[Fyron]

I ran a test on Environmental Resistance. I set up 1 system with 16 planets, ranging from a conditions value of 0.0 to 1.5. I colonized all planets on the same turn. Here are the results:

Totally standard, average race:

All planets are Happy

0.0 is Deadly and gets 0% reproduction
0.3 is Harsh, and gets 7%
0.5 is unpleasant and gets 10%
1.0 is mild and gets 12%
1.3 is good and gets 14%
1.5 is optimal and gets 17%

The planets stayed Happy after a number of turns.

The second test had a race with 120 Environmental Resistance trait:

0.0 is Deadly and gets 0% reproduction
0.3 is Harsh, and gets 11%
0.5 is unpleasant and gets 14%
1.0 is mild and gets 16%
1.3 is good and gets 18%
1.5 is optimal and gets 21%

All planets became Jubilant after 1 extra turn.

Conclusion:
ER is linear in effect in regards to Reproduction Rate on all planets, regardless of conditions. Harsh planets are affected the same that Optimal and Mild planets are.

50 points gets 1% Repro and 1% happiness.
125 points gets 5% ER, which has the same effect as the above.
Therein lies the free points exploit associated with ER.

Proposed plan:
To eliminate the free points loop-hole, change ER to cost as much to lower by 5% as it costs to raise Repro and Happiness by 1%. Make ER cost 10 points per percent to lower. But, leave its cost to raise alone. It costs fewer points to raise ER to 105 (125 points) than it does to raise Repro from 110 to 111 (200 points), so ER can serve a good purpose when trying to get really high reproduction.

[ December 22, 2002, 23:38: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]