[Fyron]

Originally posted by spoon:
I find it strange that this isn't considered a bug/exploit/cheat. Being able to build a Warp Opener in two turns seems, well, unbalancing...

In simultaneous turns it takes longer (~8 turns), but still, I think the (probably intended) long construction time of those vehicles is part of the balancing.

-Spoon

It is most certainly not a bug, as MM has already addressed retrofits by adding the cost difference limit in the first patch or so (or was that in the initial release, added in a later beta patch? I forget). It is not a cheat, as it is well within the game parameters to do it. Most do not consider it an exploit because of the huge costs involved in doing it. It costs a lot more to build a ship with retrofits than it does to build it normally.

The high maintenance and high build cost prevent you from getting very many stellar manipulation ships in service, regardless of how you build them. Using extensive retrofits does shave off many turns of build time, but it does magnify the overall cost to build by several factors (depending on how many retrofits you use).

[ February 28, 2003, 00:38: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]