I'd be fine if the approval bonus was halfed for minor factions. 

This would be more consistent with the pacifist version of the law.

bupjae wrote:

The inflation multiplier was x3.43 at [AutoSave 6432], x17.55 at [AutoSave 6433], and x0.25 at [AutoSave 6434].

Why was inflation bouncing around so much? I thought it just went up??

jhell wrote:

Thanks everyone for the reports, we have found the issue for the disappearing empires! It wasn't related to the inflation fluctuations, and should be fixed in the next iteration of the mod :)

I hope that comes soon; I'd like to test out the Voydani changes without vanishing empires!

CyRob wrote:

Dragar wrote: Why was inflation bouncing around so much? I thought it just went up??

Inflation is based on the total dust per turn production of empires at the end of the previous turn so as income changes it too will change, the large drop would be explained by the fleet upkeeps growing massively from the previous turns inflation, thus greatly decreasing income and the inflation next turn.

It's also scaled by empire count now so the fewer empires the much more unstable it will be.

0.25 suggets an empire - or several - are running pretty big shortfalls though, no?

And to clarify, that value is the multiplier on e.g. prices? So if something cost 100 dust at 1x inflation, it would cost 25 dust at 0.25 inflation?

Such fluctuation in dust inflation is self-evident.

DustInflation = 1 + 0.002 / N * GlobalDustProduction

The above is G2G mod's inflation formula. N is the number of major empires. GlobalDustProduction is sum of NetEmpireMoney, which is subtraction of EmpireMoneyUpkeep(Military Upkeep) from EmpireMoney. Let's call the sum of EmpireMoney as 'GlobalRevenue' and EmpireMoneyUpkeep as 'GlobalUpkeep_inflated'. Then the formula becomes like this.

DustInflation(n+1 turn) = 1 + 0.002 / N * (GlobalRevenue - GlobalUpkeep_inflated) = 1 + 0.002 / N * (GlobalRevenue - DustInflation(n turn) * GlobalUpkeep)

Then, abbreviating this will result a recurrence formula if it is possible to see revenue and upkeep as constants in a short term.

DI(n+1) = 1 + 0.002 / N * (GR - DI(n) * GU), DI(n+1) = 1 + 0.002/N*GU - 0.002/N*GU*DI(n)

In a same way a_(n+1)=p+q*a_n is converted into {a_(n+1)-r}=q(a_n-r) and the convergence test is done, it can be now determined whether the sequence of numbers shown above converges or diverges.

-1<-0.002/N*GU≤1 , as N>0 and GU>0, the convergence condition is 0.002/N*GU<1 → GU<500*N

Therefore, the Dust Inflation converges to DI=(1+0.002/N*GR)/(1+0.002/N*GU) when GU<500*N (N is the number of empires) and diverges otherwise, alternating its sign and increasing its absolute value.

So, it could have been okay to use because non-inflated value of military upkeep usually does not exceed 500*N dust, if it was before the upkeep skyrocketed because of upkeep of the Behemoths.

But now, each empire has massive upkeep because of the exponentially increasing Behemoths' upkeep. Average of 500 dust of upkeep for each empire is not safe anymore. There should be some measures to widen the radius of convergence or remove the ripple effect of fluctuation of the inflation.

A) Give some reduction on military upkeep at late-game or reduce the effect of inflation on upkeep. A reduction of 33% on upkeep or effect of inflation will increase the threshold from 500*N to 750*N. This does not remove the ripple effect but might be helpful to use.

B) Use Exponential Smoothing in inflation calculation. This does not increase the threshold or remove the ripple effect, but the fluctuation will be smoother.

C) Use the convergence value of inflation, removing the ripple effect. If DI=(1+0.002/N*GR)/(1+0.002/N*GU) or DI=(N/0.002+GR)/(N/0.002+GU) (same formula) can be used instead of current one(DustInflation = 1 + 0.002 / N * GlobalDustProduction), then the ripple effect of the dust inflation will disappear as new formula does not include the current inflation, cutting off the chain of fluctuation. This new formula is actually closer to calculating expected inflation, but I don't think using this formula would be odd. Maybe the financial environment of the future could catch up with inflation as rationality of expectations is achieved.

If all these things are not possible, then it might be hard to link the inflation with upkeep. But I think this link between inflation and upkeep would be important change in ES2. For the first time I felt the value of dust. It would become really great change that will make dust more valuable than ever.

I want to go back on Faction to balancing discussion. We got great changes for Horatio, Riftborn, Lumeris and Vodyani. I think many people would appreciate changes to other factions aswell.    

I am very familiar with the United Empire after Horatio, so I would like to give some thoughts about what could be changed.    

The United Empire benefitted the most from the changes to Federation, since it was already good at expansion with colonizers or by war. Sadly, because of how federation works, the trait for -25% overcolonization dissaproval almost never comes into play anymore. By buying all the heroes you can you get such a ridicolous amount of overcolonization threshhold increase, that you can easily win a conquest victory without ever going over your colonization threshhold.   

