What to do when your Android is dated

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What to do when your Android is dated

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Right now, there is a surprisingly low level of requirements to run BotE for Android. If my 8 year old tablet that was just gathering dust can run BotE, anyone can run BotE.

But...millions of old Android tablets actually don't run a full OS but have their own proprietary OS. So this is a problem as it's inevitable that at some point they can't use wifi to connect to GooglePlay and so get apps.

At some point they want to load an apk directly, which they often can't as these legacy system cannot load directly. Newer ones with actual Android OS just "load from unknown sources".

So what you can do is connect to a computer and when an apk is on that computer (through a Google Drive or from the internet), then you push it to the tablet. That is called sideloading.

Now with modding on the PC, players would have a standard installation, and then do a secondary installation and load a mod on it. That way whatever changes did not mess up the settings on the standard version. And so you essentially could play either one...and they could be very different.

Well, then you have to know about sideloading as these old legacy tablets for Android need a protocol like that. You would have the standard BotE apk, and a modded BotE apk. If you are a beta tester you might need a 3rd installation. And there is also a beta version of BotE for multiplayer too, so you would need 4th installation.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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If you lack a pc, you really have limited options. Your old legacy device is going to be either outmoded or have hardware failure.

One thing you can do, if lucky, is have a sd card that has been formatted (say it's 8-32 gb), and has an real Android OS of some kind. Then when that is inserted, your old device has "dual booting" with the card, it has a real Android OS so then can directly load from "unknown sources". Then you have no issues as the OS is updated and you don't need a PC.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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Then you are going to have to consider a next solution as the tablet will die at some point. Low end Kindles are often exceptional bargains at $50, but that is a Kindle OS so while you can still "load from unknown sources", it's harder to upgrade. Some people "root" such a device so it has a full Android OS.

A better solution is a true Android tablet, and they might might be $75. Then rooting is not necessary.

The great thing is now you can root online by loading an apk,then enter a mode, and get newer free Android OS. Many people safely do this. It's not that hard.

Rooting voids a warranty so many root a device as the device is out of warranty. If you mess up, all is not lost, but if you don't know what you are doing, then you turn your Android tablet into a "brick".
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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Some get a dual boot Table PC. That has either Windows or Android OS and so you can load either and enter either "mode" and run both Windows or Android apps.

You can try emulation too. It's often clunky as it can "lag". That may or may not make BotE lag on a giant galaxy in turn #800 as you might have quite a few ships all over the galaxy doing terraforming, delivering ore or troops, or acting in an escort capacity, or being part of a fleet.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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Some want a Windows tablet, not an Android anymore. That is certainly more expensive. Expect to pay $700-1000.

The great thing is BotE for Android comes in a Windows XP edition and a Windows Vista, 7,8, 10 edition. All of these free. Maybe you can just load BotE on an old laptop that still works.

Obviously now prices will fall due to Christmas and there is competition and not much sales traffic plus equipment is better. Many will be getting rid of old devices too.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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Some folks don't know anything about rooting an Android and so rather than visiting a tech,they connect their Android to their PC. There are techs who then can communicate with their Android over the Internet and push the rooting package to their Android and then instead of Android 4.0, they have 7.0+.

A better OS then means more apps are available and often free. Some places like GooglePlaystore won't even display apps that are incompatible. Suddenly after rooting, there may be LOTS for your device that you have no idea exist.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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Older legacy tablets that are not Android but proprietary OS systems often have bloatware. When you boot, your system automatically has many programs running. So you can try to unload them, but then when you connect to the internet, they autoload again.

So when running BotE and maybe VLC player (as you turn off the BotE soundtrack) and listen to mp3s on your hard drive, then create a folder with 10-20 songs. Now download a memory optimizer. disconnect from the internet. Clean and optimize and maybe 50% of the memory is released. Now run VLC player and load that folder of music and have to randomize the playback.

Now run BotE. It will be smoother and lag less. That really makes a difference after turn#700+. The performance really is far better. Although BotE can be set to "autosave", it would be disheartening if you just defeated an enemy where you had a 50% or less chance of surviving, and you survived, only to crash the laptop due to memory issues.

Why 10-20 songs? If you have a huge folder of songs, and VLC player doesn't release the mp3, it can cause a memory issue. Make a couple directories and rotate them. It makes BotE so much more enjoyable.

I listen to science fiction soundtracks or whatever and it makes BotE very immersive.

