What are the characteristics of your favorite race?

[Dralasite]

I read it as building 20% more facilities. I don't think it adds to any individual facility. However, it also allows you to have more population, which can increase production as well...

[rdouglass]

Thats it exactly. AST doesn't increase the output of each facility, just the number of facilities.

If you think about it, it's like getting 6 planets for the price of 5...

[Fyron]

Yeah... what I meant was that you can build 20% more facilities, so you can make 20% more stuff. But, the increased population Doesn't equate to increased production rates except on Huge breatheable planets, becase only there does the increase actually take the max population to a new pop modifier. But, it does allow you to load population off of your HW without lowering it below 2000, 3000 or 4000 (depending on size), and so lets you more quickly build up new colonies, while maintaining the high bonus on the HW.

[Taera]

hrm, people, are 50% statistics are fun?
i dont play pbw much but in my single game i just cut down the trade (i try to play aggressive) and farming (dont realy need it) down to 80% or 85%.
Repair goes down sometimes, too, but only to 85%.

I think 50% are not fair, not fun, whatever.

[Pax]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
But, the increased population Doesn't equate to increased production rates except on Huge breatheable planets, becase only there does the increase actually take the max population to a new pop modifier.

Except in some Mods, where population modifiers have a higher degree of "resolution" .. 8)

[ December 24, 2002, 19:37: Message edited by: Pax ]

[SamuraiProgrammer]

Well, I think it is acceptable to put the race settings anywhere you like for the simple reason that the points gained by changing something from 51 to 50 are not as many points as are gained by changing something from 100 to 99. There are diminishing returns.

Also, there are limits as to how far some attributes can be reduced.

The hope is that the game designers have balanced things appropriately. Also, there are different opinions as to what 'balance' is.

There are many ways we could rationalize why it is appropriate to drop one attribute to an unbelievably low number and raising others.

For example, lets look at the repair attribute. If my race has big, stocky arms and legs, it might cause them to have to completely dissasemble a piece of equipment in order to repair it. This could easily cause most repairs to take twice as long (more or less) to effect. This would directly correlate to a 50% repair rating. At the same time, this bulk could improve their survivability when they are damaged (plusses to ground combat and defensiveness).

Of course, we can easily rationalize anything. And for every rationalization, there are several counters that make at least as much sense to do it the other way. One of my favorite lines from a movie was from The Big Chill. Jeff Goldblum's character said "Rationalizations are more important than sex. When was the Last time you went an entire week without a juicy rationalization?"

Anyhow, it is safe to assume that there are some things some players will do that will offend the sensibilities of the other players.

Happy Holidays!

[Chronon]

Thanks for the clarification on AST, everyone. It certainly does sound useful.

I do agree with you, SP and CapnQ, about roleplaying races. There are always gamers who will do their share of 'min-maxing' (see the "gamey tactics" thread on this forum), and I don't see this as unfair, or bad. It's just part of the game. But I, like you, think it's more fun to set up the racial characteristics to reflect the type of being(s) that one is playing. I don't think these are mutually exclusive, though. Why not play a race that role plays well, AND is competitive on PBW?