[cswiger]

Originally posted by Skulky:
Once you start getting into total conVersions it can get alittle shakey as teh whole idea of play balance can be thrown off. But if there is a dedicated community (right here) then it may work. Plus plenty of people would be willing to play test it i think.

I'll certainly to try to give feedback to individual mods as I learn more about them.

It seems that a potential mod writer needs to change the tech tree (Data\TechArea.txt); ship and unit sizes (Data\VehicleSize.txt), component types, weapon damage, ROF, efficiency-per-kt ratio, (Data\Components.txt); and redo the economic model (Data\Facility.txt, PlanetSize.txt), first.

And then teach the AI races what to do.
And then rebalance the game.
And then do human playtesting.
And then rebalance the game.

Since these data files are interdependent, it's not a simple task. :-/ I've seen mention of a tech-tree viewer which displays dependencies and total cost...that would be useful. So would an turn-based simulator of the economic and research stuff to balance planet economies.

That way, you could balance the game in terms of empire development stages.

If you do it right, even an AI with a single planet should present a enough of a challenge to a human player at midgame (say around turn 100) to either require a few years worth of a single major shipyard, or else the concentration of, say, half the empire's production for a year to build a successful attack fleet. Planets are a little too vulnerable to assault once you get a tech advantage, IMHO.

-Chuck