[PsychoTechFreak]

I have played 2 test games, with exactly the same setup except maintenance, 1st was without maintenance (v1.35), the 2nd with the usual maintenance rate (25%).

5 races: Klingon, Pyrochette, Sergetti, Romulan, Darlok (every race under complete AI control); 100 turns; high tech, one planet start

The results after 100 turns are maybe not surprising:

3 to 4 times more ships/stations if played w/o maintenance

Stellar manipulation ships :

2 ships (both romulans) with 25% maintenance
10 ships without maintenance (9 romulans: star destr./creator, WP opener/closer, Black Hole destroyer, storm destroyer, planet creator; one pyrochette star destroyer)

Also the races had severe lack of resources problems with 25% maintance, these problems haven't been observed w/o maintenance

I haven't patched yet, the patch has a 5% minimum for maintenance (hard-coded I guess). Well, I haven't tested with 5% maintenance yet (maybe it's low enough for a thrilling setup, maybe not...). I know the zero maintenance causes problems especially in multiplayer games, but couldn't we get a button in game setup to restrict or release the zero maintenance feature (e.g. for non multiplayer games) ?

IMHO 25% maintenance is too much (at least for the AI), it's very hard to support SM-ships if you have to pay the costs of a new ship every 4 turns.

What do you think ?