[Wish]

It would have to balance out, they would have to be so expensive in base that you'd still have to take the negative scales to make an SC out of them.

You have to figure out a way to make new or old pretenders balanced not only with thematics, but also with the mechanics of the game. If you make any pretender too good then that is all anyone will ever play, or more likely, no one will use the mod because it is so unbalanced.