Spocks-cuddly-tribble wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2026 5:04 pm
Outstanding project
Can't wait to see the next evolution of Dafedz' shady Pleasuredome industry.
Thanks SCT!
Possible misconceptions:
- future techs 11+ in BotF are advantageous (except propulsion), they just don't unlock new tech requirements and lack descriptive data
Useful to know. There's probably a lot of engineering questions/issues I'm going to have, and you quite possibly are the individual that knows more about BOTF under-the hood-secrets than anyone. So question 1 I have for you here: what exactly are the advantages of future tech in BOTF? My idea for ROTF was add small incremental bonuses, e.g. Biotech future-tech tier 1 (tech level 13 effectively) grants perhaps +1% Food to the top-end Type 11 Farms (base food structures). Similarly, Construction future-tech tier 1 boosts industry, and so on. The Research system as it stand is mostly complete, but Future tech is yet to be added.
- BotF experience doesn't affect repair, only damage control i.e. hull damage can be limited before escalating to its full nominal potential. No argument against an exp. repair bonus. Info on Weapon Efficiency against Shields & Hull:
viewtopic.php?p=54617#p54617
Above inspires a simple, fun and realistic synergy concept of damage and tech level bonus factors (BotF +2% per tech) for ships:
More good data. I'll be sure to consult with you further when the combat system is created.
Auto upgrades for ships is the worst remaining exploit in ECM, I hope RotF uses yards/stations to upgrade ships (requiring resources)?
Correct, that's the exact system I have in place: Stations and Shipyards are required to upgrade your ships. Upgrades however do NOT require the extra requisite resources a superior ship class demands. For example: A Type II Cruiser upgrades to a Type III for free, consuming no extra resources, even though a Type III cruiser requires
more resources to build than a Type II. Only a
fresh build of a Type III actually consumes those resources.
How do you handle ships attacked/stolen during upgrade (enforcing 1 turn max could be a workaround)?
Nothing in yet for that. The Intel system is a stub yet to be fully designed and fleshed out, let alone built. That's coming after Diplomacy which I'm currently working on.
There is talks about boarding enemy ships and salvaging wrecks, how do you handle the crew concept (e.g. damage losses or ship effectiveness) without overcomplicating gameplay?
Cross that bridge when I come to it is the quick answer.
The "boarding enemy vessels" idea isn't in the gameplan. Salvaging wrecks is though. The yield achievable from the salvage operation will be determined by the Ship Type, Ship Tech level, and Crew experience (in that order) of the ship doing the salvaging - that ship being the highest rated in the taskforce. That's the plan. The player experience for this feature won't be so complicated. At the completion of the battle Turn, the player (if the player has won and has at least one surviving ship) simply hits a button on the combat toolbar: "Salvage". You hear a transporter sound effect fire, and that transporter either finds/obtains salvage, or it doesn't, based upon the conditions of the salvage mentioned earlier where the salvaging ship must be superior or equal to the target ship for the salvage to successfully resolve. Actual yield (ship-building material like Dilithium, Deuterium etc) will probably be RNG, on top of survivors being part of the salvage (prisoners) -- they will fire an Intel event and yield an RNG Intel Report concerning the opponent in question (empires only, not minor races). I don't plan on giving AI Empires this ability. That's the general "plan" for the flow at this early stage.
---
Hide unknown/outdated map data of unallied star systems for once visited or just scanned sectors:
Territorial claims of unknown empires, current population, terraforming and even state of planets (might have changed since the last visit due to e.g. random events).
Thunderchero suggested an info display 'last updated' for BotF intel data, you need the same for unallied map system views.
BotF map display is confusing for own fleets in foreign star systems with scan strength lower 1 due to anomalies (plus RotF might introduce sensor jammers?). You need simple/clear update data requirements. Not sure you want crap like hidden BotF tech requirements for 'active OBs and/or scanners detected' messages of raiding tasks.
Currently, there is only known/or unknown map data. Nothing to account for data that expires/goes stale. I may look at this at a future time. It could be something to add at the beta stage rather than alpha. The plan for alpha is get all core game functions/features operative, plus a few bells but possibly not all whistles. This is a whistle that lives on a future road map.
