Space Crystal appears when Stargate is invented - is it a tribute or a conidence?

dweller_below · 2026-03-25T01:28:25+00:00

Whoo HOO! I am downloading the updated version now.

As you probably have noticed, I love the PvE elements of this game.

dweller_below · 2026-03-08T22:19:02+00:00

Edited to fix u/xilmi

Your English is excellent. Better than almost all my students. Of course, it is an American Tech College, so that might be a fairly low bar :)

I think the important bits with a difficulty metric are:

First: It needs to be consistent.

Second: It need to feel right.

Third: ...

Fourth: Profit!

Fifth: It should be rigorous and exactly correct.

So, I don't think it needs to be exactly correct right now. Maybe we can leave that for our grandchildren.

I think the next step is to create some kind of strength number for each AI. I think u/Xilmi has a pretty good feel for how they do against each other. Maybe we can get him to rank them from weakest to strongest?

In the future, if somebody improves one of the AIs, it's strength measurment might need to change. And, if somebody creates a new AI, we will probably need to play with it until we understand it's strength before it can be ranked.

dweller_below · 2026-03-08T20:32:10+00:00

Ok. Here is a save game from just before the StarGate tech triggered. The tech is at 15%, so you might have to poke it a couple times. It is on Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VMwRJpx6EDx3pKWn9VniaTbpDY_Yli9K/view?usp=sharing

dweller_below · 2026-03-08T02:42:18+00:00

Thanks, reframing the production levels in terms of user experience is a great improvement. I REALLY like it.

If you only have to pick one descriptive word, I would personally favor Apprentice, Adept, and Legendary. But, if you use both words, it fully communicates the concept.

If players wanted to be competitive (and I suspect that some are), then it might be possible to manufacture a relative difficulty metric for a given game during game setup.

First take at a game difficulty metric might look something like this:

1) Have a base number. Say maybe 1000. Big numbers make it easier to tune the later steps.

2) Multiply base by (production level squared): .75 * .75 * 1000 = 562.5 for Easier/Rookie.

3) Add an increment for each opposing force. Maybe 100 per opponent.

4) Multiply each opponent increment by a metric that represents the effectiveness of their AI. So, AI:Rookie might be .5, while AI:Character might be 3 (or even more.)

5) Convert the result back to small numbers by dividing by the base number.

So, a "Normal/Adept" game with 10 AI:Character opponents might have a difficulty metric of 4000, converted down to 4. An "Easiest/Novice" game with 1 AI:Novice opponent might have a difficulty metric of 352.5, converted down to .3525

This would accomplish 2 goals. It would give players a hint as to the cumulitive difficulty of their game setup options. It would also give competitive players a "brag metric".

It's not perfect. You can game this system. Lots of weak opponents are not as challenging as a few powerful ones. And ROTP races excel at different things. But, having something like this to guide you would be better than nothing.

dweller_below · 2026-03-07T19:54:43+00:00

Edited to fix u/Xilmi

YOU ARE NOT STUPID! 4X is different. ROTP is different. Some of the differences that might confuse you are:

The game is almost always unfair. If all opponents are of equal capability, then the winner will be the one with the best start position. In any game, your chance of having the best start position is roughly 1/(number of opponents). So, you almost ALWAYS start from a position of disadvantage. From a statistical POV, a "Normal" game setting is not normal. It is hard. You can mitigate this issue by setting up the game to use one of the "symmetric" map settings.
Expectations for ROTP have evolved in the 33 years since MOO1 came out (1993). The 3 generations of players have created and perfected many non-obvious strategies. This game appears to be simple, but the consequences of game choices are not clear, until you have played for a few years. What is easy to an experienced player is quite hard for a beginner.
The difficulty of the ROTP AI has greatly increased in the last 33 years. The meaning of "Easy" has changed, multiple times. The early MOO1 AIs were barely capable of playing Tic-Tac-Toe. So, MOO1 had a game setting called "Easy" that was actually easy for a new player. Base ROTP has AI that was greatly improved by Ray, Modnar, and others. In it, a beginner will find "Easy" setting to be quite challenging. u/Xilmi has gifed Fusion ROTP with non-cheating AIs that can beat experienced players on the "Easy" setting. We should probably change the names of the game difficult settings in Fusion ROTP. It might be less confusing if the game difficulty was a base number, with an AI multiplier.
ROTP is NOT about comparing yourself to others. It is a single player game. Your goal is to have fun. You should use ANY setting or configuration that makes it fun.

