OVERVIEW



I'll preface my comments by saying that I think the current economy system in the game gives the players way too much, way too early. At no point in the current game do I ever feel that I'm struggling for resources or sacrificing my development in one area to focus on another. Because of this it is difficult to judge the strength of the Luxury boosters and I won't focus on individual resources or compare their power other than to say that they are all nice (especially now that they give +10 happiness). Nice to have, a bit boring, but not needed. -50% city upkeep from Gold? Sure, I don't really have a Dust problem but I'll take it. It's because of the lack of need for these bonuses that they feel unnecessary at the moment. I can't imagine starting a War with an opponent because I want their Wine or bothering to spend Dust to buy Quicksilver on the Marketplace.



Effects of individual Luxuries aside, here's a couple thoughts about the system in general...



BOOSTER MECHANIC



I'm not a fan of the "booster" mechanic. I've found myself in two situations with Luxuries:



A. I'm getting a high output rate of a particular resource (I have two extractors) and have enough to keep the boost in effect all of the time.

B. I'm not getting a lot of a particular resource and I forget I have it.



In both cases, I have to open the Empire screen, check my Luxuries and activate boosters if I can. Doing this every turn is a chore. With the exception of the military-related boosts, the time I want these active is always "now". Why would I wait to get a Food bonus?



TOO MANY?



Luxuries and they are pretty common (1-3 deposits per region). It feels like 15 different Luxuries is too many. Perhaps, this is because a lot of the effects are FIDSI boosters rather than unique effects.



MARKETPLACE



As j.a.paisley pointed out, the Marketplace is a little silly right now.



SUGGESTION



To replace the booster mechanic, I'll suggest the following system:



1. As soon as you get to a certain "reserve level" (quantity) of luxuries, the boost effect will automatically trigger and your population will begin consuming the reserve.



2. Consumption rate is based on your Empire population size. Bigger empires will consume the resource faster and/or require higher reserve levels to trigger.



3. The "reserve level" you are at determines the effect of the boost. Examples (use Gold as an example):



Level 0 ("Insufficient") = No effect

Level 1 ("Scarce") = 25% City Upkeep This level should grant the unique effect for the resource

Level 2 ("Abundant") = +10 Happiness and -25% City Upkeep This level should be difficult to achieve and sustain for a large population, requiring multiple extractors and/or Marketplace purchases



4. If your reserve reaches 0, the boost automatically stops until your reach level 1 again.



5. You always have the option of selling off some/all of your reserve to the Marketplace.



6. Tooltips on the Empire screen will clearly explain your reserve, consumption rate effects at each level and amount needed for each level.



This system would remove the micromanagement from Luxuries while still retaining their value and giving the opportunity to sell them on the marketplace.

In my opinion, we have two great possibilities who depend of the rarity of resources.



If the resources could be collected (without particular difficulties) to activate the bonus all the time (not necessary for all but but several), we have a problem of micromanagement. In this scenario, we could put checkboxs in empire plan view. If the box is checked, at the end of the turn, the game is testing if he can activated the bonus (like when we click on the button currently). The synchronisation between empire plan and resource cycle could be a good thing to clarify the empire situation.



In the other case, the ressource micromanagement isn't a problem. It's logical that the player must acting to activate during a limited time. In this scenario, the ressources can't be wasted with a auto-activate. For example, if I'm moving the majority of my population who work on food to science production to have a technologie quickly , I wouldn't use my precious ressources to win half that I could have normaly.



I agree with you on the necessary linking between empire size and ressource consumption. Actualy a ressource boost is larger profitable to a big empire than a small for the same cost. And the small empire usualy will have, often, more difficulties to collect the same amount of resource.



But I'm not sure that is a good idea to create several level of effects for the ressources. It's too difficult to balance how many units of each resource are equals to gain 10 hapiness (in proportion of the effect of its resource and the others resources effects).

