Advanced Save Game Six Empires Huge Map and Minor Races

[UesugiKenshin]

For the Omega who en masse terraform prior to colonization, they end up with 4 farms, 4 factories, 4 energy cells, 4 mines of all available raw material types, thus right off to bat they have saved building all that. Then build a total of 10 farms, and level up mining, and research, and intel, then build all scanning and sector defenses.

Food production for the Omega is a problem, if they seize a Cartare or Khaoran sector, and a replicator exist, then they might only build a total of 5 agriculture type buildings. It makes zero sense that a plant based genetic engineer can't make a decent food replicator. It is so ironic.

I overbuild factories up to level 7, to inflate the raw material prices, but mostly rush production, thus those extra factories are not needed. They do shorten construction time, but what is always more important is proper inflation of raw materials and selling them off to about 100 for titanium, deuterium, duranium, crystals, and iridium.

I maximize deritium production, but I am frustrated by it as it is an unfair system that severely penalizes by capping it off at 100.

[UesugiKenshin]

Terraforming can take a huge amount on time which is why you have large groups of them doing it all at once. You don't start a construction project with one carpenter, right? Excellent construction companies send out a crew and as long as they don't get in each other's way, then rush construction, and move to the next job. That is the most profitable way. There is no shortage of inhabitable sectors so they stay busy.

On a smaller map, the proximity would be too close thus competition and conflict would arise. Then you would need patrols to guard colony ships.

[UesugiKenshin]

In the early game, this planned orchestrated terraforming means 4 research facilities, thus many more research points, and I maximize all the special research add ons, thus get in the lead on research, and do all special research, and finish research way before anyone else. You have to do that. Research is more important than almost anything except cashflow.

The Omega actually have less of a military than the others as there is no need for a military yet as the enemy has no logical way to attack in a sustained, effective, cost efficient manner...yet. Don't get overcautious as prematurely having a large standing military ruins your upkeep and profitability. All the enemy can do is inefficiently harass. Well, two can play at that game and tie them up.

It is so much smarter to just play an advanced save game as all this building efficiently and being profitable is tedious. Would anyone play chess if one had to build economies to have pawns, knights, rooks, bishops, a queen and a king? I doubt it.

[UesugiKenshin]

The most important lesson as a young husband was learning how to maximize cashflow or be poor or else I would have had a pretty but very sad grumpy wife. Wives need things we husbands do not need. Husbands learn to be frugal and therefore get laid. If you want a sweet romantic pretty wife, you better learn how to save money and make money and have cashflow. Then marriages last and are full of joy.

BotE is like that except your mistress is War. You can't afford War unless you have profit and cashflow. War will refuse to give you pleasure and will have nothing to do with you. War is an expensive mistress, and for War, victory is romance and sex.

[UesugiKenshin]

If I was totally malevolent, I could use all kinds of underhanded tactics like sending inexpensive strong ships to bombard the enemy and build starbases to extend my range to facilitate that.

But I like Star Trek (or did until the debacle of Discovery and the Picard show. What garbage!). So I would rather play a game where it is more of a sandbox game and you are helping minor and even major race aliens. That is in the spirit of the show and is fascinating versus see alien and eradicate it. The latter is a bughunt.

BotE could be a story based scifi mission based galaxy to entertain fans, not beat up on weaker aliens like a bully in middle school.

[UesugiKenshin]

I'm a contrarian. I say you win Birth of the Empires when you have learned all research, can make unassailable sectors through multiple defenses and troops, build magnificent starships with high offensive and defensive capabilities, and then without using your power to dominate the galaxy. You know in your heart you can crush everyone, but choose not to.

The galaxy is far more interesting with all the major and minor races. There is no impetus to eradicate or control them.

[UesugiKenshin]

Let's say tomorrow you are the sole leader of the Earth. Woul you really want that job? Do you want to fix all the problems in Africa, the Middle East, North Korea, and China?. That would suck rotten eggs. No, thank you.

My mentor years ago said, "a leader is lucky is 1/3 of the people like you, 1/3 hate you, and 1/3 don't give a crap". You can't please 7.7 billion people so how in the world will you please a galaxy of citizens? That is the booby prize.

[UesugiKenshin]

A maximum BotE galaxy is 40 x 40 so 1600 sectors.

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki_fil ... Names.data
There are 859 uninhabited sector names.
http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... re_Dateien

RacePlanetNames.data
Since Alpha6.1 (version 0.81) the RacePlanetNames.data is no longer used.

This file contained the planet names of the homeworlds of the small peoples .

If a new race is created, a new RacePlanetNames.data has also been created (see here ).

This seems to allude that even the minor races once had defined planets in their sector. That would be useful for consistently having the same setup. I have played way too many games to remember it clearly, but as I recall, this can vary quite a bit.

There are 51 minor races between A through E.
There are 49 minor races between F and P.
There are 43 minor races between Q and A.
Total minor races 143

Total major races 6

859 uninhabited + 149 inhabited equals 1008 (this should be the maximum number of sectors with planets)

1600 maximum sectors - 1008 equals 592 sectors in which stellar phenomena like anomalies can appear or empty sectors where an alien monster (alien anomalous entity can show up). Or they can be just empty space.