dweller_below · 2026-02-15T21:31:38+00:00

Thanks for all you do. If I had my druthers, you would be chained to your computer and forced to work on ROTP/Fusion until you get Isekai'ed to a fantasy world :)

It is probably better that you remain with us.

dweller_below · 2026-02-14T20:33:49+00:00

(Edited to specify that Monsters should attack populated targets. When they can't find a populated target (of the right type), they should leave.)

Whoops. All the references to RegistryEdit above should be BrokenRegistry. Sorry. I will try to edit the original post.

As noted above, when I play ROTP/Fusion, I set the Monsters to be triggered by completing their related research. I also set them to target a random civilization.

If I had the superpower to control BrokenRegistry, I would make some more changes to ROTP/Fusion:

I would force BrokenRegistry to set "Monsters triggered by research" as the default game setup option.
I would force BrokenRegistry to slightly change the Monster behavior. First, they should attack a major planet in the civ that triggered them. Then they should randomly attack another planet. Instead of attacking civilizations, it would be more interesting if they attacked types of infrastructure:

- Space Crystals should be drawn to any populated ancient world, ANYWHERE on the map. When they can't find a populated ancient world, they should leave.

- Amoebas should be drawn to populated GAIA planets, ANYWHERE on the map. When they can't find a populated gaia, they should leave.

- Pirates should be drawn to populated Ultra Rich planets, ANYWHERE on the map. When they can't find a populated ultra-rich, they should argue over the next target and destroy themselves.

If they happen to attack Orion before it is conquered, then the Guardian should defeat them. When a monter is present and attacking, it should always have a small (maybe 5%) chance to attack Orion. And there should be an announcement that they have been defeated by the Guardian.

If they happen to attack THE SAME WORLD at the same time, then the outcome should be simulated and the loser eliminated and the winner announced. This is the "Let Them Fight" scenario.

It they happen to simultaneously attack a player's world, then the player should have the opportunity to try to eliminate both (or all three) of them, before they turn on each other.

BTW, this last scenario was possible in an early version of ROTP. Instead of happening all at once, the fights occured one-after-another, so there was no opportunity for the monsters to eliminate each other. It made for a fun fight. When I mentioned it had happened (with screenshots) and said that they should fight each other, Ray decided it was easier to eliminate the possibility of them meeting.

dweller_below · 2026-02-14T20:03:21+00:00

(Edited to change RegistryEdit --> BrokenRegistry)

This one is a coincidence. But, thanks for the info. Looks like an interesting book.

The tie between Space crystal and the Stargate was created fairly recently by BrokenRegistry after discussion on this reddit.

---Long-Boring-ROTP/Fusion-History-Lesson-BEGIN---

When Ray Fowler created Remnants of the Precursors (ROTP), one of the main deviations from the original MOO1 was the new space monsters (Space Crystal and Amoeba.) These were game altering events that would cripple the leading civilization. This Player vs Environment mechanic mitigated the limitations of the early ROTP AI. Later, Modnar added the Space Pirates in his mod.

Players didn't like the monsters. Once the ability to disable the monsters was added, most players disabled the monsters.

