Balancing Race Construction

[Will]

I'm going to echo a lot of the responses here.

Research isn't so important that you would spend a lot of points to max it out. Slight bonus is feasible... but I usually leave it within 5% of default (95% - 105%).

Defensiveness... what SJ said. Agressiveness goes in here too, and both should probably be a bit more expensive.

Resource Production (M/O/R), what SJ said. It's better to balance the components than messing around with race creation.

Construction is fine as it is now. Same with Repair (I build my ships to Last).

Maintenance should either be made a lot more expensive, or use whatever SJ said to make it an actual percentage.

For the advanced traits:
- Advanced Power ConVersion, it gives your ships superior range and combat time until QReactor is researched... probably not worth 1000, but I'd say at least 750.
- Mechanoids, ditto on Phoenix. You'll be glad you have it when you don't have to deal with Level 5 plagues. 500 seems more than reasonable.
- Lucky... well, you obviously haven't played High/Catastrophic events very often. Give Lucky a cost of 500, and add some more events for a bit of incentive...
- Natural Merchants, I pay 1000 for this one every game right now. It's worth it, instant production from distant colonies, a bit of extra facility space, and insurance in case of attack... only way to lose production is to have every planet blockaded.
- Propulsion Experts, I think should be a bit lower, 750. One extra movement point just doesn't seem worth 1000.
- Ancient Race, definitely 1000. Especially if someone's anal enough to go through the entire map and figure out where everyone is based on homeworlds
- Advanced Storage, I'd even say 1500. It's one of the best values of the advantages, with +20% population, facilities, and cargo.
- All Racial Techs, keep at 1500, or bump all to 1750. You're greatly over-estimating Religious, and under-estimating Psychic, Temporal, and Crystalline.
- Emotionless... in early beta, this one was worth 1000. It was changed because all the testers said it was greatly unbalanced. Emotionless means no riots, no angry worlds, no matter what. You could have a little tiny colony surrounded by a 100-ship enemy fleet, and they'll still go about their business.

--edit: Ok, bullets don't work for some reason... it is supposed to be[*], right?

[ July 24, 2002, 03:02: Message edited by: Will ]