Sensor jammers = no. Not in the plan.
---
@ Harsher penalties for breaking treaties (+AI inability to do this) -> Be careful, this is a slippery road!
Vanilla BotF AI diplomacy, we all came to know and love, was mainly caused by wrong, broken and nonsensical data delivered to the AI. If the AI betrays treaties in ECM (still happens) is it with good reason, albeit you need cheat and diagnostic data to analyze each case. The player POV can be misleading. Context being the AI must be allowed to pursue the main directive aka winning conditions. Changing power dynamics demand re-evaluating strategies and treaties (cf. military strength instant boost due to auto upgrade exploit). AIs remember betrayals with a special counter, taking certain treaty options off the table (utilized in vendetta mode). The primitive/old BotF AI depends on cheat data workarounds (like all empire scores) for decisions.
The true remaining issue/exploit is empire gifts/demands. Given the strength you can extort money from AIs and attack them anyway. Conversely, AIs might do the same if opportune. Workaround might be coupling gifts/demands with 'mistreating' penalties for X turns. Plus a cooldown for AIs accepting the next demand.
I already have plans in place for fixing the many malfunctioning diplomacy nuts and bolts from BOTF, especially betrayal mechanics. This is coming up very soon (at which point I may be picking your brains!). I'm currently neck deep in the Minor Race gift/treaty/membership mechanics and all the fun and games that entails. It is actually a really complicated structure to build, and from the ground up having only limited known BOTF data to guide me. I haven't decided on the Sympathy effects of gifts/bribes/treaty proposals (or rejections) yet -- do you know how it works in BOTF? What is the base nudge value of Sympathy for the various credit amounts you give?
Edit: nevermind, I had it in my notes. (value/1000credits)×4%
---
Difficulty Level - What to change, remove and add given the BotF defaults
A controversial and complicated topic with not just one golden, perfect solution to each question.
- You want to remove most AI credit cheats and make it smarter instead -> great if it works!
(BotF AI doesn't cheat with fleet buildup/support, it's the cheat credits, just minors use pseudo random code)
Another tricky topic, yes. Right now -- and this system is far from complete -- Difficulty affects:
-Resource map spawn frequency
-AI resource extraction rates
-AI credit/industry cost for ships
-AI Building upgrades (discount/no discount)
-System Morale (Morale decay)
More conditions to come.
- some random events get harder -> I protected the AI from this to justify 'difficulty' not randomness
Random events are definitely shunted to beta. No plans for a random event system in alpha.
- not sure you want to replicate the BotF intel attack frequency bias
I possibly will when the time comes, to set an initial baseline. There is a lot about the Intel system I haven't yet looked into/researched, and a bunch of stuff I don't fully understand.
- minor race evolution vs average empire tech and starting eras
The last one is challenging. Technically my ECM fix removes an exploitable bias and makes the game fairer and more strategic. However, we had a nice conversation over in the Supremacy topic and the Iceman raised some valid points. For noobs and average players the game 'feels' harder if the wicked random resource aka minor races is strengthened vs empires. For highly skilled players this makes the game easier (and the top Supremacy tester confirmed my concerns). But most people downloading, testing and playing the game are no top tier pros (plus one can turn of minors anyway).
Although I haven't addressed the starter era as a gameconfig condition just yet (Empires by default start at Tech 1), I have (hopefully) managed to balance Minor evolution with empire evolution. Minors have six possible tech curve modifiers (e.g. from Primitive to Advanced). All Empires are set to Advanced, and progress at a rate of 1.0 (Primitives at 0.4). Only a handful of Minors are also Advanced (e.g. Vulcans), and progress at mostly the same rate (although, being a minor, they are confined to a single system, so will never hit the research income of empires). The system also includes a guard to prevent Minors from overtaking and thus "out-teching" an empire.
--
Good to see you SCT! I hope I've addressed some of these issues satisfactorily. With some of the problems/questions, I am sort of winging it, and everything is subject to change of course. In some areas, moving forward, I will probably need your help/expertise!
