[Edi]

True. It is not good the way it is now, but whether it can be quickly fixed is another matter.

Funny thing is that I just have a game going with Kaljamaha where he plays LA Pythium and I play Arco. I have an imprisoned nataraja with no magic at all, Dominion 7 and nearly all scales maxed out. O2, P3, C/H 0, G2, L3, M3. And it hasn't hit me yet, despite not having dominion in all neighboring provinces for a while. Conversely, Kaljamaha's Pythium had all of its scales wiped out right off the bat and there was no difference as such in his situation.

So to some degree this issue is arbitrary, but what causes it to behave the way it does is up in the air. It's possible that if each type of scale increase/decrease due to dominion trying to push them in the direction of the pretender is handled separately (which I would expect), then it may be something different in the way order, production and growth are checked. If not, then it's going to be something esoteric. We may or may not learn more after Johan takes a good look at this thread, depending on whether he chooses to make any public statements here or in the beta group.

I know this issue is aggravating, but right now the only thing I can counsel is patience. Making too much hay of it right now or turning shrill is NOT going to help and can only have a detrimental effect.