Jaguar_Flemmard wrote:
In the other case, the ressource micromanagement isn't a problem. It's logical that the player must acting to activate during a limited time. In this scenario, the ressources can't be wasted with a auto-activate. For example, if I'm moving the majority of my population who work on food to science production to have a technologie quickly , I wouldn't use my precious ressources to win half that I could have normaly.

As mentioned in my post, if I'm not getting enough to activate all the time, I'm constantly checking my levels to see when I do and I usually activate them as soon as I do. With the exception of the military-related ones, there's no reason to wait for FIDSI boosts. Even if there was, waiting for the perfect time to active your "-50% city upkeep" boost is not interesting game play (in my opinion), but rather a chore.

Jaguar_Flemmard wrote:
But I'm not sure that is a good idea to create several level of effects for the ressources. It's too difficult to balance how many units of each resource are equals to gain 10 hapiness (in proportion of the effect of its resource and the others resources effects).

My thinking was to create an additional benefit for having a lot of a particular resource vs. just enough to get the bonus, similar to the "monopoly" mechanic in Endless space. +10% happiness is not a fixture (like it is today), just an example of an added bonus from having an abundance of a particular resource. I'm by no means suggesting that these levels are appropriate. For example, maybe the initial bonus should immediately kick in once you start gathering a resource (at a minimum level related to your population size) and the "bonus" kicks in once you have enough in reserve.



The overall point is to remove the micromanagement-heavy booster mechanic without changing the extraction mechanics, reducing the value, or taking away the ability to sell on the Marketplace.

Yes, I don't get the feeling of " I stockpiled resource X, now is the time to use it for an advantage!"



Instead, its just build up and auto use, especially for the FIDS boosters

Propbuddha wrote:
As mentioned in my post, if I'm not getting enough to activate all the time, I'm constantly checking my levels to see when I do and I usually activate them as soon as I do.

For me, your "problem" is the same than a person who have lot of resource. She would want having this boost always activated, and she checking all time when her bonus is ending... For distinct reasons, it's the same problem of micromanagement. That why I have proposed to give a option of auto-activation in empire plan view.

EcthelionHelm wrote:
Yes, I don't get the feeling of " I stockpiled resource X, now is the time to use it for an advantage!"

Me too. In some games, I have lot of various resource but in others I have a limited amount of resource if I don't take it in the market.



In my opinion, it's caused by not balanced apha version. But, if amplitude want to give us a rent of resource, they create a luxury ressource system like Endless Space or Civilization... Instead, they give us a system with manual activation... For me, it's a deliberate of game design and it is opening, in my mind, lot of questions.

Maybe I'm just playing differently from others, but I like to time my luxury boosts for when I can make the most efficient use of them. I find manual activation to be an interesting game mechanic. Others may disagree, but it certainly isn't a chore to me



The most obvious case of using this method, as already stated in this thread, is with the boosts to military things like city defense, attack on unit, etc. It makes sense to wait to use these until you are preparing to attack/defend against an opponent.



However, when it comes to other boosts to things like FIDS I always wait until I am in a position to truly capitalize on the boost itself.



For example:



Moonleaf gives 50% bonus to science. I wait to use this until I am in a position where I can transfer most of my workers to focus on science to get the maximum return from the 50% bonus. This often means I have to wait if I have pressing needs elsewhere like lots of industry to pump out military units, lots of food to grow my populations, lots of dust to retrofit armies, etc. I don't find myself spamming luxury boosters all that much because I like putting thought into when and how best to use them.



Am I running low on dust? I should use the gold booster to drop my city upkeep by 50% so I can earn more dust for a few turns.



Am I about to add another district to a couple of cities and drop their approval below happy? I should use the wine booster to keep my happiness bonuses.



In closing, I like manual activation because it puts me in control of when I can use my boosters to their best effect. That being said, I certainly wouldn't mind an auto-use button being put in as others seem to be asking for, I just want it to be an optional thing so I can still be happy controlling things manually.

I think the basic mechanics for both luxury and strategic materials are good.



