Important Understanding Resource Routing

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Important Understanding Resource Routing

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It's not only crucial that you thoroughly understand resource routing in BotE for practical reasons,but for economic reasons, and so you don't paint yourself in a corner.

As a very young man, really an older teen, I volunteered to paint a porch on a work weekend at a beloved place that was operated by pure altruists. It was in a nature setting and struggled to get by on a miniscule budget, yet over time helped thousands of young people. The only way things got done was through volunteerism and even relatively poor people who volunteered...ended up opening their wallets and even buying the material needed to do projects.

Having never done an actual painting project, but there being no one else willing to do the work, meant the task fell to those few handful of altruists willing to sacrifice time, talent, and treasure to benefit other young people.

Well with zero guidance, I walked out on the screened in porch, and started painting, and was happy about my progress...until it was lunch time and I realized that I could NOT go get lunch, because doing so would ruin the still wet paint as I had painted from the doorways to the far side of the porch,thus there was no way to exit! Dumb, right?

Well BotE will similarly allow you to do an extremely foolish thing with resource routing, and it won't be clear that it's an issue until it happens to you. If you have a 40x40 maxed out galaxy, you likely will have this happen...many times.

The way BotE is written, there is a peculiar limitation on the maximum storage of food in whatever form at 25,000 regardless of technology. This badly needs to be changed as regardless of many farms or replicators or ocean filtration devices, it's the efficiency that improves NOT the total capacity.

So therefore you end up making some food generating buildings that improve morale, yet you are not strategically improving the food supply capacity. Now that generally is not an issue as large growth only occurs with multiple colony ships, and again BotE has a limit of 3 and sometime 4 allowed to colonize and won't generally allow more. Now those two things are major design flaws in my opinion, as sometimes the sector would allow tens of billions more to be added, but the programming won't allow more colony ships.

And that self-limiting is bad because sometimes the resources are spread out across many planets, and migration within a sector by growth does not always recognize these other planets have needed resources. Thus you can't sometime build a spaceport in a worse case scenario and or can't mine for those materials and all are needed. The very worst for resources would be detrium as then you can't build ships in that sector followed by iridium as iridium double hulls are vital to the game after turn 630+.

50-90% of hundreds of hours are spent just doing resource routing changes...so that is seriously significant in BotE.

If you have ever worked in any process based business, you understand how important inventory and raw material acquisitions are to generate products. Cut off the raw materials, and everything comes to a screeching halt.

There is an arbitrary and peculiar 125,000 limit on the generation of mined materials regardless of the level of the mines or the numbers of them. Higher tech and investment just increases the efficiency, not the capacity. The manager function will notice whatever mined materials are low and prioritizes generating them to a maximum of 125,000 units. Then halts.

Now when you do resource routing (which is really the science of logistics), you go to the empire screen and sort by resource amounts, and the natural inclination is to take note of which supply of say titanium is available, and contigent upon an available resource slot, and then considering how efficiently that is being generated. Most likely the player then chooses the ones making the maximum 125,000 amount and redeploys those on a resource route where they are required to do upgrades and or build troops and ships (except detrium).

This is faulty logic. Why?

What happens by sending 125,000 units of titanium to the new colony is this butt heads with the existing mining process generation of titanium at the new colony.

"Hey shut down the new mines because another colony is sending the maxium amount of 125,000, so we can all goof off and put up our boots and rest!"

That is wrong. You want the titanium miners to generate titanium locally in that sector, but the software seeing an influx of 125,000 then prioritizes other processes.

See the problem? What you should do is allow the titanium to build in value and sell from those caches of 125,000 to maximize your profits. And choose a lesser total amount like 80,000 or less...maybe even 60,000 to the new colony, thus you have some titanium to get their upgrades done, but still have the titanium miners working so eventually they have their own cache storage of 125,000.

Foreman "Hey, the managers only sent us 50%, so you miners need to get back to work!"

This artificial 125,000 for storage is a bad idea. Some limit is necessary as the program has to always know how much is being made and stored so the manager can make a judgement call on division of labor.

