All questions that I have are about an unmodded BotE. I know I can mod things but I'm more interested [for now] to get a feel for how quickly your empires should be expanding.

For example about how many turns does it take to go from tech level 0 to tech level 10 [assuming there are 10 basic levels]?

Are there any tricks that I've been missing when it comes to building colony ships and terraforming planets?

Will minors ever terraform all of their own planets or should I do that for them?

Will minors [after another few releases] be able to build their own ships and will those ships belong to you after they join your empire?

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FYI: The reason I want to know this is so I can gague how much of the game that I understand and how much I need to work on ....

It depends on many things: your number of systems, you global research speed, what race you play, do you want to research special researches and so on. So I think you can reach level 10 in 400 till 500 rounds, if you maximize you researchoutput.


First I upgrade my shipyards, so I can build ships faster. With a colonyship you can decide which planet you want to colonize. You can select a planet after the colonization order or you only give the order to colonize. You can terraform or build stations with more than one ship.


Later yes. At the moment you can colonize their planets, but it has no effects to the minor race.


Yes.

Thanks for the info man. I don't feel quite as stupid as I was earlier.

[Note I was comparing research & tech levels from BotF 1 and assuming it would be similar in BotE]

BTW: I agree on your advice to upgrade the shipyards as much as possible and make a hoard of colony ships because [IMHO] it takes too long without hoard tactics.

I'm considering starting to play with the building editor to see if I can make some tweaks that will change the pace of the game.

Before I invest lots of time though I'd like to know what the intended pace of the final game is.

Assuming you start off with a galaxy the same as in 0.45C Alpha at tech 0 about how long should it take to go from tech 0 to tech 10? How long should it take to go from tech 0 to tech 10 if I research special technologies at every opportunity?

Do people want there to be long enough gaps between research breakthroughs so you can build some ships or do something between tech levels instead of just constantly upgrading everything?

I of course have my own ideas on what I'd like the values to be [and I can edit them if I like]. However I'd like to do some testing to make a game that a lot of people are happy with.

Any feedback is appreciated.

my personal favorite would be a system close to botf where you can upgrade tech and buildings relatively simultaneously without too many lags, but everything should take twice as long so that you can build more ships from a certain era like the kirk era which was IMO too fast over with in good old botf.

I'm thinking that I'd like to see something similar to BotF with obvious allowances for differing gameplay in BotE.

IIRC Sir P indicated that with the current version you can go from 0 to 10 tech in 400 to 500 turns.

I'm thinking that in the finished game I'd like to shave 100 to 200 turns off of that number just to keep the game flowing smoothly.

Perhaps a good goal to shoot for would maybe have us going from tech 0 to tech 10 with several special techs researched in the 275-350 turn range. This way we get to see some of the goodies and have a game that can be completed in a reasonable amount of time.

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My problem is that I don't want to constantly upgrade buildings so I can have time to build ships and play around. On the other hand I also don't want the upgrades & updates to go too quickly .... It will be very tricky getting everything just right ....

increase the output of factories and you will be able to produce ships faster..
lower the resorce needed for ships.. i did that and i lowerd the initial output of low lvl reaserch buildings. Gives you more time to build ''older'' ships