"Gamey" tactics like "Rock, none" races

[SamuraiProgrammer]

Thanks Imperator,

I knew that the calculations were non intuitive. I agree that it would make more sense to talk about the numbers the way you suggest.

I am also aware (unless I am wrong) that there is a hardcoded 5% minimum value.

When someone said 'broke', I thought that there was something wrong in how the effects were applied by the program.

It seems to me that the complaint is more one of balance (i.e. cost of changing the trait) rather than execution (i.e. the function does not work as intended).

In that light, I understand your comments about how it behaves differently based on the size of the map. However, it seems to me that most of the racial traits and ability adjustments are more or less cost effective in light of the rules package in place. For example, spending points to improve research ability is useless if you are playing with max tech.

One of the biggest 'wake up calls' I have gotten while learning to play this game was finding out how you could go in tampering with the abilities. For example, running cunning (ability to run intelligence missions) down very very far when you are not allowing intelligence.