And the best initial sectors end up being powerhouses of industry and large suppliers of raw materials of resources.

And then 90% of sectors have an artificial limit of 3 resource routes too. So then you get into situations, far too often...where you desperately want to have more resource route slots, but only a few sectors have that capacity through special projects like the Kanorr and Maladan.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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By turn 630+, you have many sectors routinely with 125,000 (maximum storage) of all mined materials except detrium. What that really means is the miners are doing nothing a large portion of the time.

That is why I suggested in the "save money topic" that you start with 4 units of most buildings and do upgrades as you don't want to build expensive unneccessary infrastructure and you don't want massive exorbitant costs with upgrades. That is horrendously wasteful.

If there is ever a new revision, then likely food storage should be at 125,000 and mined materials should be at 256,000. Then also allow construction to raise resource routes from 3 to 6 being standard. I would have a series of buildings that then would add 1 resource or trade route by levels and likely three four levels like detrium is programmed. They likely require energy.

I bet doing so would eliminate 75% of the issues. It would reduce hundreds of hours of logistical changes just in resource routing too.

Every 10-15 turns, you should double check to see if that original resource route is still needed as likely with upgrades if the resources can be locally generated solely in the sector. Why? Because you will the have to use the same large heavily industrialized powerhouse raw material sectors for other new colonies.

This is a significant issue on giant maps as a 40x40 map has 1600 sectors and you don't want to spend hundreds of hours on logistical resource routing.

95% of you want to wage intragalactic war instead and so be deploying and redeploying ships and troop transports.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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I've written extensively on trade and resource sales and how to manipulate the markets so true trade say to minor alien races is unnecessary. You can make MILLIONS more in credits through resource routing, and then you don't need trade routes. In a giant galaxy having sectors limited to 3 routes is absurd. A planet alone could have 3 routes! Sectors frequently have 5 planets. If you did trade routes, it would be terrible and you could never generate powerful galactic empires...and be making 5% of the profit potential too.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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When you manipulate the trade market value of mined material resources, post turn 630+...you will likely have 10-20 sectors doing the bulk of creating vast efficient generation of mines in sectors that have titanium, deuterium, duranium, crystals, and iridium. They also likely have detrium thus they can also be your initial colony shipyards for turns 1-600, and then are major warship shipyards. Other sectors will have grown and be generating colony ships.

By that time (probably turn 670+), your slow scout ships will have explored 80-90% of a 40x40 galaxy. Colony ships are hopelessly slow and are terraforming and colonizing by leapfrog movements. By that time, you will control 50% of the galaxy with large scale infrastructure. The periphery will be new colonies and be terraforming with small scale infrastructure.

It's very easy to screw up and have way too many unnecessary resource routes committed.

You want to sell down your storage cache so your miners are not just goofing off. Be careful or you will sell off mining caches that are needed to get the new colonies going.

Prudence dictates never selling so much that you don't have 50,000 surplus in those initial powerhouse industrial areas as a backup.

When the prices climb over 1000 per unit and sometimes 1800+, you sell from 125,000 to 50,000 and stop. If you need more cash, switch to another powerhouse industrial sector. Mostly you won't.

By doing so, these resource prices will climb even higher! That is how you end up making 3,500,000 credits in a single turn and still making a profit (Change) of 50,000+ versus maybe 25,000 in Upkeep.

That means rapidly upgrading all infrastructure that is taking 10 or more in turns (as time is money). That allows you the majority of the time to only need 4 Mines or 4 farms or 4 plasma reactors as they are all upgraded and very efficient.

You vary the number of factories with 4 commonly but maybe 7. Sometimes you get in a pinch a can either go into the manager and prioritize deuterium mining, but with so many sectors under your control, then it's way faster to build say 6 deuterium mines (versus 4) as then though they are efficient, the mining generation is routinely faster (up to that maximum of 125,000).
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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If maps were generated by modders, empires would look far differently.

An empire wants to control the borderslands and build inwardly (NOT outwardly). That translates to very robust outer defenses that can rapidly deploy and redeploy warships.

