Any more good stories?

Here is one I'm working on. I have no mods, so there aren't many ships, yet.

GAME STATISTICS:
Player: Romulans (New Romulan Order commanded by none other than Admiral Alidar Jarok!)
Size: Large Elliptical
Level: Impossible
Minors: None
Randoms: On

I was playing BoTF tonight as the Romulans, my first game on Impossible with equal tech levels (all 5 - You know me... baby steps). Met the Klingons fairly early, and while they were not terribly friendly, I had them cornered economically, and without any outside interference I had them pinned in their home systems by about Turn 70 or so. I had enough over each system to keep them from building anything, and had destroyers raiding about 250% each turn. So that's really it for them. Eventually they sign a peace treaty with me but they are completely penned in, and have pretty much the same strategic and international position as Luxembourg.

All this time I am slowly building up my defenses to on the 'north' side of my territory. (If the galaxy is imagined as a 2-D map, I am on the east side, the Klingons are in the southeast (to my southwest), and I have about 20 systems in a decent sized chunk of the east side of the map). I am amazed that I still haven't met anyone else. About turn 70, the Federation falls. Must have been a Cardassian-Ferengi alliance. I could be in trouble if I can't appease them once we contact each other. Then in turn 72 the Cardassian Union falls. Okay. Those Ferengi must be nasty. I think I'll upgrade the rest of my border outposts to starbases. (bear in mind I haven't even met these Ferengi yet)

Finally, in turn 95 a Ferengi explorer crosses my territory. Crap. Here it comes. 12 destroyers, 8 battlecruisers, and 6 warbirds (all I can spare from the Klingon blockade) against however big the Ferengi must be in order to take out both the Federation and the Cardassians so fast, SIMULTANEOUSLY!!. I nervously check the intel screen. Amazingly, they only have about an equivalent military (there's a relief), and have only seven systems! What the hell? Knowing there are no other empires to pester me, I send my scouts as far as they can. I find out the Ferengi are due north of me, right in the middle. Off to the west? No less than five Borg cubes! And those were just the ones in sensor range, packed into a ten-sector chunk my scouts could see.

The Ferengi then offer me an affiliation, which I accept. They are faring pretty badly, losing three more systems before I can even get ships to their territory. So where is Ferenginar? Nowhere to be found. Assimilated! In fact, the capital system as far as I could tell was Sol. Okay. This is weird. After some poking around, I find a twenty ship Ferengi fleet wandering around shell-shocked, and not a single native Ferengi system. Their only territories are those they've conquered from the humans! Apparently, they did take out the Federation, probably on their own. Then the Borg appeared in Cardassian space, making relatively short work of them. (probably less than twenty turns) About the time the Ferengi finish of Sol, the Borg decide to assimilate some latinum, and wipe out all the native Ferengi systems. Technically, except for their ships, the second most powerful empire is an extinct species, except for whoever is in their starships and those overseeing the humans!

So after a mere 110 turns, it is just me, Grand Dutchy-esque Klingons (three systems, no fleet, and nowhere to expand), and a Ferengi fleet playing Battlestar Galactica, lording over humans who don't seem to get that there isn't exactly anyone keeping them subjugated!

Oh yeah, and a good dozen Borg Cubes. Don't know where they are, but I know they're coming!

My fleet is probably strong enough to take the cubes one at a time, and I now have a core fleet of Warbirds and Battlecruiser II's; so I'll just improve my economy, colonize, build up, develop towards the Warbird II, and wait. Should be interesting!

i like reading this stuff. i really like the scenero idea. i would love to start a game being opressed and have to fight my way out. could you send me a saved game?

silvercliff@hotmail.com

i also like the idae of a co-op scenerio game so a few people can go up against a super enemy and try to survive. feels would be good to play this for many many hours straight, to really feel inside the game. so when you finally win (if you win) it would be all worth it.

How would I go about sending you a copy? Not sure how that would work....

I didn't realise that you could.

I once backed up all my saved game files, (Coz I needed to reinstall BOTF) but when I played my game, all that was there were the four default practice games.

So just to check (And this'll help you Jarok) the save files are the 11 .sav files, right? (game1.sav, game2.sav, game3.sav, and so on)

...

If this works, people can have a look at my saves - this may sound sad, but I constantly start new games and look for the largest starting systems that the game gives me. (So that means tech 5)

I have the Planets mod, and the biggest two starting systems i've seen so far is are size 610 and 585 repectively, giving a combined population of 1,195 people.

