06/11/2018 · 08:17 AM
#28
Firstly since this comes up yet again, Gordo`s are an issue and a major one at that, but as it`s been said time and again by BW and myself in the past. there are solutions that doesn`t require removing gordo`d land nor does it require compensating anyone.
the best solution in my eyes is making it so that base br is based on land with planets only playing a minor role, BW even had a formula ready to go where every one would be able to explore up to around 80k land. we could even possibly tweak it so that amount could vary from race to race if need be for economy balancing purposes. this also makes it so gordos are still useful in that having a few massive planets over clusters gives you more border space so there would still be a point to gordos, but at the same time clusters would likely need to see a boost so that having them is preferable, perhaps making it so that a planets Income gen ( no matter the type) is boosted by x amount for each planet in the cluster, again race dependent.
The other option is simple remove gordos and make it so that everyone who has gordo`d land would have said planet turned into a cluster at a rate of 1000 land per planet so then if you have a 60k large or c2 or what have you that becomes 2x 25,000 c2`s and a 5k c1 or if you`d rather a 60k c3. After that gordo`s effects would be made null and void.
Another hot topic which has always been a huge topic an no one has ever liked any solution we`ve came up with is guards and their Build rates and or ability to build massive amounts of ships. Well first off with regards to this topic I would like to say that before any ship tweaking it would be best and highly suggested that all econs for all races be reworked prior to any ship tweaking i`ve been trying to beat that into some heads over the years but it`s a difficult task and not a easy subject, but it remains why change ships, then fix econs to find out that econs play just as much a role in one races success over another then you have to go back and rebalance ships once again to suit econs.
By Econs I don`t just mean the economic formula and research in general, I mean planets, planet stats, cluster stats, min and maxes for cash, mins, and the whole gambit. I`ve always been a firm believer that planet types should play a more pivotal role in the game than just land. Meaning that planets stats play a role especially when clustered so that having multiple forest types in a cluster actually boost the Agri mod of the planet by a percentage for each one in the cluster and at the same times having barrens would negatively influence this mod. Adding this alone would change up Economic balance in the game dramatically. Also I believe that mining minerals from a planet should be more complex than just a ratio depending on the cluster and requiring no real effort in the way having to maintain a planets pop .
I also think that the caps on agri, and minerals and cg`s should be dependent on research, meaning that each level of agri that you research makes your max food cap increase by x amount, same with minerals. Even making the starting caps vary from race to race. With this though also increase the max amount of research an empire can have to maybe 500 or some other number though cap the amount that you may have in one field at say 250. again this could also vary by race.
But again balancing econ is a very very complex issue that will require another server, a clone of RT preferable to be made with everyone testing and giving feed back with tweaks made every so often. All this over the course of at least 6 months if not a year. Or perhaps said server staying live for ever.
But back to guard ships. A big issue with guards is the variety they now have in damage types and resistances and it is my fault, I made the current ships after all. K class has been a favorite in the past to pick on and lowering it`s shield resistances would help as would lowering the hull to pr ratio of other guard ships. Though a simple solution would be cutting the pr of all guard ships by 10, 20 or 30% and then lowering each of their stats aside from shielding and cost by the same amount so their ratios stay nearly the same while leaching their br.
I always thought it would be neat to absolutely murder guard br rates and increase their ships cost but at the same time when a UW is active over a certain pr depending on the server have their br double and cost cut so that way during normal times guards can be on par or sub par in comparison to other races but during the time they`re supposed to have plot armor, during a UW they can. Also guards should retain a small boost to br and ship cost for up to 6 months after a UW is defeated provided they attacked the UW and did sufficient damage to the UW while it was up either in one battle or over the course of the entire UW determined by a percentage based on the starting pr of the UW bearer and all ships they build during the UW, fodder killed and built excluded perhaps. And on the other side of the coin if a UW does go off all guards the server over suffer some negatives what ever they may be for failing to do their duty.
I`ve also do believe last time all this was going around mentioning adding in a new race to the game which would also usher in a new research type. The race, Reclaimers a robotic races that makes money purely out of battle. And I have got a good bit of math done for this as well as for some of the other ideas mentioned above.
Reclaimers called such because they reclaim debris from battle they would have very few planets max of 8 with attacking perhaps, though aside from staying alive the would serve no real purpose to them.
reclaimers would research “salvage” which would increase the yeild given by ships they destroy in battle this research type would be available for all and all races would see some profit from battles, more with maruaders and collective also reciving a decent mod to salvage. Salvage research level would also increase plunder gains from planets, so it could be a viable path for both races. Though plunder would likely be a negative mod for reclaimers themselves.
Before I explain battles there would be a change to ships building reclaimers ships would also cost raw materials, though I think all races ships should cost raw materials to build as it gives raw mats more of a purpose. And the cost should be at ½ that of credit cost..also I wouldn`t think it a bad idea for raw mats to be needed for ship upkeep, though when you run out of raw mats with a fleet you don`t lose ships or go into debt but all ships you currently have take more damage and do less damage in battle, perhaps base it on a percentage that increases for every turn you take without raw mats so at 200 turns used they do 2% less damage and have 2% less hull.. at 500 turns it goes up to 4% at 1000 turns 8% 5000 turns 15% to a max of perhaps 50% or 25% or what have you, again this would be a definite for reclaimers but I don`t think it`d be a bad idea for all races. Also goes in line with an idea I had called attrition who would lose a percentage of ships for 3 hours they stayed out of dp not using turns which would go into effect 24 hours after first leaving dp.. which would make the ranks more dynamic and keep it so people couldn`t just build up to max pr and sit and do nothing out of reach for weeks at a time...you know it keeps people playing the game
So what would happen with battles is the victor and loser, to a much much less extent, (say 99%victor 1% loser) would receive cash minerals and raw materials based on the ships destroyed in the battle. for example you had battle where the total cost of ships destroyed was 20 bil credits, 10,000 of each mineral, and a number for raw mat. So winning for lets say a terran with no levels in salavage would be 1% returns or less...but for reclaimer with a few levels in salvage would see maybe 20% of that given to them with a boost in raw mats given to them that they could then sell on the market. And a reclaimer with a higher salavge level could see nearly 100% of that given to them.
By nature reclaimers ships would be cheaper than most with high damage to pr ratio, low shields low hull to pr ratio with probably slightly above average range for most ship classes.
But anyhow these are some of the idea BW and I have worked on and discussed in the past some of which of course are much easier to implement than others and all the numbers provided are just there to be an example. So don`t get stuck on any one particular number and i`m not promising anything but I`d figured i`d put back up some of the suggestions and solutions we`ve made in the past.
Edited by EphemeralEternity on 2018-11-06