But a random map builds an empire outwardly. That means very weak borderlands. That means serious strategic planning to get the center capital to dispatch strong warships to the borderlands largely due to enemy probing.

In history, all civilizations began on waterways as they had river flooding and thus better harvests plus trade and developed navies. So that meant rapid deployment of troops via naval transports as the infantry is horribly slow. Trade begins by ocean going merchant vessels then supported by navies as piracy becomes an issue and trade is a major aspect of the empire's economy.

Cavalries vastly modulated speed, but then they are unsupported by ranged attacks as archers were slow as were the infantries.

Artillery was horrendously slow due to weight and would have been impossible without drovers and cartwrights.

Railroads then altered this military doctrine. As did mechanized warfare by tanks,full armored tanks, armored personnel carriers, and mechanized artillery.

Similarly reconnaissance by balloons then became weak planes then fighter planes, then bombers, and then specialized niche aircraft. Then naval carriers.

Every empire wants to have strong borders and NOT begin in the center and spread out.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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You want to build in a circular outer pattern to define your borders by outposts and upgrading them to starbases. Then having established your borders, then build inwardly. That is likely how a galactic empire would proceed.

Otherwise an empire would ignore all military knowledge of logistics to date and have terrible supply chain issues. Such inward building outward archaic thinking is tantamount to no strategy at all as it's haphazard. Anachronistic military leaders get deposed. You can't do it the old way.

Outwardly building inward has your strongest at the borders and ready to defend first rather than the terrible delay of sending troops to the front. It's safer as this newer paradigm supports the very vulnerable supply chain. Realize that in military operations, less than 10% are battle hardened veterans. Most are support staff.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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Were you to play as I suggest on a 40x40 galaxy map with 95% of minor races involved, then you will have difficulty defining the borders in a peaceful way as the galaxy is so populated. They won't leave their sectors and spread out though. You surround them to possibly bend them to your will.

The major alien races will expand, but I suggest only having the Khaoran and playing as any other race. That makes both races able to define their territory.

A mod team would first have the mapper define these borders and place populated sectors with high levels of infrastructure and rich resources and thus each empire is immediately somewhat defensible by design.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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In a standard BotE game but with two major races and say 10-20% minor alien races, then is far easier to define the outer borders and work inwardly.

Having MANY minor alien races ensures MANY fleet battles as they begin with them and disbursed across the galaxy.

A mapper on a mod team would carefully place those minor races with fleets so they maintain their autonomy and self-determination.

BotE unrealistically allows them to join as members when they would NOT as they begin stronger than any major alien race albeit stuck in their sector.

Were I the mapper on a mod team, the situation would differ as all empires would already have established ships and strongly controlled sectors BUT also every minor alien race would have their own strongly controlled sector. They would have some ships and troops and an establish economy to reflect a military force that could support that size. And some would be very powerful and difficult to displace.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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A designed map would have trade routes to facilitate the economy and beginning diplomatic relationships.

Others would have better tech,but less efficient economies.

You mix it up for game balancing.

Random maps create all manner of issues and are highly unrealistic and cause conflict largely over border clashes.

If empire leaders know where the boundaries exist, they choose the path of least resistance and build inwardly.

If empire leaders are in the dark, they build outwardly until opposed.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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So just starting off:
1. Scout ships continuously act as explorers trying to find potential sectors with all resources and able to support large populations.
2. Then send transports to create outposts.
3. Then send waves of colony ships to terraform and rapidly colonize to maximal efficiency.
4. Then move in a circular pattern and supported with some weak warships given the realities of much lower tech and limited resource storage caches and very limited shipyards.

Rinse repeat inwardly and likely with some hubs also using first outposts and then starbases.

Once established, begin a spiral outward plan to redefine the border and work inwardly.

It is so much more fun to start on an established map so players can get down to practical warfare as most players are not turtling builders. They have limited time and want to wage war.

Defining turtling as it's an old wargaming paradigm.
https://wiki.twcenter.net/index.php?title=Turtling
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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Instead, Millenial players tend to be pop rushers or simply use rush tactics.
https://wiki.twcenter.net/index.php?title=Rush

Most AI tend to use that rush technique, but not as successfuly, but generally cheat at higher levels of difficulty.
...

