I want to try and make a fairly large change to Proteus in the next few days. I haven’t written any code yet so not sure how long it will take for me to clean things up.
I made a mistake in the initial Proteus design not taking into account the increased ship production at a star when I increased the weapon skill bonus for defenders. This has lead to the defender having too much of an advantage in Proteus. It’s too difficult and expensive to attack.
To try and reduce the problem, I’m going to remove the defenders weapon skill bonus entirely.
I’m also considering giving the attacker the initiative. The first strike. But would like to hear your thoughts about that before I make any changes.
I would like to just apply this rule chance to all existing games so that we don’t have two different types of Proteus games floating around. I understand this may result in players losing a combat they would have otherwise won, and I apologize. Please let me know if this happens to you and I will fix you up with extra premium, credits, or otherwise try and make it up to you.
Espionage Changes
I also think Espionage is a big too crazy right now, I like the effect it has on the game but want to half the amount of research you receive.
I know the trade restrictions are one of the most difficult changes to get used to. I would like to play a few more games before casting any final judgement.
So far however, I think they are working as intended, and in my current test game, trading groups are roughly growing at about the same size, just so they can trade with each other.
I think warp gates can still be very useful. I’m range 6 in my game and where I have gates, 19 hours of travel is now only 12. It’s only going to get better as my range tech increases.
Anyhow, I’m pushing out these changes today. Let see how they go.
I personally don’t find a good change. Now is already an exponential evolution, if you made this, everybody will quit just before the game become more interesting.
The evolution of the game should be more logarithmic
“1. You can’t trade tech with little empire, so I can’t pay for other tech.
2. That the resources are the product between tech and quantity. This will give a great advantage to the one who manage to developed faster.”
"
I agree with your assessment
Not trading up is frustrating
Resources accumulate too fast to the leader
How do you feel about public visibility on tech and cash trades? I am not a fan. It messes with backhanded diplomacy
"
It’s too early to tell if the combat change is going to be a boon or a problem. It certainly makes it easier for attackers now that the defending bonus is gone. This just gave me an edge in one of the Proteus games that I’m playing!
I haven’t encountered any bugs so far. The roll out seems to have gone smoothly.
The latest changes to the combat rules have a bug.
The rule still gives the defender a +2 bonus
My combat with an AI last tick lowered my weapons level to that of the attacking AI. I had level 20 and the AI 17, and the system reported and calculated my level as 17. As a result the AI lost around 900 less than it should have.
Update…
This has been going on for approximately the last 17 ticks. It looks like the system is subtracting two levels from weapons on defense. When I was at level 19 the system used level 17. I’m at level 20 now and the system reported level 18 on defense last tick.
At first was annoyed at the def rules change, but to be honest I was the aggressor and the changes made me lose planets I took a little too early. I did however find the wording confusing in the Proteus changes. It said defender loses their +2 weapons bonus which I felt inferred that they got the regular +1 instead… oh well figured it after I lost a star I had just heavily invested in industry to defend.
I’ve just begun a match today! I think the change you’ve implemented should work great. Before I was hesitant to launch at anyone. With the espionage and 2+ defence bonus it seemed better to simply sit and wait to be attacked while working research.