[Fyron]

So now you're going to accuse Aaron of "coded god-moding"? The component works fine as it is, it provides an EXCELLENT balance against players who use YOUR strategies(Berzerker+Aggressiveness+Defensiveness) . Perhaps you complain because the Talisman takes away the combat advantage you get from your standard empire setup?

It is not god-moding because it isn't insurmountable. I also do not like the abiltity to cheaply max out both aggressiveness and defensiveness. They should cost a lot more. That would create much more varied empire designs, and would be better than the current situation where 125% agg and def + berzerker is a must (unless you have talisman, then you only need that for defense).

Definitely, gaining all the way up to 20% experience in only 3 turns instead of 7 is a major advantage. However, the experience bonuses are not a MAJOR advantage per se because there are other options which give an advantage roughly analgous to that of having 20% experience bonus

Oh yes they are. A lack of training will get your ships slaughtered by weaker forces. And it is not a 20% advantage, it is a 40% advantage (ship + fleet training). No one says you have to train the ships and the fleet at the same place.

I would say that PPBs are probably the best all-around weapon in SE4. They can target anything but seekers, do major damage compared to other direct fire weapons with the same fire rate, and they are fairly inexpensive when compared to other, more powerful, weapons.

They are until you get APB XII + Shield Depleters. APBs are much stonger, because they get a range of 8 isntead of 6 (and do more damage at all ranges (except range 6, IIRC)).

This is a definite advantage and one that is in many cases used as an exploit to quickly defeat newbies. However, combine this advantage with multiple ship training facilities per sector and the religious talisman and you have ships which are virtually invincible, but skilled players have a way of making cocky arrongant SOBs(*tries to look innocent on both counts*) who use a multiple advantage to try and gain a major edge $h1t themselves in surprise when they pull a suprisingly effective new strategy out of their @$$ and use it to defeat such a multiple advanatge.

It isn't an "advantage", it is a necessity. And what sort of surprisingly effective new strategy would that be? Combine the training, racial bonuses, etc. with skilled expansion techniques, and how are you going to defeat that by not using similar tactics? Sure, you can go with 120 traits to save 1000 points, and not see a noticable difference. But that really isnt a surprising new tactic.

I'm not familiar with this one as I have never actually played with Maintenance Reduction as a characteristic. What is the problem with it?

It would be better if a 10% reduction actually reduced the maintenance paid by 10%, not the % of ships cost to pay as maintenance. Currently, 110 makes you pay 15% maintenance instead of 25% maintenance. A better system would be where 110 makes you pay 22.5% instead (which would actually be a 10% reduction in maintenance costs). Multiplication instead of addition (or subtraction)