Other mp3 players may not multitask well. BotE is well written and it can handle multitasking. I suggest you save your game though.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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VANKYO Matrixpad S7 7 Inch Tablet Android 9.0 Pie 2gb RAM 32gb Storage 5mp
$65-75
If you are looking for a bargain, this is comparable to the latest Kindle Fire 8 (10th generation) but it has full Android OS, so doesn't need to be rooted, thus saving you money. It doesn't have bloatware on it either.

It's arguably the best deal that exists for Android tablets, has great reviews, and the price may fall before Christmas. It would a fine entry level Android tablet for BotE. And I have been reading lots of reviews and I'm forced to be a skinflint now.

My tablet is 8 years old without a bit of issues. I want something just as reliable.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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If I rooted my Android tablet, so it is still usable for modding, besides the hassle, the cheapest price is $12 for the 8gb sd card, but requires a computer and may "brick" the tablet as it's so old. They don't always read the newer sd cards. With help, it's $40 bucks, so really not worth doing unless you do it yourself and then, it's a back up tablet because it would still only be a 1 gb memory tablet with a slow processor. So even rooted, new apps may not run on it.

That is $40 bucks toward a Vankyo tablet. Save your money.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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If you want to mod, and have a Windows tablet and plan on using the BotE for Android Vista + edition, you might end up putting Noxplayer on it too.
https://www.bignox.com
Nox is for Android emulation.

That way you might port the mod to Android at the same times so either niche of players can use it.

You can trying installing a dual boot of both which is hit or miss and voids warranties and may not work.

There are dualboot systems, often Chinese, with a bad reputation for being cheaply made. Otherwise the price doubles to $200.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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They make Android gaming tablets with 6gb mem 32gb storage, often Chinese, often with average evaluations. You would think these would perform better as 2gb is standard. Often these are in the $100 range.

People go with a Windows tablet thinking they will somehow run old games, but in actually how many videos show this is possible? And then a windows tablet 10 often have few apps.

An Android with true Android OS has many apps but good luck getting Windows emulation to work that isn't terribly laggy. It seems to work better the other way...either dualboot or Android emulation.

Nothing is perfect. I wish it were as then you could mod BotE for either platform.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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The other day, I got the buildings, the troops, and the ships editor to work on the Android under windows emulation(ExaGear). So this was remarkable and so a modder could have an Android tablet, even an old legacy one, and mod.

But the better editor in the BotE for Android isn't fully fully operational yet, right?

So the question is when an old editor handles data, does it properly edit and are the two text files compatible (cross platform)?
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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If you were modding BotE, since you want to do a Windows and Android release, you might consider a dual os tablet. There a several benefits as then you can have several versions on the same tablet facilitating making changes.

The issue is these are Chinese and hard to find because of the supply chain issues. And the Windows is 10 is fine, but the Android is 4.4 or 5.1 which are awful old. So straight away, you would want to update the Android OS, which probably will give you headaches. You also might pay more than having two seperate devices which is weird, and the devices get low ratings on reliabilty too. People don't hang on to them.

Android 11 is out, so you should have at least version 9 or you are going to run into issues. And looking across availability in the USA, many times they are out of stock...again due to supply chain issues. Let's hope things improve in the next month, but probably it will be worse (we're heading into flu season so another lockdown seems inevitable...again).

Buying someone's old scratched dated Android tablet with subpar OS is going to have you having "run from unknown sources issues". This is why any mod should be available through GooglePlaystore and Amazon (if you have a Kindle of some kind). Many Kindle owners jump through hoops to download a GooglePlay app as these two compete and make it difficult.

You don't want a sideloading issue on an old device and having to patch the OS on an oddball tablet.

It's great that BotE is very undemanding and runs on old OS and even 8+ year old computers and tablets, but I don't understand the reticience of running mods on GooglePlay as this is open source and the LARGEST audience and is thd MOST RELIABLE way of getting BotE mods into new players' hands. Surely the goal is for another 50,000 people play it, right? I want millions more to play it.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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Windows XP came out in 2001 and lasted through 2008.
Vista came out 2006-2009.

It's amazing that BotE will run on these very old systems. I would think very few people have these around as the motherboards and power supplies and laptop batteries and chargers likely all died a long time ago. My Vista laptop died a year ago from motherboard and laptop charger simultaneous failure. They were never meant to last that long.
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Re: What to do when your Android is dated

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https://www.howtogeek.com/230737/how-to ... -you-have/
How to check your Android OS.

You can try emulation, but I don't think you'll be happy with how it operates and you likely have lag issues too.
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