Quirks/Bugs with BM 1.10

Captain Kwok,

Captain, thanks again for making a great mod! Anyhow, after playing it for a good while some bugs/quirks (I think) have arisen.

1.) Multiple similar empires - This didn't happened in 1.09, not after I lowered the maximum races at high to 12. But now, I have a game where there are 2 Abbidon Enclaves and 2 Eee Consortiums!! There are only 9 players in this said game, 1 of which is me and the rest are AIs. Since there are 13 default races, it's weird to see any of them duplicated! Not sure if this is simply a BM thing or is connected with 1.58. I'd send you the savegame if that'll help, but I don't know how.

2.) Waaaay too easy? - I remember in 1.09, 10 turns into the game, I was at war with the Abbidon. This was in High difficulty and High bonus. It was like hell, and their armadas just kept coming and coming and I actually lost that game! Fast forward to now, almost as soon as we meet I was at war with the XiChung. They weren't at war with anyone else so I expected a bloody struggle... but they never mustered a fleet bigger than 5 or so ships... even as I held back for years just so they could muster a bigger attack force. I can see some ships alright, but they always seemed so scattered . I had a fleet of 15 guarding a warp point, and they keep attacking it with 1, 2 ships. It was so pathetic that I just stopped playing.

I remembered in 1.09 fighting the Abbidon that they had fleets of 20-30 ships pouring into my systems and not just 1, but 2 and they kept coming. I'm not sure if I simply got better... but surely, with all the bonuses already given to them they should at least have the numbers right?

3.) Waaaay too peaceful? - Actually I've noticed this since 1.09. Almost all the races are too eager to make peace and technology alliances... with the exception of a few (waaay oo few) aggressive races: XiChung, Norak, Amonkrie, Xiati. I'm not sure how to solve this though... too much peace and everyone always ready to agree with you is far too boring... you be the judge.

4.) Ministers - Ministers don't work, I think. In BM 1.09 I usually let the minister do my exploring for me. I turn on minister control for "All-Resupply, All-retrofit, and Attack Ships", and they do a fairly good job of making my level 1 frigates explore automatically. Now, they do nothing I'm afraid, ragardless of whether or not it's an aggressive, defensive or moderate minister.

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Well that's it for now, just a few things at the moment, mostly about the AI. Thanks again I just love this game and BM makes it so much better!