Now combine a random map and rushing as a strategy and you get ludicrous unrealistic warfare that would seldom work as some other empire would attack the foolhardy rushing opponent as they commited all their forces to attack some turtler.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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A true military tactician and strategist has an established economy and their empire is highly defensible and then elects by excellent scouts to determine where to probe and establish troop strengths. Then launch standard warfare or occasionally blitzkrieg warfare by exploiting weak defenses, followed by conventional warfare and occupation.

That is withering to your opponents but largely implausible as few players are willing to spend 600+ turns just building the infrastructure to do so. That is a whole month of time just to start.

Enter modders to the rescue with save game presets.

To emulate some famous scenario like say the Dominion War or even the Klingon early Federation war, you need that modding as just by random choice with no planned map, it's highly implausible to occur.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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Unless you have played a very lengthy game longer than 630+ turns on a huge galaxy, you probably think, "Why not just buy whatever resource you need just to get by?"

That won't work as by that turn resource prices go through the roof!

But here is what I recommend you try. As you issue new orders to build infrastructure each turn, on the sector systems page, note the amount of resources and watch for numbers in parathesis that exceed 125,000. Then click on the sector trade screen and see how much is locally being generated.

Most likely the excess resource is titanium or iridium. Following the orange resource route lines by this time is nearly useless as it's like trying to trace spagetti noodles. 10% of the time you can spot it if the resource route is close. So the majority of the time, go to the sector trade screen and slide across the names of every sector and find the excess unneeded resource route by sector name and unneeded resource. You probably will find 20 such routes as glaring errors.

Otherwise when you run short of credits as you have rushed tremendous amounts of infrastructure, then pick a sector with large unneeded reserves of resources, and most likely not being resource routed, and sell that down from 125,000 to 50,000.

This generates in my games to 4.4 million credits by turn 670+ if I whittle down the resource values down to 300 on purpose (otherwise I don't sell it down that much and generate 3.5 million credits or so).

Now that the value is so low, now you can elect to enter the trade screen for that sector and buy some resources that you need like titanium for new colonies.

Mostly you will just set up new resource routes...as that costs nothing. Why buy? Well for the time savings.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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This ends up fairly straight forward as the largest sectors that have been extensively built up are the ones most likely to be using resource routing so their names will be very familiar to you.

Then every 10-15 turns, you do a fast but more thorough check on resource routing.

I tend to glance at the galaxy map, note whether that sector has most or all of the essential resources, enter the system's page for the sector, make sure I have 4 mines of every resource whenever possible, but focus on infrastructure requiring titanium first as it's the most common. Some deficits in deuterium (always involved in energy production upgrades) and duranium show up as these are needed for upgrades to other mines, so some resource routes get created for them. I then make sure deritium refineries and upgrades and deritium trading infrastructure are all built. I make sure all possible long range scanning are allocated and ensure adequate energy and planet-wide energy projects are made and allocated in the manager screen (see the energy topic).

Iridium becomes essential due to double hulls on advanced cruisers and battleships. Thus I sometimes have to resource route iridium too. I leave colony ships as weak as possible as they get scrapped in the process.

This fully maxes out sector infrastructure and then terraforming in new sectors has come along as well as new colony ships have arrived, and most often three are sent to ensure I gain as many resources as possible and can build spacedocks/shipyards everywhere.

Rinse repeat.
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Re: Important Understanding Resource Routing

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My way is not the most economical. Some only build essential infrastructure, but the main issue is time savings as by turn 670+, my best ships still can only go a speed of 4 and as the galaxy is ENORMOUS, then sure I could have sectors focus on specific tasks generating specific mines or troops or ships,but deploying and redeploying would be a logistical nightmare taking far toooo looong.

You could save a lot of money by specialization. Most wargames do this in city based games, but you will get bogged down trying to do unit composition.

BotE has very little unit composition as it's NOT an RTS game using tactics.
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