Broken balance; organic resources and personality traits

[vostok]

2 questions for modders;

1) is there a way to modify the game such that populations require nutrient intakes? As it stands, the only (limited) bonus for large populations is a scanty production bonus. Organic as a resource is irrelevant except for a few specialty components and weapons; one might only build a farm or two during the whole game. Id LIKE to make organic resources be consumed by pop (and then make pop bonuses much larger), but this seems impossible...

Oh, and do the personality traits have any utility at all in the game? As in "serene", "neutral", "impulsive"; they seem empty descriptions that influence nothing.

[Marty Ward]

I noticed the same thing. I never run short of organics.
You could add a negative organic resoure generation to some buildings to simulate the food used but the modifier would not be constant, it would be affected by all your race/population/happiness bonuses. It does work though.
I have added a -10% organics generation to most of my buildings, costs about 20 organics per building per turn on a 100% planet with my race bonuses. It doesn't seem like much until you colonize 1/4 of a 255 system galaxy. Then it adds up. I've actually not built all the possible buildings on a planet to conserve resources at times. I've built more farms in this game than all my other combined I think.

[raynor]

quote:

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I have added a -10% organics generation to most of my buildings, costs about 20 organics per building per turn on a 100% planet with my race bonuses.

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You did what?

You modified the buildings so that they generate negative organics and this works??

I don't think I have hear that anyone did this before. If this works, me thinks you are a genius.

[Talenn]

Vostok? The same Vostok from AoKH and MFO? If so, welcome to SE4 (at least I havent SEEN you here before). On MFO/AoKH/Zone I was Imperious_Leadr....hmmm, maybe I shoulda kept that name for a SPACE game, eh?

Anyways, regarding your post...I had the same feeling regarding Organic and (to a lesser extent) Radioactives. My solution was to increase (rather greatly) the amount of Organics and Radioactives that Facilities take to build. The overall effect is that while you're colonizing heavily and building up your planets, you need ALOT more of these two underused resources. If you arent growing, you can afford to slack off on them.

Also, I increased the cost of the basic ship Hulls in terms of the Organics and Radioactives. IMO, this represents the food and 'fuel' expenditures for the ship (and, of course, its an ongoing cost due to the maintenance). Small Troops also have greatly increased Organics requirements (but less Minerals) as IMO, it represents the levying of larger number of grunts, again requiring more food.

The results have been very much to my liking. You definately cannot neglect these resources, especially early in the game when you are trying to heavily colonize. Later in the game, the ship maintenance guarantees that you have to make at least some investment in them to keep going. All in all, they went from nearly useless, to something I actively looked for good worlds to make use of.

The only real complication was the AI. Fortunately, with a little bit of playing around, I was able to get the AI players to build a pretty good, properly balanced, econ to account for the changes I made. So far so good.

Talenn

[Nitram Draw]

Raynor,
It works. Edit a facility to give another ability. Make the ability generate resources of the type you want. Make the amount generated a negative number, not a percentage. All bonuses apply and that much will be deducted from you resources.
I simulate power usage, food, waste etc. The bigger you empire the more it costs you to maintain, bureaucratic waste you know

[vostok]

Hi Imperious er Talenn, yes it is me in fact. Wow, what are the odds of meeting an old AoK player here? You know i still don't think anyone ever found out about the tower anti-camel bonus Maybe its just me, but perhaps there is some catharthis involved, after the experiences of AoK, in being able to at a whim rebalance every variable possible in a game .

I like the ideas about affixing an organic cost to facilities, that will be close enough for most purposes. Is it possible to modify the settings file to do the same i wonder? Add an entry whereby per pop size, although receiving a production bonus also deducting increasing amounts of nutrients?

I agree with making ships more expensive in organics as well, although i usually change the crew compartments and life support rather than the hull so as to make 'robotic' ships, that don't use nutrients, also possible.

Nice to see you again!