Your first time playing the game

[UesugiKenshin]

I suggest the first time you play BotE that you read through the manual. Then load the game with an idea which empire to play. I suggest the Khaoron. The Cartare are easier but they are without honor.

Click and hold down on each empire that you do not want to play And they will turn red. I suggest that only the one you wish to play is turned on for the first three games. Then play all the way through to at least 400+ turns. More is better so you understand the game mechanics.

Create a massive map of 40x40 with 100% star systems (it won't be as it's misleading). Then use 30% as the minor races meaning 30% of the systems will be populated by them. Turn down the stellar anomalies to 5%. Set the anomalous entities to zero as some are overpowered and so the game is very unbalanced. Leave the goals and the random events so they say disabled. That is misleading. It means click this to disable it, so they are already enabled.

I would play on the highest rate of expansion and the easy level. That will allow you the greatest range. Green is short range. Yellow is medium range. Red is long range. Your ships have various engines and so ranges of travel from your home sector.

The default is to have 2 minor races as neighbors. One you can diplomatically negtiate with. The other will hate you. If you send low powered colony ships into their system, it might annoy them, but not anger them. As your long range scanning improves you will understand what I mean.

Use your scouts to determine what systems have class M planets and make colony ships to colonize them.

Now your range is frustrating but realize every sector of space is 20 light years away, so an enormous distance. Make some transports and send them out to the edge that they can travel. Then click on them on multiple turn, and create an outpost. This takes awhile.

It's very frustrating at first as you lack enough credits to build what you want. Famine is always a problem. Make sure you have surplus in case of this. Make more farms than you think you will require.

This next part is an exploit, but so what! The point is to have fun in the beginning, not play strictly and in my opinion unfairly. After colonizing past the range due to the outpost, save your game. Now scrap an outpost. A small fortune will be in your treasury on the next turn. Use that to accelerate your building program. Rinse repeat.

Slowly your range will increase as you: build transports, then outposts, then colonize further, then scrap outposts, etc. To me this is teaching you wrong, but the point is to play without the unfair sabotage, the AI exploiting the very same process, and to understand what the program can do. BotE has a steeper than normal learning curve.

You then have some breathing room to accelerate research, create resource routes as you will be constantly short of titanium, and will start diplomatic negotiations to start trade. This means finding the systems that have abundant titanium by building up mining. Then you make a small profit.

Meanwhule you are making extra colony ships and setting new systems. But also learning how to terraform. And you terraform your own systems, but to improve diplomatic attitude with your neighbirs who trade with you. Eventually you offer friendship, then cooperation, then alliances, then membership.

Every time you have a system, click on manager,then click the enable buttons to turn these off to disable. Now the manager will redeploy workers to the right area so you won't have to micromanage which is very annoying at the start. You are trying to build up from the home system to ten systems, and organizing everything, getting new members in your empire, and not fighting...yet.

Your first battle will be with the neighbor that just won't get along. They probably declare war, and you pick one that has no yellow circle with a black question mark icon. That means they have a fleet in orbit, likely very overpowered, and you stand no chance whatsoever to defeat them. Instead you build several cruisers, and the one with the better experience you should designate as the flagship. Then have the other cruiser join them. Now make about 4-6 transports. Now make 2 stronger troops per those transports so 12 stronger troops, hopefully level 3+. Then load two per transport ship.At that point you form a big fleet of all of all of the cruisers and transports. Then invade that system of that irritating warlike neighbor. And attack.

You likely conquer them on the next turn. The Khayrin don't like naked bombardment UNLESS ground troops are involved to take the planet.

There's a lot more to it, but that is what you do in bold strokes playing as the Khayrin. You try to absorb the malleable one and fight the warlike ones.

It will get harder and harder, and you are just learning how to deploy vessels and troops over longer and longer distances as your range improves.

That is nothing like what you do when you have real enemies as when the major races are turned on, they will declare war, probably about turn #300+. You got to work up to it. The difficulty is moving to intercept them and making sure they don't successfully build outposts by sending LOTS of transports into your borders.

