quote:
Originally posted by Beck:
That is not entirely correct. Balance can be achieved by allowing each race an uber-weapon only defeatable by others of the same race. Then balance is achieved by each having an advantage others cannot defeat verses every weapon or component having a counter available to everyone. It is certainly tougher to set-up which is why you seldom encounter that type of balance. But given what the individual racial traits are supposed to mimic, actually makes more sense. It would certainly add to the depth of strategies in a multi-player game. Who do you ally with and ships with such weapons/components would be a valuable trading commodity.
It sounds like what you are decribing is not a defense, but Mutually Assured Destruction. This makes sense to a point, but what about the players who prefer to play a race with no racial techs?
If the Psychics can build a cloak that you have no possibility of defeating, you cannot attack their ships. And you will be limited to standard cloaking devices which have counters available to everyone. You would reach a point in the game where you have no chance to stop the psychics, because you would not know where their ships were. While they could attack you with impunity.
Also, even if everyone is playing a race with some kind of uber-cloak, it then becomes simply a race to see who gets there first. I know the game is like that now in some respects, but this would appear to make it worse IMHO.
I think the cloaking system could be made much more varied and interesting by allowing different types of cloaks that would require specialized sensors to defeat. All I am saying is make sure that the sensors are available to everyone regardless of racial traits at some point. Make them more expensive to research if you wish, but they have to have some way to get them.
Geoschmo