What needs to improve is the interface. If I have an abundance of something and will keep it running for an extended period, what should happen is that I get a popup when it expires and it is a simple one click to renew.



The overall balance of the game and the shortness of the games under early access makes these resources seem overly abundant. If you only need 3 or 4 cities in your empire to defeat the AI, we are not seeing the same situation concerning these materials that we would in a longer game with 6 or 7 cities.



For the sake of easy math, lets assume an empire of 7 cities. That means you'll need 40 of that resource every 10 turns. If 2 of your 7 regions have the same luxury, you can probably run that one all the time. However, the odds are very good that with 7 regions there will only be one that you double up on, at most two, and even those will likely not be ones you especially care about.



These resources represent a good reason for particular regions to be contested. Wine, for instance, might as well be considered the crude oil of Aurigae.



Some factions also have at least one resource that is completely useless to them, like emeralds for the necrophages. Such items can be traded on the market but that is it.

With regards to Luxury Resources and the Marketplace (apart from the exploit paisley found), I think that the luxury resources should be separated in price by the tier they come from. It's just a little bit silly to be able to buy something like Dust Orchid for the same price as something like Emeralds, for instance.

I like the booster system they have in place, it makes going on quests to be well worth your time, especially when you snag things like Hydromeal, or Titan Bones. My biggest gripe and my number one reason to restart, is no starting Strategic or Luxury Resources.



But given both the time limit and the the sheer amount of luxury resources, It becomes pointless in a way. most of my games are over before im half way to era 4. Once you hit Era three not only do you get to see a new set of Strategic Resources, but five new luxuries, and unfortunately. Depending on your empire manage or luck as well as need, you probably wont be rushing the new Extractor right away, you can be halfway through Era 3 before you research the tech and then you do to wait for construction of the finish on the said extractors. but by then im usually on the warpath and luxury resources are not a priority. The same is true about those Strategic Resources, Palladian and Adamant, although the bonuses offered by the two make them not seem worth it compared to the utility of the bonuses provided by Glassteel and Titanium. (but that is an issue for another thread)



Also Emeralds are a pointless luxury item to get in Era 1, since they effect trade, and trade techs are in Era 3

EcthelionHelm wrote:
Yes, I don't get the feeling of " I stockpiled resource X, now is the time to use it for an advantage!"



Instead, its just build up and auto use, especially for the FIDS boosters

Agreed . . . and that is kind of boring (and another management task)



I would rather see almost all Luxurys be a per turn bonus (A hands off approach).



So if you are making/earning 1 "luxury", then you receive say 1% more income of "food". Each additional luxury of that type increases the bonus by 1% more. Likewise, each made/earned luxury provides a 2% happiness bonus. Earn more luxurys, get more happiness.



I might even make the first luxury of a new type worth a 4-5% happiness bonus as a variety bonus, then 2% afterward.



This encourages and helps larger empires more, while smaller empires build their powerful tall cities.

I agree luxuries currently are very unsatisfying.



I've been considering a couple different options:

[LIST=1]

Luxuries would be assignable to individual cities at a cost of 1/turn (UI checkbox, perhaps), and also provide their benefits to the region where the luxury originates. For example, if wine is located in my capital region I would automatically get the happiness bonus there, and then I could assign the lux to the capital to double the bonus or apply it to another city that might be having happiness problems.

Luxuries would automatically provide empire-wide bonuses that depletes the resource per turn and is divided by the number of cities, with a slider to use up more or less per turn (if available). So a 5-city empire with 50 Dye would get +10% Influence per turn in each city for 50 turns at 1/turn, or the slider could be adjusted to 2/turn, giving each city a +20% bonus, but only for 25 turns. A 1-city empire could use the dyes at 1/turn for the full +50% for 50 turns, or +100% for 25 turns. Obviously this method would require some serious rebalancing of luxury effects!

[/LIST]



Starfire's suggestion above could work well, also.



I think any of these designs could relieve much of the micromanagement hassle, give good incentives to getting more luxuries and provide small/tall empires rewards comparable to wide empires.