Empire setup and specialization

[clark]

Might have to readjust the cultural modifiers... free bonuses afterall.

[Parasite]

If reducing points by a little bit also gave a big (or Bigger) point bonus, you could still have half the abilities reduced and half raised way up.

[Alneyan]

Both values (that is, to raise and to lower) are independent, but it raises a good question I forgot to mention. Should you gain a lot of points based on the same formula when you lower a characteristic, or should it be much more reduced, or even impossible at all?

Now that I am thinking on it, I guess only using specific cultures would make matters much easier to handle. You would need a nice game host to make all the said cultures, but... And remains the small aforementioned problem of balance of course.

[Fyron]

I am not too sure how Repair works when improved, but I seem to recall it doesn't affect the actual repair rates. Is it so?

It works fine if you raise the trait. Just be aware that the trait affects the total repair in the sector, not individual components. If you have components with 1 repair, a 20% bonus would do nothing if it made each of them 1.2, as decimals are lost. Instead, it totals up all repair, then increases by 20%.

[PvK]

I think that specialized empire designs are quite viable in PvK Balance Mod, and in other mods with balanced starting costs.

The reason balance provides this, is that when there are not enough points to buy everything worth buying, then there are choices, and some abilities, anyway, are worth their threshold cost, because they get better the more you get.

Particularly Attack, Defense, Maintenance, Construction, and perhaps some of the others that generate points of various things (research, intel, savvy, resources).

The proposal to set the Normal range to high is interesting, but unfortunately because of the limited options, it will also mean the default choice will be a minor reduction to get a bunch of refund points, since you can't have a different Normal cost for positive and negative.

The cultures though do offer ways to enable enforced specialist types. I would combine with a balanced mod for best effect.

PvK

[spoon]

Originally posted by PvK:
because of the limited options, it will also mean the default choice will be a minor reduction to get a bunch of refund points, since you can't have a different Normal cost for positive and negative.

This is a problem... Though if you only apply the "specialist" formula (High normal cost, low threshold cost) to the items that are dangerous to lower by much(research, aggressive, defensive, minerals, maint, construction) the idea will still work... Then you could address the other stats in the Cultures to make additional specialist types...(like +1000 Repair...)

[Puke]

This is already being done (to some extent) in the Imperialism mod. Which i need to run turns for, but since ive been trapped at work for such stupid hours over the Last few weeks...

anyway, i did the exact thing you describe - but only for political savvy. high cost to raise or lower a few points, lower cost to raise or lower beyond the threshold. and it pays off even with fewer players (works better with more players) because its more profitable to subjugate AI races (with a high bonus) than it is to conquer them outright.