That's what I do, too! But (My current one isn't so big, but the biggest I've ever seen unmodded is a planet with about 530 population. Not too shabby, but I'd like to see a couple of 600 person systems!

So how do you actually, physically mod the game? (Recall that I am almost completely computer illiterate!) I'd like to know how to at least get the Planets mod, I wouldn't mind trying to learn how to do some re-balancing, too!

Any resources I might use?

The Planets mod can be found on the fouth page of the mod dowloads section of Armadafleetcommand. It's the fourth download on this page - but you'll need to log into the site FIRST:

http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/botf/index.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=2&min=30&orderby=titleA

Alternatively, PM me with your email addy, and i'll email the files direct to you.

With the Planets mod, the largest single system (Non-Homesystem) i've seen is 650. Cardassia is the largest Homesystem, with 1090 people. (Qo'Nos 1040, Romulus 965, Sol 910, Ferenginar 840) The mod increases the size of the systems by 2.72 times.

The mod makes ALL M-Class Planets (Irrelevant of size) as well as the largest Desert Planets capable of holding 255 million people. You'll also notice some BIG changes to the Homesystems of the five Empires, especially Sol. I'll leave what those changes are as a surprise though.

The mod also gives <Almost> all the minor race Homesystems an M-Class Planet, so they can grow bigger than they usually would.

...

Armadafleetcommand is the parent site of this one, so you shouldn't have any problems with the mods hosted.

Have you installed any mods at all? If not, i'll let you know how to install the Planets mod.

just try to send me the sav file can you.

also, have you got the planets mod to work with minor races, i tried it and it kept crashing.

To be honest, I wouldn't know how well the mod works - my game is such a complete mash of mods, I can never tell what files are causing me problems.

I also save my game regularly, (I learnt that the hard way ) so if I have any crashes it doesn't bother me at all. I've given up trying to sort out the actually causes of my crashes, although I really should have another go because my files are so mixed up.

The main crash that I have though, is the age-old one of the game crashing just as combat occurs. I've installed the Tactical Combat patch, but it hasn't really fixed my game.

My main mods are a total mixture of the Multi-pack, Planets, Titans, Steiner, Building, Defiant, Modified Race Pics, and my own mods. (I've modded the stats of all the ships in the game, i've changed the stats, Empire buildability and some names of the structures in the game, including some minor changes of the descriptions, i've <slightly> changed the relationships between the different races, and i've <slightly> changed the morale stats of the races)

Anyways, did you want me or Jarok to send you the files, Silvercliff? And if we have different files, will you be able to use the files in the first place?

yer send any you want would be good fun. if they dont work, oh well, no loss.

I've never even attempted to mod the game!
There is a wish list of things I'd like to do to it, but I'd just like to start with a 'simple' mod that solves part of my problem, such as the Planets Mod.

Anything about the installation you could help me with?

Thanks.

I'm in uni at the mo, Silvercliff, i'll see what saves I have when I get home.

...

Jarok, installation is the easy part - the horrible bit is hoping it works!

The Planets mod is fairly stable though, so you should be ok - as long as you save your game regularly once you play it...

First off, download the Planets mod, (Or whatever mod you want to download) and SAVE it somewhere you can find it easily (Like your desktop) - don't open it yet.

Open up the system folder where BOTF is stored (Usually C:\BOTF or C:\Program Files\BOTF)

Look for a file called STBOF.res. BACK THIS FILE UP FIRST! (Just copy it to your desktop or something, it's about 70-odd megabytes)

Open up the mod. Some mods come with their own self extractors, some install the mod for you, (Those by Joker usually do - and they have sound effects! "Task complete!" ) or some are simply ZIP files.

I can't remember what the Planets mod is, but try installing it. I know it's a zip file with a .exe in it, so I think it'll install for you. I managed to find the files myself, so I haven't downloaded the mod in a long time.

If you have any problems, let me know, and i'll send you the STBOF.res file with the Planets mod installed. We'll have to meet on MSN for that though, since yahoo doesn't allow attachments that are 70 meg in size!

i cant get planets mod to install no matter what, it keeps giving me errors stupid self installer. we arent all noobs who can manipulate the stbotf.res file ffs.

and thanks for those saves, when they come

I've emailed you my saves, Silvercliff - AND the files for the Plents mod. Read my email and check which files you want. There are only 8 files in the ZIP file of the Planets mod, but ONLY THREE of them actually affect the Planets size.

