Hi,
Was just wondering, what multiplayer modes are/will be available for BotE? Would it be possible to include a 'Hotseat' mode (eg, multiple human players on the one computer. This mode is included in the Heroes of Might and Magic series and I'm pretty sure that Master of Orion 2 and the Desciples series had it too, one thing I really wish BotF had.)

Open bote.exe multiple times/instances-wise. Then connect to 127.0.0.1 loopback address with one instance acting as the host as usual. Switching tabs with alt-tab in Windows will get you to the BotE Window with the player who's next in turn. Should work as hotseat-mode-replacement so to speak.

Never thought of doing it that way, thanks

BTW: Merry Christmas!

Hey Mal, is there any way that the game could be tweaked where everyone is given an arbitrary turn number and then all the changes made at the end of each turn, like unit orders, would take immediate effect like in Civilization IV?

I don't know civ 4, only played civ 1 and 2 shortly so I don't know what you mean exactly. How should this work out exactly? An arbitrary turn number, i.e. someone starts at turn 1, the other at turn 200 ? I suppose I got that wrong didn't I . I guess I need it explained a little more in detail what you mean.

Hmm I've played many many all nighters of Civ4 multiplayer so maybe I can help to explain here

In Civ4 single player:

Turn begins, you can move your units and issue them orders, and these actions are performed immediately, instead of only happening after you press the turn button as in BOTF.

So if we take this into multiplayer, every player can see each others' actions immediately. It's like pseudo-real-time in between the turns. it does make gameplay a bit more exciting.

The total war series of games also use this system.

I would refrain from doing this since it is kinda like Logic Factory's Ascendancy with its pseudo-real-time approach. It shifts gameplay drastically since all players would then perform fleet movement and attack operations like crazy first where it then depends on how fast one clicks with his mouse instead of controlled and considerate actions. Also, if your connection lags a bit, the other(s) can overrun you without you being able to do anything. Also when 2 players have time-consuming 3D manual battle going on, the other players can sneak in and do as much damage as possible in the mean-time. It's the not-immediate-taking effect that makes each turn "a mystery" so to speak. Just imagine if you would immediately know sensor data from your scouts moving into enemy territory at the beginning of a turn. Now you know a thing that otherwise you would have only known the turn after that turn and can send your fleet to attack or defense based on this new information. All the while the other one is entangled in a melee battle and starts with a big disadvantage into the current turn management-wise. Doubt this approach serves much fun. It might work with automatic battles only though I'm not a fan of the need and possibility of gathering extra-info about the enemy in a turn but not with a full 3D battle I'm afraid.

Real RTS would then be much better.

Yes, the who-clicks-the-fastest-gets-resource or who-attacks-last-captures does occur frequently in multiplayer Civ4, and it's very annoying when you've expended half your army to take down the defense of a city, only to have some other player sneak in with a handful units and take over the city at the last moment. You get this quite often and it is only down to player etiquette that it is not abused. Yes guys, Sid Meier's Civ4 has design flaws but I love it anyway.

Total War has a much more "secure" battle system where the above exploit cannot occur, it's not the same as Civ4 where you manually tell each unit to attack. When you attack, all units on same square have to attack too, so your whole army marches in to fight. In all immediately adjacent squares of the battlefield location, all other nations with units there and are allied with either side get the option to join the fight. The battle outcome is then decided on the battlefield in real time 3D combat if you decide to fight, or calculated if you decide to auto-fight.

still, there will often be non-combatant human players who can start another battle somewhere else in the galaxy and take away strategic points while you are battling with someone else. This design flaw will always preserve thus I really like the strict separation of both movement/battle turns (the tactical element) and the strategic command element. Nothing tops this approach IMHO except you build in movement/attack locks for the other players while someone is battling which then depending on turn number and human player number results in endless turn times..

My favorite feature

One of the other features in Civ IV is that it does not come down to whoever can click the fastest. Each person is given a turn number and can only move on their designated turn. The impact of their turn is immediate allowing others to react in turn.

Now that I have though about it for a bit... I think the best way to describe the system in Civ IV is actually to relate it to something else... A little board game I call Risk.

sure, but why should someone have the advantage of moving first? an arbitrary distribution, be it as uniform as it is, will always have one person strike first and that leaves the other - if played wise by the first-mover - always in the reacting position. Kinda like to avoid such thing in bote . Plus, it's kinda boring for the other players if some players are involved in a 3D battle during an arbitrary turn and they have to wait until that one is finished before their turn is "active". Kinda reminds me of local Administrative Office for Citizens somehow..

First and foremost, I wanted to ask, how can someone set up an online multiplayer game? Sorry for sounding stupid in this one, but I am not sure how to do it (and I have a friend that may get into playing the game). Secondly, will all of the settings have to be the exact same? If I have my sound off/turned down in the file options, will we still be able to connect?

About the minor races, can they be turned off, or no?

you need the host's IP address (whatsmyip.org is a way to retrieve it), host clicks on "start a game", then next, and then waits for the other player(s) to join (they click on "join a game") and type in that ip address of the host and click next, then both choose their race and the hosts starts the game.

about preferences, they will be taken as laid down in bote.ini file, they don't need to be the same. There, you can also turn off minors, whereby in this case the setting of the host will override the setting from the client (obviously).

How do you turn off the minors, and will I need to port? Or will it connect directly or something?

choose minordensity=1 (I believe =0 will result in an error while creating the galaxy) in bote.ini file.

It connects via the port you type in as host. default is 7777 but this is all shown also in the start-up dialog box of the game.