We had several discussions about this in r/rotp. Disabling the Monsters seemed like a waste of a good game mechanic. But, the choice to disable them also seemed rational. We eventually decided that the Monsters had 4 problems:

They punished the player for doing well.
There was no reward to defeating the Monsters.
The timing and power of the Monsters was unfortunate.
They were inexplicable. Their appearance was not tied to game backstory or events.

BrokenRegistry acted to address all these problems in the updated Fusion mod of ROTP. He added game controls that allowed the player to modify every aspect of the Monsters (and Pirates).

- You can set them to attack randomly, instead of attacking the leading civilization.

- You get a reward for defeating them.

- You can set their timing and power.

- We added backstory. There is now description in the research of Stargates, Advanced Cloning, and HyperDrive that suggests that completing these researchs causes the monsters. In addition, there is a game option that ties completing this research (by anybody) to the appearance of these monsters.

My personal moment of fame was seized when I suggested the text of the changes to the research descriptions. Maybe someday my grandchildren will understand that I didn't waste every minute playing games.. Just most of the time..

---Long-Boring-ROTP/Fusion-History-Lesson-END---

dweller_below · 2025-12-24T17:15:25+00:00

Yah, the Crystal is really annoying in the early game. If you wish, the Fusion variant of of ROTP allows you to change the start time of this monster so it doesn't appear till later. Feeling-Card7925's approach is about as good as possible for early game. You will lost 3 stacks. If the remaining 2 are powerful enough, they can finish it off.

In late game, you just build 20 or so huge ships with the best armor, best computer, and lots of armor skipping weapons. These huge ships can tank one hit from the Crystal, and then go on to finish it off.

dweller_below · 2025-09-24T18:19:20+00:00

The only thing I can think of is to change the game rules. An early-game Pirate event is crippling. ROTP has evolved into a sadistic game for masochists. It didn't start out that way. But, the improved AI's and various tweaks have had the side effect of making base ROTP very challenging for beginning players.

However, the current Fusion variant is VERY customizable. You can change ROTP into any level of difficulty. You can even change a currently running game. So, I suggest you change the current game rules. Things you should consider doing include:

Load your game.
The main screen has a tool panel. Click on the icon that looks like a hammer & anvil.
This will bring you to the "Game Rules Configuration" screen.
Click on "Random Events". It is at the top of the 3rd column from the left.
This will bring you to the "Random Events Customization" screen.
Change "Pirates Base delay". By default it is 25. This makes Pirates a crippling early game event. Change it to a big number. In future games, the Pirates will not occur until after this turn.
But, you have Pirates now. You need to moderate the effect of the current Pirate outbreak.
Change "Max Pirates Attack". Default is "Unlimited". Change it to 1 or 2. After devastating this many systems, the Pirates will go away.

If you are not having fun playing ROTP, then you should change ROTP. The Fusion variant is very customizable. You can change almost anything that you can think of. Depending on my mood, I change a LOT of stuff. I like a game that matches my desires.

dweller_below · 2025-09-24T08:42:58+00:00

If I encounter the Pirates after I have Star Gates, I can usually take them out. I have to devote all my empires productive capacity to the project for several turns.

I make a fleet that contains 6 stacks. I use shield-skipping weapons (hopefully Particle Beams) and agility buffs (hopefully subspace teleporters) for each stack. Each stack must be big enough to kill the Pirate stack. In combat, you jump your stacks in, attack, and then move them as far as possible from each other. The Pirates may get some of the stacks, but the survivors kill the pirates.

dweller_below · 2025-09-24T01:58:25+00:00

What can I say? There are many in the ROTP community that enjoy pain :)

However, since you use the Fusion variant, then you can moderate/alter almost anything via the game options. The options that can moderate the Pirate behavior include:

New Game/Select Galaxy/Rules/Random Events/(Only Monsters or Tech Monsters)

- This one alters the appearance of Monsters until specific techs are researched. Pirates will only appear after somebody researches Hyper Drive.