Moving to intercept is guessing where that rascal opponent is headed. If it's a transport, then he's there to build an outpost and try to keep doing so until it's a starbase. They are way way overpowered and hard to get rid of.

For most people, this methodology will best benefit them learning how to play. The sabotage is just insanely hard unless modded. Winning then is intentionally NOT playing as the Khaoron but as the Cartare or Omega Alliance or the Rotharians. They get nearly insurmountable modifiers on espionage and sabotage so it's very unfair. I would only play with one opponent so probably pick the Khaoron as they stink at espionage and sabotage.

You could even just leave the intelligence points alone the first 5 times you play at least 600+ turns. That would be more fair as they don't stand a chance sabotaging you.

[UesugiKenshin]

It really makes no sense to have more than 3 empires in a game as the map even on the largest setting is too small. Many sabotaging enemies will make you want to throw your hands up in disgust. As the Rotharians, you can handle the Terrans and Khaoran. With one more, probably not.

The game is great but badly needs balancing. If I can figure out how to give instructions on how to download replacement buildings, and maybe ships and troops, so you can recompile the apk (not important at this time), there will be a far easier game with much more credits and balanced security buildings for LATE in the game probably after turn #600+, maybe even 900+. Then the Romulans have balanced troops too. They seem way too weak.

Then maybe as the mod will be easier....you learn tactics and strategy. Then having learned way more, you remove the modded apk or save it elsewhere, and redownload the original BotE. Then maybe the game seems reasonable having learned more.

[UesugiKenshin]

You turn on random events, or anomalous entities to see what they do, but likely as a new player, you do NOT want these on.

Anomalous entities are overpowered and should happen after so much time, say in turn #400 as most can severely damage your vessel.

Random events are invariably awful on your ships and systems. That's all you need when trying to learn the game.

It's peculiar as Star Trek had the crew constantly studying stellar phenomena as an aspect of cartography. It was then a plot device within episodes. However exploring them have highly deleterious effects. There should be a methodology of studying these to gain experience. You are going to avoid these for a long time as a new player.

[UesugiKenshin]

Create a new game and turn off all the other empires except the Khaoran. Set the map for 40x40 at 100 % stars, 30 % minor races, disable random events, 1% stellar anomalies, no anomalous entities (alien monsters), and disable all victory goals. Set it at normal expansion. It should be way easier. Combat likely will not start until turn #300.

I'm testing BotE in various ways to find the best methodology for a tutorial at the beginner level. My thinking is in this mode, the AI has no victory goals and thus may not be so hostile.

To hail a minor race in a safer manner, set your scout's standing orders to avoid. When you get in a battle you did not itend as you waned to make first contact, go into the battle menu, and details, and click avoid, then go back, and at the main prompt hit "hail". They may hail you instead of attacking.

I don't think this is explained very well elsewhere. It's cumbersome and unfair for beginners.

[UesugiKenshin]

As you get comfortable with the game by playing to at least turn 300, then you should be able to avoid the sabotage issues and last until turn #400.

After accomplishing this, read around the forum, but especially read my tactics in the trade section. That should work and should vastly help your economy.

Read the minor race database topic. Make notes on which aliens have large fleets. They are on the same planets so you know where to be careful. Your goal is to win them over so they join your empire and you gain their fleets.

[UesugiKenshin]

The answer is, "yes you can colonize a planet in a system that lacks an M class planet. And so, those irritating systems devoid of M class planets, can be colonized."

Start doing that.

You will have varying issues with agriculture under such harsh conditions. It can be terraformed quickly in a few turns (P as I recall) or may seemingly take forever. It's all about the quality of the colony ship and the planet class.

Imagine what agriculture would be like on this planet.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iusPorC4wZE
The planet from the Aliens film has a hostile environment and indigenous lifeforms resistant to dispel.

[UesugiKenshin]

By playing in sandbox mode, and turning off all empires but your own, then since the minor races actually have significant numbers of vessels (but inadequate unit composition), then you can have a perfectly enjoyable experience especially in a maxed out galaxy for weeks of game play.