The other files change other things in the game - which I explained in my email.

And fingers crossed they work for you. The Planets mod definitely works on my computer...

I am playing a fun Cardassian game atm and making some screenshots while I play. I'll write a nice AAR when I'm done

Pictures?

Hmm...there was the time when I created my Uber Oberths...

It's nice to see 3315 torpedoes devastating the enemy...even if they only did one point of damage each coz I was being kind...

There were 13 Oberths firing 255 Torpedoes each...the Klingons didn't stand a chance...

thanks, got em. i will test today after i get back from my associations 20/20 comp today (cricket is you didnt know)

sigh, you with your modded games

The following report (unfinished) is about a game I am playing with the Cardies.

GAME STATISTICS:
Player: Cardassians
Galaxy: Large irregular
Level: Hard
Minors: Many
Randoms: Off
Tech lvl: 4

I start out on the very edge of known space. Starting systems Cardassia and Nevala lie on the far left edge of the map. Glad for being a bit cut-off from the center, I was hoping to be able to build up a reasonable empire first before I run into my first enemies. Scouting of the area around Cardassia yields little results. Average sized planets, no particular bonusses and most of all, no dilithium. Since Nevala is an even bigger system then Cardassia is, I want it to be able to build ships as soon as possible.

It is already on turn 6 that disaster struck. One of my exploring scouts discovered the Romulan Star Empire only sectors below my territory. Also, the Feds have been spotted in the same area, but I managed to keep avoiding them for a while. This complicates matters enormously. All of a sudden I need intel, I need ships, I need warships, colonies, and what not. I immediately cease all science activities on Cardassia and start construction of Cruiser II's. Leaving Nevala to science and intel duties.

I was overjoyed when I met the Benzites only turns later. Not that I am that overly happy with those proletarians, but they had something I want all along: dilithium. With the Romulan thread, I realy couldn't be bothered with diplomacy. I need the system and I need it now. While they were even receptive towards me and sent me a friendship treaty my troop transport was already underway. The treaty was rejected and the system brutally subjugated under Cardassian rule on turn 13.

In the meantime, I have signed a non-agression with the Romulans. Direly in need of time to build me a fleet. With the dilitium on Benzar secure I was pumping out cruisers at 1 per 4 turns and troop transports at 1 per 3 turns simultaneously. To prevent the Romulans to advance an outpost colony was constructed along the Romulan border. Upgrading to listening posts and stationing several scout vessels I was able to oversee and control the entire peninsula. Of course, the Romulans weren't sitting still. They signed an affiliation with the Pakleds who, at that time, owned 4 Pakled commands already.

This powershift was something I couldn't tolerate. Therefore an invasion fleet was sent in to conquer Pakled. The 4 Pakled Commands were obliterated within seconds ans I prepared the transports to liberate the Pakled people of their oppressive governments. But alas, I was too late. One turn later, the Pakleds had become members of the Romulans.

At that point, our non-agression was only a few turn away from expiring. The Romulan government has changed, and less open to our advances. Now I realy knew that war was inevitable. It was also around this time that I met the Federation. We quickly signed treaties and made friends.

Turn 34. The peace with Romulus expired. Below is a tactical chart of the area. (Cardassian main territory lies one sector to the top of the screen).
http://www2.propichosting.com/Images/450009738/1.bmp

War was declared on the Romulans on turn 37. The Federation joined in this war and a friendship treaty followed our relationship. Outer colonies like Tartarus and Pakled fell quickly before the Cardassian onslaught. Within turns the ammased fleet reached Romulus. Emergency defenses were eliminated promptly and bombardment commences. After a siege of 7 turns, the system capitulated to Cardassian rule. The Mintakan society, located between the last vestage of Romulan power and the Federation, offered a membership right after the fall of Romulus. A final offer of peace from the Romulans was brutally rejected and on turn 58, we finally received this liberating message:
http://www2.propichosting.com/Images/450009738/2.bmp

Cardassian power was secure. Some other rebelling systems like Antede and Takara were quickly anexed into the Union as well and the fleets returned to Cardassia for their well deserved vacations, retraining and repairs.
The Cardassian Union was peacefull, at last.
http://www2.propichosting.com/Images/450009738/3.bmp

To be continued...