I’m having this very problem again now and was hoping it also might get some attention. It’s also a real buzzkill to logon to see what happened at production to see your E-hit was wasted for the 2nd or 3rd day in a row
I think the right solution here is for the admin to disable Experimentation entirely is games with locked tech.
I see in the code I have a check to see if Experimentation is enabled or not, but I don’t think you can currently disable it in the interface. I will see if this is something I can easily fix in the next few days.
I disagree that experimentation should be disabled in games with any locked tech.
Just because one tech is locked, doesn’t mean that experimentation should not help you in other areas. Note that what @cptcrackers and @Valhallan are not asking that it be disabled, but it only work on techs that can be advanced. Personally, I like it the way it is - sometimes Dr. Banner is a doofus in the lab and develops a tech not advanceable.
I’m ok with an option to allow an admin to disable experimentation, but I don’t think it should be all or nothing. Taking away that random element of luck in exp is a pretty important factor in the game. Especially early. It means you can’t predict FOR SURE when your opponent will level up. It’s just no fun at all though getting weapons on the roll 3 or 4 times in a row in a game with locked weapons. It means that you actually rolled lose a turn as far as the free points go.
Another idea would be to maybe let the game admin check boxes on a list of which techs experimentation will cover. So they could potentially just allow exp to cover some techs but not others. Like maybe everything but weapons for example.
Actually, I said “Personally, I like it the way it is - sometimes Dr. Banner is a doofus in the lab and develops a tech not advanceable”
So I’d leave it as-is … as frustrating as that can be … and rest assured when this happens (especially when multiple times!), the HULK goes on a rampage and SMASHES Dr. Banner’s test tubes!
I then did go on to say that "If you want to have a way of disabling experimentation, allow setting the starting value to ZERO!"
Also see the referenced forum thread where I actually propose that you should be able to set other techs to ZERO - Weapons and Range would be the two exceptions since you would have difficultly playing a game with those at zero.
well I did misunderstand you then @HULK . sorry. I disagree with this then, I am not a huge fan of luck to begin with, having something you invest in produce nothing swings the game too much. Most of the time in a larger game no big deal, but in the beginning playing others are cutthroat it could mean the game and that is a lame way to lose imo.
FYI that I’m starting to agree with @nick.muzzio …
Of course, I could just be doing a “wah-wah” since in my current 1v1 game, I just spent the effort to finish E2 … and got a (locked) Weapons hit - GRRRRR!
I don’t think it is as much of an issue in large multi-player games, but it is especially unfair in a 1v1 game where the only Tech you are getting it from what you are developing.
So yea, I would suggest that Jay make a change in the code such that when Experimentation awards points, it MUST go to a non-locked tech.
I have actually been coming around to your thinking … and especially given that there are not too many many cycles in the 1v1 games, it is a bit unfair if you get absolutely nothing for Exp, especially early on.
What do you think of the level 0 tech starts? Primarily to disable Banking and Experimentation in custom games.
I’ve run some tests. Setting Banking or Experimentation to 0 breaks production. Setting Weapons to 0 breaks battles. Both causing server side errors. The other techs work.
Thanks Jay … and please make the changes to retro-active so that the 144 points I got for (locked) weapons last cycle in my 1v1 game against @AnnanFay is applied to another tech!
P.S. LOL settings Weapons to ZERO … not so good for the attacker!