If you turn on a major race with subterfuge ability, only turn on one. Many are very irritated with them by turn 300-350+. Sabotage is annoying. It's better to be the major race with subterfuge like the Omega as you can scrap the starbase for an easier start and then after turn #300 when meeting say the Khaoran,then by building intelligence buildings have very high internal security and so neutralize sabotage.

But if you were the Terrans against the Catare, you would absorb many minor race fleets and so attack them, but they have the highest amount of espionage/sabotage, and could blow up every vessel even if 780 light years away! I'm as serious as a heart attack as every sector is 20 light years away x a maximum 39 sectors away. It strains all credibility.

[UesugiKenshin]

As the Omega or the Terrans, on a 40x40 map at 100% stars and 1 % stellar anomalies, no alien anomalies, but 30% minor race (to 50% as you desire), with the fastest rate of expansion, no random events, and playing sandbox, it took 48 hours of play to explore 1/4 of the map and control 20% of the map.

And it was fun. I could have invaded but chose not to to just survey and especially "recreate the Federation" as the Terrans.

The Omega with scrapping the starbase and all money poured into infrastructure and standard colonization, has a robust economy.

The Terrans have a huge empire with many minor races and fleets but a rough economy as their upkeep costs are high.

There may be benefits to all the major races that more suit your desires besides those two.

[UesugiKenshin]

On that kind of map, you might try a 3rd game where you are the Terrans or Omega and play against the Khaoran.

This 40x40 map seems to be about the size of the alpha and beta quandrants (perhaps a little less). Thus a Terrans, Rotharians, and Khaorans game makes perfect sense.

Strangely enough for turtlers, as the Heyoun have such a mastery of economics plus espionage, a case could be made for generating a large empire that defends, not invades (most of the time). You probably could create such high levels of defense that few could successfully invade. They likely would sabotage you.

They would launch attacks and starbases plus shields, orbital batteries, and minefields would trash their invasion. Then when their fleets are ruined, attack their systems at some point.

But win as the quasi-Ferengi?Ick. "Stupid clothed hue mon woman!"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXDKzUez9M
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WsqhoMrTOQk

The creator of the last video clip is very intelligent and succintly discusses each of the major Star Trek powerful species.

[UesugiKenshin]

If you turned off every major race but one, so playing a sandbox game as above with a maxed out map, try setting the minor races to 90% and so only save 10% for your empire. Then try to absorb the others as the Terrans and fight the hold outs.

That would be a fascinating game. With the Terran's diplomacy so high, set the game settings to eight neighbors. Most will eventually become members in testing on the easy setting.

As the Catare or the Omega, you mght conquer them in the former and subjugate them in the latter by membership and diplomacy in the latter.

Think outside the box.

If you find systems without M class planets, the BotE programming will assign some minor races to say waterworlds, but others might be devoid of life. You could handicap your efforts and only colonize those systems first so making it far harder to colonize.

If you set the game to fast expansion and a sandbox game, your vessels will go further in range than you expect and suddenly very lengthy navigation can be tried and accidental conflict as your vessels drift into systems because you weren't paying attention.

That game would largely be about setting up bases of operation and controlling logistics. Deep thinking is required to muster vessels from very far away across the galaxy to meet up and attack a hold out minor race who doesn't want to join and is hostile.

[UesugiKenshin]

I'm trying a test of the Omega Alliance versus the Khaoran to ensure the economy has a demand for mined material.

It's 40x40 at 100% stars, 95% populated by minor races so 143 minor races might show up (it's a function of how many empty sectors are generated. No crazy random events nor anomalous aliens. All victory goals are turned off. I had no trouble finding systems within the yellow zone with M class planets, but many are uninhabited systems with none so I have been colonizing a new volcanic, an icy planet like Pluto, a barren world, etc.

Such planets will have struggling colonists and prone to trying to avoid famines. Useful systems often have 3-4 backup worlds that are terraformed. These may have only a total of two or one has six.

It's much more challenging and would have been fine as a sandbox game.

As the only subterfuge major race, I can do espionage or sabotage, but I'd rather not.

The rate of expansion is normal. Imagine the AI handling the Khaoran where they can barely colonize. What will they do? Diplomacy and membership? Invasions? Does the AI colonize non M type planets routinely? I don't know.