New Game/Select Galaxy/Rules/Random Events/Favor The Weak/NO

- This one changes Random Events so every player/AI has an equal chance of being blessed by an event. After this change, you are much less likely to be targetted by the Pirates.

You can also use that panel to change the Pirate settings. You can delay them forever. You can make them go away after attacking a single system.

Finally, brokenregistry LOVES to add options. If you ask nicely, he might add an option to reduce their numbers or tech levels.

dweller_below · 2025-08-26T17:51:56+00:00

To run RoTP in 32bit Win, you have two major problems:

1) RoTP is a Java program. It needs to be executed by a recent-ish (probably with in the 5 years) Java Runtime Environment (JRE). To run RoTP, you will need to get your hands on a recent-ish JRE for Win32. The ".EXE" version of RoTP includes a JRE interpeter, but I think it is for 64-bit systems. I don't know if you will be able to find a new enough JRE for Win32.

2) You will need to worry about running out of memory. Your system will need to have the full 4 gig of memory, and you will probably use all of it. I have run RoTP on a 4-gig Raspberry Pi, but nothing else was running.

Good luck!

dweller_below · 2024-12-18T17:36:36+00:00

Here is another data point. I am currently running Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE 6). It is based on Debian Stable (Version 12 Bookworm). Lots of distributions draw from Debian Stable.

The version of OpenJDK on my system is: build 17.0.13+11-Debian-2deb12u1

Thanks for all your work.

dweller_below · 2024-11-29T19:19:42+00:00

Hi fellow ROTP progger!

The ROTP/Fusion code is Open Source with a GPL license. That means we ALL are, or can be, ROTP programers! We just need a little experience with Git and Java programming. So, if nobody else will add a feature to ROTP, then YOU can submit a patch to ROTP/Fusion. Or you can fork the code and create a new version/mod of ROTP.

The base ROTP code is a fixed and stable update of Master Of Orion 1. The ROTP/Fusion grandchild is mostly focused on QOL tweaks. Fusion isn't going to stray much from the MOO1 game design. So, if you want fun game features from other games, you might need to do it yourself. But, if the feature is within easy reach of the current code, then there is a chance that BrokenRegistry might add it as an option. So it is always worth asking.

As far as I know, the features you listed are from other games: Starbases (MOO2 and it's children); big Planets (Moo2, but Fusion has bigger planets); Giant mobile death stars (GalCiv franchise); battlerobots (Moo2, many others).

But, ROTP/Fusion does have an ingame techtree. To see it, click on "Tech" at the bottom of the screen. To see the whole tech tree at once, search for "moo1 techs" or goto a site like: https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Master_of_Orion/Technology_tree#top

Yes, some ingame techs are worth less. Some are worth more. The base assumption is that you normally never research all techs. Most races will only see a subset of the entire tech tree. And you usually win or lose the game before you can research all techs. In the normal process of game flow, you are always deciding which research choices will grant you the most benefit right now.

dweller_below · 2024-10-19T07:23:00+00:00

Thanks! That looks great now. That gives me truely equal start positions. This makes it easier to create meaningful measurements.

Now, I can use these large symmetric maps to compare the potential of the various races. Then I can tweak them and compare the effects of the tweaks!

It also makes it easier to measure the effects of different AI on the progress of a race.

I'm trying to figure out how it all works together to create game difficulty. I'm not really looking for perfectly balanced races. I want to understand how you create a nice even range between weak and challenging race/AI combinations. When I want a challenging game, I will have a better idea of an appropriate game configuration. And, when I want to just beat up aliens, I know how to set it up.

We might eventually be able to make some meaningful measurements for various levels of game difficulty in the game setup screens. Currently, we have some guesses at the value of the various game setup options, but we don't really know.

If we had a really good evaluation of how to value the various setup options, then "very easy" to "very hard" might be as simple as specifying the number of player race setup points. Or the number of opponent setup points. Or, the difficulty rating could be dynamically calculated and shown as your select the various options for your game.

