An idea to keep Experimentation "interesting" and more balanced

I agree with that. The defense bonus is a very important thing to keep. It could be 25% bonus. It’s a very easy number to do the math in your head. So, the strength of the defense is the number of ships plus 1/4 of itself and the strength of the attack is just the number of ships. Whichever is greater wins the battle. To know how many ships are left, just subtract the loser strength from the winner strength, and multiply for 4/5 in the case the defense wins.

I think it will be also interesting that the bonus stay fixed throughout tha game. Now, in the late-game, with super-high Weapons, the bonus of defense is too big for single-ship stars but is insignificant for well-defended stars.

It would be very close to games with fixed level 4 Weapons, so pleople who played those games can say what they felt.

Hey also, I also thought I should pop in and say that I enjoy talking crazy ideas, but I don’t want you all to freak out too much that I am planning huge changes to the game.

I like to explore crazy ideas because one day we might stumble across something that is really cool.

I normally don’t discuss the most crazy ideas in public because it can stress folks out a little who like the game the way it is, but I’ve really been appreciating peoples thoughts, ideas and feedback.

If you are experiencing a high level of anxiety while reading the various threads about big changes, please rest assured that anything substantial will be tested in its own branch and will only go live once we are sure its fun.

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I guess you’re doing a bit of…

Sunglasses

EXPERIMENTATION

eyyyyyyyy!

Concerning New Tech Ideas

They sound good. I still like the idea of having two techs for Economy and Science. One which modifies the facilities, and one which gives direct money or science boosts.

Banking-Gives X*Banking Level credits per turn

Economics-At Payment, you gain 10+Economics Level credits per Economy Facility
Other names: Development, Management, Entrepernuership

Experimentation-Gives X*Experimentation Level science points per turn

Innovation-At Payment, you gain X+Science Level credits per Scientific Facility
Other names: Integration, Iteration, Research

For Weapons, I have several ideas.

  1. Standard Start Base Weapons isn’t 1. In my paper and pencil game (I keep referencing that!) I started all techs at 5. This makes new techs less uberawesomeamazing because it increases capabilities by 20% instead of 100%. Simplest solution which works mostly in the early game.

  2. Lowest of X: There are several weapons techs, and your active weapons tech is the lowest tech level among them. You can name them things like Blasters, Missles, etc. Doesn’t make much sense but will slow overall weapons growth, emphasize teamwork, and make betrayals more strategic and interesting.

  3. Experience: Winning battles and conserving veteran carriers mean more now, when each XP level gives you localized Weapons advantage! Pretty complicated to implement. Easiest way to handle multicarrier battles is to just have ships in each carrier fight at their carrier’s XP level, and when all those ships die go to the next carrier.

  4. Nothing: Weapons IS the most important tech. Players should work together to fight weapons tech kingpins, with betrayals in support of said kingpins for valuable weapons a constant threat. Close alliances should be easily deduced. Balance of power should be allowed to flourish. With scan-trade, one is hard-pressed to support long distance alliances and sneaky weapons trades, and everyone you can trade weapons to is generally a neighbor… and an immediate potential threat.

EDITEDIT 5 NEW IDEA FROM ANOTHER THREAD.
Combat is based on comparing ship sizes. Weapons will determine casualties taken by the winner. This makes Industry and Manufacturing more important than just Weapons, which in turn makes Economy more important than Science.

On Defense Bonuses: You can do it like that Zombie game. Each level gives you a base +X to defense, with X being phantom ships that take initial casualties. It should cost a whole lot, and I think it can safely grow 2x geometrically. Like 10->20->40->60->120 etc.

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The “Feature Requests” tag should be “Feature Requests - DON’T PANIC!”

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The idea in your post, Jay, would favor expanding empires even more than the game does already. While I understand the game is fundamentally about conquering the most stars, I really wish there was a way to utilize a turtle tactic - i.e., a way to grow in power without growing in size.

How Exp & Banking (& Terra) work now hints at the possibility of that tactic - but as discussed, the very quickly diminishing returns of B & E don’t actually allow it.

In my ideal game, B & E would not be tied to infastructure as Manu & Terra are, but rather would be a independently scaling income/science bonus. Even just a vastly stronger Banking would be enough, really.

PS: Yes, it is possible to win by turtling as the game exist. However, it requires weak or stupid neighbors.

I like that too.

We been approaching the changes to technologies with the mindset that which ever new technology will replace the existing technologies.

How about instead of replacing, we just add additional technologies? Thus, we will have more options and more things to trade.


Here’s the list of technologies I would like:

Economics :
For each star, earn $Y*(9+X) every 24 ticks where X is your economics tech level and Y is the amount of economy at a star.

Banking :
On production, earn an additional $2XY where X is your banking tech level and Y is your total amount of your economy.

Manufacturing :
A star produces Y*(5+X) ships every 24 ticks where X is your manufacturing tech level and Y is the amount of industry at a star.

Fabrication :
On production, a star produces an additional 2XY ships where X is your fabrication tech level and Y is your total amount of your industry.

Analysis :
A star produces Y*(23+X) points of research every 24 ticks where X is your analysis tech level and Y is the amount of science at a star.

Experimentation :
On production, your scientists will conduct experiments that will unlock 2XY points of research in a random technology where X is your experimentation tech level and Y is your total amount of your science.

Terraforming :
All your stars natural resources are improved by X*10% where X is your terraforming level tech.

Shields :
Ships prevent X-1 damage each round of combat where X is your shields tech level.

Weapons :
Ships deal X damage each round of combat where X is your weapons tech level.

Lasers :
Ships deal an additional X damage when defending, each round of combat where X is your lasers tech level.

Missiles :
Ships deal an additional X-1 damage when attacking, each round of combat where X is your missiles tech level.

Hyperspace :
Carriers may make hyperspace jumps up to 3+X light years where X is your hyperspace tech level.

Scanning :
Stars may scan the infrastructure and strength of enemy fleets and stars up to 2+X light years where X is your scanning tech level.


With the above double technologies for economy/industry/science, players can chose a progressive payout each tick; or a one-time payout at production but with double the effect; or a combination of both.

I have always felt that Terraforming should not make all worlds good, hence the reason for changing the +5 to +10% per level.

The additional combat technologies will reduce the focus on only weapons. Note that Weapons and Shields should negate each other, then it will become Lasers versus Missiles. Also, a lot of new users do not fully realize that the defender gets an advantage, thus I hope this more clearly highlight the benefit of defending (without needing an extra rule of defender get +1 to weapons).

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Thanks for these suggestions @SilentNSly.

I’m not 100% sure how I feel about adding more technologies. First impression is cool! But actually I’m not sure thats the direction I want the game to go.

From a pure game design point of view, the main reason for the technologies is to encourage player to talk to each other and interact. I think 6-7 technologies is probably enough for that.

I don’t want players struggling to analyze what tech they should be researching.

hrm. Think I need to think about this one some more.

You could always have only 6-7 of those technologies enabled as the default settings, and make the other technologies as custom settings.


As long as technologies are bonuses, they can be optional.

I think it would be great for variety.


Also, players would be able to feedback on which version they like best to be enabled by default.

Another option would be to have each game have 6 core technologies, and one randomly chosen extra tech. Sort of like Dominion where every game has slightly different parameters. This tends to give bigger advantages to experienced players though.

How long until this is implemented?

I would have done it already but I’m quite far behind on my other project. I will try and make some time for these early in the new year.