I wish I could either unveil the map with a cheat (that is very commony used for modding) or see the logfile (something mod teams and beta testers look at to see what the AI is thinking and doing.

Birth of the Empires is a rare gem, but made for thinkers not button mashers. Sure it has technobabble, but genuine science too.

I don't think most realize what this program can do with some minor adjustments in the datafiles or Java settings. It could be spectacular if given the chance plus a little marketing.

If I were modding this, I would have special botany labs where plants are grown in unique ways rather than standard agriculture. Have underground housing where the heat of the ground is maintained or serves as a heat source like geothermal. With such rare divergent planet characteristics, then science and technology (theoretical and applied) would supply enormous adaptation tools and ingenuity to cope.

Imagine how little sunlight reaches Pluto. So artificial light at the proper wavelengths and intensity would be utilized to grow very different plants than what we used to. It might be easier to create food with replicators from organic chemical building blocks. There might be undergrown pools with basic amino acids that are harvested. Lipids extracted in some way. Obvious recycling of wastes. Bacteria creating organic materials.

The building datafile allows special buildings on certain class planets so highly unusual buildings would likely exist granting unique modifiers to give the colonists a chance. All of those details would be fascinating plus be the backdrop of an abnormal unexpected life on alien planets. For a writer, especially a science writer, it would be compelling hard science fiction.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_science_fiction

[UesugiKenshin]

If you terraform say a P class planet and colonize it as there are a dearth of M class planets in systems, it's important that you first check that titanium is present. If not, of course you can't have a basic mine for titanium. And even if nearby planets have titanium, then those resources are not available for mining when terraformed. What you have to do is send a colony ship, terraform that planet, and colonize it. Then the BotE programming will allow basic mining to be built to extract titanium.

There is nothing easy or straight forward about nontraditional colonization by terraforming a non-M class planet. BUT then a multitude of empty systems are available to colonize and that entirely changes the game.

What I can't positively know beyond a shadow of doubt is "Can the AI major races exploit this tactic?" This is a supposition, but I predict they are not smart enough to do so.

[UesugiKenshin]

When you are playing, watch the Change to Upkeep ratio and try to keep it at least 3 showing decent cashflow. Ifyou stay on top of bit, you can get 10+ or higher and so your economy is thriving.

That is important as mining sales may slump and so, you don't want to just give away your ore and crystals that you worked so hard to make levels of mines for.

It is much more difficult to play with many more minor races that normal (which is 30%). I'm playing with them controlling 95% of the planets, but this is a misnomer as that's 95% of the systems with M class planets. By alternative terraforming colonization, I am having no diffficuty making colonies. It may mean sending more than a single colony ship to that system though.

[UesugiKenshin]

This game is excellent for any serious science fiction fan, especially those who have a science background. That technical ability will likely stimulate trying unusual tactics.

Anyone with a strong business or accounting background would probably like it too. What they would likely be doing is looking for the least expensive building upgrades that cost less based upon how many turns they require. Some are bargains, but only an astute financially inclined person would intuit this. Say a practically minded business owner would spot these right away as they have monthly issues making payroll and staying open unless they can manage that routinely.

The majority of your time is trying to save every penny, not in a miserly way, but in the most cost effective way, so that eventually you have extra to build vessels for combat. Diplomacy is far more cost effective.

To get to the military aspects takes a tremendous amount of time to build the economy high enough to afford it as then your Change to Upkeep ratio is small.

[UesugiKenshin]

Some upgrades may take in excess of 50+ turns, when the player is trying their best to only have less than 10 turns upgrades. So naturally you create as much industry as plausible as more factories don't help if your population is low as those factories just sit empty.

You are slowly building the population up, but not too fast as that will induce famines as faming can't keep up.

After a few turns, that price for the upgrade that takes 50+ may fall from 3,000 credits to a more manageable number. So you compare and contrast which upgrade is less expensive but significantly shaves down the turn times required. Then consistently doing that, makes your economy very strong as profitability goes way up and or increases the research rate so better upgrades are available.