Playing as the Borg

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Iceman
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Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

Yes, it is possible to play as the Borg. But there isn't much you can do with them, at least not yet. They only have a couple of (experimental) specific buildings (with no images yet!), so it's kind of limited in terms of gameplay.
They can't colonize, they can't invade, their ships are quite expensive. Any feedback on how to improve them is welcome.
Here's what you have to do:
edit the \Resources\Data\Civilizations.xaml file, find the entry for the Borg (line 71), and change their civilization type from Special to Empire. And that's it! (You can do this for any civilization actually, meaning minors)



In order to play the Borg, you need to go to the Settings screen (in the Main Menu), Gameplay tab, and check the Borg Playable button. They'll then become available as a playable civ in the SP start screen.

They can be disabled by setting Special Events to No.


List of races that cannot be assimilated by the Borg:
- Founders (Jem'Hadar can though)
- Antedeans
- Benzites
- Bynars
- Excalbians
- Horta
- Moneans
- Sheliak
- Tholians
Iceman
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

They can now assimilate colonies btw. They dont convert to Borg yet though.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

Population of assimilated colonies will be converted to Borg in the next release.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

Population of assimilated systems is now converted to Borg, and atmosphere is changed to Assimilated.
We still need to make them more attractive though.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

Transwarp Hubs are not working properly yet, they're just regular (but unarmed) space stations at the moment. They will eventually allow instantaneous travel between Hubs.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

The original topic is now kind of moot, as the Borg are now treated as an empire, which can be set as a playable empire in the Settings window, Gameplay tab.
The current build will hang if you select the Borg, and set SpecialEvents to No. This has been fixed for the next release - selecting the Borg will override disabling the Borg as a special event.

The next release will also have some tweaks to Borg shipbuilding, TWH stats, and I'll reactivate Locutus (which I forgot for the current build...) - though he won't be of any use atm, only really for the coolness factor ;)

I'll try get some AI done for the Borg, to assimilate systems, when I get the time.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

Moving through a TWH now costs a lot of Deuterium. If there isn't enough Deuterium for a fleet to move using the TWH, it wll move normally - should probably add a warning dialog.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

Tweaked Borg shipbuilding a bit for the next release.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

The Borg cannot assimilate any Founder world (there can be more than one link now) and any non-humanoid race (the Excalbians and the Horta - did I forget any others? ).
Upon assimilation of a colony, all farms are immediately converted to alcoves.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

More non-humanoid to be added - Sheliak, Tholians

Should probably also include the aquatic races - Antedeans, Moneans
And races with special breathing devices - Benzites, Breen
And binary races - Bynars

What do you guys think?
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Martok
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Martok »

I wish the Breen and Tholians could be added as major powers, not minor races. (I understand why they're not, but...dang it! :P )
"Evil is easy, and has infinite forms." -- Pascal
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

Heheh, technically they can, but they'll be very bland currently. If someone is inclined to come up with assets for them, cool.

--

Sheliak, Tholians, Antedeans, Moneans, Benzites, Bynars now cannot be assimilated either (left out the Breen).
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

In the next release, the Borg will have a base growth rate of zero. I'll add a Maturation Chamber building to add +1% GR (to act as the Immunology Centre). I'll need to block the universally available buildings from the Borg build list.
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by Iceman »

The Borg can now only build their race-specific Buildings (not universal ones) - which means they'll need a bunch of new Buildings for resources, etc.

The game no longer hangs when Special Events were set to Off and playing another civ.
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CaptScarff
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Re: Playing as the Borg

Post by CaptScarff »

Hi,

I have been playing Supremcy on and off for a while now and I played as the Borg for the first time last night. Let me start off by saying it is awesome to have the option and it was fun going around assimilating the galaxy.

My game settings were
Galaxy Size: Medium
Galaxy Shape: Spiral
Star Density: Dense
Planet Density: Dense
Tech Level: Supreme
Minor Races: Many
Home Quadrants: Canon
Research Rate: Fast
Starting Facilities: Best
Random Events: Yes
Special Events: Yes

So my initial thoughts are the Borg start off way too strong in this setup compared to the other empires. The ships that they have starting out can almost conquer the galaxy in the setup I was playing. By 40 turns in I had added two more Cubes and a couple of Probe ships to my fleet. I was unstoppable at that point. I had assimilated the home worlds of the Federation and Romulans and completely wiped out the Klingons. If I think of the other empires and the ships that they would need to compete it could take over 200 turns in order to build up the empire to output the required number of ships to defeat the Borg fleet I had in 60 turns as I would need a lot of systems with Dilithium, Deuterium and Duranium. I noticed that the Probes alone can defeat minor race fleets that had 4 ships without ever losing their shields

Some suggestions:
Reduce the strength of the Borg ships - Don't really like this idea
Reduce the number of ships the Borg starts with - Probably a better starting point. Maybe just a Cube so they can assimilate worlds slowly
Reduce the resources the Borg starts out with. Instead of 200 Dilithium, 2000 Deturium and 5000 Duranium, make it enough for a Probe or 2. E.g. 30 Dilithium and 600 Duranium. Not sure if the Borg ships even cost any Deturium to build and if they do, it is not listed.
Reduce the cost and time it takes the other empires to build ships (something I would like to do anyway). Would love to have fleets of hundreds of ships battling it out in general
Stop the Borg from earning credits so they can not buy structures. I had 200K credits and didn't really need to buy structures much anyway
Allow Minor Races to build more ships so they can stop the probes. E.g. 6-8 ships

Other quality of life improvements suggestions
When in a hostile system, do not provide the option to Assimilate the system until the orbital defenses and garrison are low enough
Eventually when terraforming is needed to maximize a system's population, the Borg will need a terraforming ship unless terraforming is not going to be required for the Borg

Thanks
Scarff
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