This means 62.1825 % of the maximum BotE galaxy can be populated by major or minor races.

1008 divided by six major empires equals 168 in a balanced game just by occupied sectors. It wouldn't be balanced in reality as each sector can have as little as 0.8 billion to I think 94.0 billion in testing. Not only that, but raw material deposits vary.

A mapper on a modding team would find a way to balance that. Of particular interest is presenting the minor race's planets in their homesector consistently.

[UesugiKenshin]

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... dings.data
This defines what buildings are constructed when the game begins for major races.

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... Ships.data
This defines what starships the major races have in the beginning.

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... Races.data
This defines the starting attributes for the major races.

http://birth-of-the-empires.de/wiki/ind ... Races.data
This defines the starting attributes for the minor races.

What I am unclear about is how the minor races,' starting starships and buildings and homesector planet details are defined.

[UesugiKenshin]

To understand BotE, the details are dispersed across many many pages such that you begin just guessing where all their variables are declared. It has taken a huge amount of time to analyze it. And it may be my faulty memory but I recalled other answers for elements like total minor races. Some of this is just misunderstanding too between translated German into English.

Ideally a modder knows where all the variables exist and what they do and then consistently adds in the correct manner new elements and or an editor exists. Otherwise errors creep in.

I would like to preset buildings, troops, and starships on consistent minor and major race's homesectors as even though in the beta multiplayer, I can play as the six major races, I cannot do so for minor races, yet I would make them stronger so not so easily subjugated. The easiest way is with proper garrisons and sector defenses.

For all practical purposes, the players rush to gain minor race members largely by bombardment or by membership, so immediately this unbalances the game through diplomacy or bribes or bullying. It does not make sense that a strong space faring minor race gives up their fleet to novice largely powerless major races at the start.

[UesugiKenshin]

My goal all along has been to address unbalanced elements in an otherwise wonderful game.

1. Delay sabotage so it happens maybe in turn#600.
2. Properly expand all six major races so they actually are functioning empires with treasuries, quite a bit of research, a diverse structured number of classes of starships that have within them subclasses based on a progression of that research, and troops and sector defenses in a balanced number of inhabited sectors.

3. Do the same thing in a much smaller way for the minor race inhabited homesectors.

4. Then ideally construct various galaxies so size determines how many major and minor races coexist.

5. Resulting in many advanced save games where battles might take place over a number of hours consistent with standard wargamer's preferences. These are then proper scenarios.

You would have 8 hour games up to maybe 100 hour games as most of the work was done in an idealized way. That is how you popularize Birth of the Empires. Otherwise with almost perfect certainty, the human player has so many advantages they likely win...if they play using military strategy in a logical manner.

Doing this makes the AI have a chance of winning as the various AI are so strong and well funded and organized that if they pool their resources and military assets, they can consistently beat the human player(s).

That is why using an editor, the modder sets the demeanor of each major race to another and can do things like "locked alliances".

[UesugiKenshin]

Civ 3 wouldn't have been such a popular game if one had to start from scratch, but because a player could jump in and play scenarios, then even make scenarios, then gave Civ3 infinity variability.

Think of chess. Would you play chess on a blank chessboard with a pawn? Then have to mine ore or crystals to muster a knight, or bishops, or rook? Probably not, but start with an equal opponent on a known field with the same diverse starting units.

Or think of chess games with starting positions, then solving mate in 10 moves type games.

[UesugiKenshin]

Once a modder defines a scenario, then the same modder or a writer can illustrate how one major race has an easier time to win this scenario than another. Perhaps one empire has more money, or better research, or more troops but less transports, or has a few superior starships, but far away. Maybe some major race has a larger population because their sectors support many more billions as maximums.

Then players would choose which major race's starting positions based on these elements.

This means even a scenario might be played six times to see if they have a different experience as the Rotharians instead of the Terrans.

Otherwise, you play based on random chance and this is very haphazard and still the human player likely crushes the AI.

[UesugiKenshin]

https://www.etymonline.com/word/impetus
Much of war in western civilization arises from the Latin word impetere. This is occuring even from inception, by an assault that was orchestrated for a purpose and delivered with focused passion to succeed. War, even in ancient times among the Romans legionaries, occurs for a cause.

A player roleplaying by picking a major race empire has a cause.

What is your cause ie impetus? Only a despot causes an assault for no reason and so how do you muster troops and inspire their morale without communicating that cause?

[UesugiKenshin]

With an editor, a modder can construct a scenario where as the Terrans, you will eventually lose unless you get the Khaorans to work with you. Diplomacy plays a role and by gaining their trust, and terraforming their inhabited sectors, and gifts, and defending their settlements from threats, then they join you through treaties and you work together.

Or vice versa.

See that would be a thrilling scenario and satisfying and is complex. That is an honorable way to win against a common threat.