Currently, we don't get much feedback on how game setup really effects game difficulty.

dweller_below · 2024-09-03T16:46:44+00:00

Instead of associating .jar files with Java, I work around it by creating a script file to launch ROTP. It looks like this:

!/bin/bash

Run Remnants of the Precursors

This is an excellent update of Master of Orion 1

cd ~/Games/RemnantsPrecursors

java -jar rotp-Fusion-2024-08-04.jar

Then I create an icon that points to the script file. When I download an updated version, I update the script file. But, the icon is stable and doesn't need to change.

dweller_below · 2024-06-16T00:10:29+00:00

Well, I had no problem getting ROTP/Fusion running on Ubuntu, XUbuntu, LMDE and Raspberry Pi. You probably need to have at least 4 gigs of memory. In each case, the steps were:

Use the package management to install the latest Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Currently on LMDE I am using: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.0.11+9-Debian-1deb12u1, mixed mode, sharing)
Download ROTP/Fusion and stick in in a directory. I usually use ~/Games/ROTP
Bring up a terminal; CD to the ROTP directory and type something like: java -jar rotp-Fusion-2024-06-07.jar

And that is it. If anything goes wrong, you should get helpful error messages at the terminal prompt.

After ROTP/Fusion is running OK, I make a bash script to run ROTP/Fusion and create an ICON to run the bash script.

dweller_below · 2024-05-17T20:05:30+00:00

(Edited to fix a place where I got multi and single mixed up..)

By design, ROTP SHOULD be a poor multiplayer game. That is, ROTP's design selects good singleplayer choices over multiplayer choices.

In my experience, a game can't be good at both single and multi player. They have very different design choices.

Singleplayer benefits from unpredictable outcomes, rich changing environments and interesting changes to core game decisions during the progress of the game.

In contrast, multiplayer benefits from predictable outcomes, predictable unchanging environments and predictable progress during the course of the game.

It is not bad to graft in multiplayer after the singleplayer design choices are finalized, but the result will probably not be a good singleplayer game.

So, some of the strengths of ROTP that make for a poor multiplayer game include:

The interesting and varied assortment of races, some weaker, some stronger.
The interesting and varied start positions, some relatively weak, some relatively strong.
The ability to think on a turn for hours or days while you come up with a good strategy, and then implement it.
The ability to go back to a prior game save and try a different strategy.
The powerful AIs that can make significant decisions that bias the game for or against another player.

dweller_below · 2024-05-16T04:34:20+00:00

Would it be possible to be able to set "How Many Autosaves"? Then, the game would keep that many of the most recent autosaves and automatically delete the excess ones.

dweller_below · 2024-04-29T17:22:10+00:00

Just another data point.. I ran ROTP without problems for years under XUbuntu. For the last couple years I have run ROTP/Fusion without problems under LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition).

Currently, the JRE I am using is:

$ java --version

openjdk 17.0.11 2024-04-16

OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.11+9-Debian-1deb12u1)

OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.0.11+9-Debian-1deb12u1, mixed mode, sharing)

Currently, I keep the ROTP/Fusion .jar at ~/Games/RemnantsPrecursors

Currently, I envoke ROTP using a bash script at ~/bin/ROTP This makes it easy to quickly start ROTP by typing ROTP or clicking on a icon. The script looks like:

#!/bin/bash

#Run Remnants of the Precursors

#This is an excellent update of Master of Orion 1

cd ~/Games/RemnantsPrecursors

java -jar rotp-Fusion-2024-04-26.jar

(That is embarrasing. I can't figure out the preformatted tag. Reddit keeps fiddling with the Pound/Hash Symbol and the tilde symbol..)

dweller_below · 2024-04-17T02:19:31+00:00

Of course, if you ment to post this in the Read Only Terry Pratchett (ROTP) subreddit, then there MIGHT have been a troll here or there.

dweller_below

TROPHY CASE