega terraform the entire sector, then colonize, so automatically a LOT of infrastructure is made then they rush all construction.

5. This means my primary task is remedying all infrastructure construction in conquered inhabited sectors. That is taking up the majority of my time. I'm properly managing as a sector-wide planner. I go in and troubleshoot in a couple minutes everything that is wrong about what has been constructed, and putting that conquered sector back on track.

6. Then doing all the military deployment to move soldiers on transports to do ground invasions and commanding with fleets from space in orbit for newly harassed inhabited sectors that I wish to conquer. I'm pushing northward incrementally.

7. I'm finishing up scouting the northernmost regions.

8. There is a monumental amount of terraforming that is on-going with 4-5 colonized per turn.

9.Rushing standard sector production and profit taking....sometimes making 5 million a turn, but spending so much that my treasury is slowly declining down into the 26 million range.

Last turn, 16 Heyoun's ships were stolen and maybe 20% had to be repaired. Then I bolster my fleets with these.

[UesugiKenshin]

I want to create a LOT of buildings that I think would benefit the people, but it is rather pointless as I have a solid 200 morale now. This is why I want morale to be raised up to 300. I could push that really high just to be beneficent. Why not with this infinite wealth? Why not do everything possible to create perfection?

I think you could have transcendence linked to extremely high morale and finishing extra research levels.

If I played again as the Omega, I would want their buildings at high levels to do everything that can only happen with absorbing minor races, but NOT conquer minor races. I'm not sure an Omega would want inferior species.

[UesugiKenshin]

The Omega want a superior host to the Da'unor, however that is accomplished. Ideally they don't even need to take over a conscious sentient entity at all, so create a perfect species genetically engineered or an android. Taking over minor races, even most major races is a distraction that does not facilitate this goal. It is a waste of resources to conquer that benefits the conquered more than the Omega. The conquered attain utopia and the Omega manage utopias. It is a thankless job.

65% of the galaxy are utopias and the Omega are no closer to their ultimate goal.

[UesugiKenshin]

Most 4x games benefit the malevolent which is strange. This was very obvious with GalCiv2 especially with the Star Trek mod playing as the Borg.

That is what this feels like playing as the Omega, not like the Dominion.

The Borg try to absorb whatever is useful to refine the Collective to be better. I think the Omega would realize they are superior, and absorbing minor and major races is just dilution and so not an admirable goal. This is why the Omega might ultimately be like the AI and wholesale bombard and recolonize the sector. That is abominable.

[UesugiKenshin]

The Omega would admire that some minor races can shapeshift or use psionic illusions to use military sabotage to steal starships, assassinate troops, and destroy facilities. But even better, they would just possess unfortunate minor and major races through symbiosis, so easily infiltrate and be undetectable. That is unless scanning for a parasite.

[UesugiKenshin]

In no way does the Omega need to conquer anyone.
1. The minor races are not threats.
2. The major races are not threats.
3. The Omega has limitless mining resources.
4. The Omega have limitless money.
5. The Omega have all research.
6. The Omega have the strongest customized ships.
7. The Omega lack a few better troops versus the Cartare and Rotharians, but that has not played a role whatsoever.

Conquering some minor races bolstered in a minor way starship composition. It also benefitted research early on. It helped get that military sabotage percentage rather high.

You get almost NOTHING conquering major races. You cannot make their starships or troops and do not gain their abilities. You get some buildings to boost attributes, but it is irrelevant by then as it happens after turn #480.