I don't suggest changing this trait, but instead I will repeat my suggestion to nerfing Federation: Change it so that the +1 overcolonization treshhold only comes into play for Governor or Overseer Heroes. This would add meaningful decision making then buying or choosing heroes, currently you simply buy every hero you can.    

Secondly, the Patriots II trait: It grants +25% manpower capacity on empire. I am not really sure what this is supposed to achieve. You can stockpile additional manpower, and thats about it. But usually when producing tons of fleets, you will be draining your manpower and refilling it without being at maximum manpower most of the time. Ironically, this would be more suited for the Horatio, who have no trouble sitting at max manpower for most of the game unless they are spamming huge manpower carriers. 

Maybe this could be changed to something like increased system defense manpower.

Now about the Quest rewards:

The United Empire gets access to some great quest rewards, but some are not competitive even though it wouldn't need much change for them to be. Most factions have their optimal questline with the best rewards set in stone, but the UE really does have options to choose form nice quest rewards during their questline.     

First Quest: 

The requirements for 10% extra damage on weapon modules should be adjusted. Currently the goal is to reach 800 manpower in your empire. Due to you building ships and colonizing however, this takes forever to complete. It could be changed to "Reach X manpower capacity on empire". Which basically means "reach military tech level 3" for example.     

The choice of UE, Sheredyn or Mezari:

Sadly, Mezari is objectively the best choice all the time. The reward for UE is pityful (silken diplomacy reducing influence costs for diplomacy compared to 15% science output bonus or 20% reduced ship cost?) For changing these, I strongly recommend taking a look at the changes from the "Politics rework" mod on the steam workshop. This nerfed the collection bonuses for Mezari and changed the collection bonuses for Sheredyn. For anyone wondering, the Mezari have the same collection bonus as the sophons, but get an additional 15% bonus science on top of that. And most imporantly, science cost reduction works when buying out tech! In my opinion, the 50 population collection bonus for United Empire should be changed aswell: 20% increased cost for pacific conversion never comes into play. Instead, it should be something focus around industry. Now that you guys are changing the battle cards, the sheredyn unique battle card needs to be looked at aswell.     

Overall, I think the changes from the Politics rework mod for the United empire (moving silken diplomacy unlock to the first quest, adding 15% increased industry bonus to staying UE and great sheredyn bonuses) make the UE a joy to play and much more competitive in their choices.  The Mountain of Zelevas becomes a huge UE-only wonder that is actually meaningful and staying united empire grants all systems a 15% industry bonus, which makes it worthwhile.

sheredynplayer wrote:

The United Empire benefitted the most from the changes to Federation, since it was already good at expansion with colonizers or by war. Sadly, because of how federation works, the trait for -25% overcolonization dissaproval almost never comes into play anymore. By buying all the heroes you can you get such a ridicolous amount of overcolonization threshhold increase, that you can easily win a conquest victory without ever going over your colonization threshhold. 

I don't suggest changing this trait, but instead I will repeat my suggestion to nerfing Federation: Change it so that the +1 overcolonization treshhold only comes into play for Governor or Overseer Heroes. This would add meaningful decision making then buying or choosing heroes, currently you simply buy every hero you can.     

Yeah, totally agreed with this. Pre-buff Federation (with static +1/2 limit increase depending on map size) was way too weak to ever be useful and the new version was completely warranted since now the government effect actually stays relevant throughout the game, but the buff definitely also swinged it way too much into another direction to the point of becoming a total no-brainer choice. I really like the idea of keeping the base effect intact, but only governor heroes increasing over-colonization threshold as it would nerf the effect while also being more thematically consistent. 

Though even then maybe the effect could be nerfed a bit further because as you said there's really never a shortage of heroes from Academy, market and quests (depending on faction). I think Federation should be the best government type for wide play, but it shouldn't be so powerful it lets you ignore over-colonization and Autonomous Administration completely like it does now.

Edit: also to add I think market bought heroes may need a balance revisit in general. There's way too many occasions where the market is completely filled brim with heroes and you can buy them all in one go. Heroes in general are way too cheap regardless of whether you're using them in tandem with Federation or not: hero upkeep, healing costs or the diplomatic demand that takes merely one hero as hostage aren't really something that become roadblocks or something you seriously need to consider.

TheCreamiestCook wrote:

After playing a bit as Riftborn, I've come to believe the scaling for Machine Embodiment is a bit excessive.  It shouldn't take me 15 turns to build one riftborn pop in a newly colonized system!

Seconded, this one I actually tried a few months ago in my own balance mod and reverted it back for the exact same reason. A local malus to the population cost is way more sensible, and as already mentionned, this current change doesn't fix the actual problem of population seeding (it actually makes it even more mandatory because new systems can't produce populations in a reasonable amount of turns).



Re: Inflation : I don't like what you did to display the effect of inflation. My fleets' upkeep is still shown as the vanilla amount so it's kinda weird to then have to multiply by the inflation number, which is displayed in yet another menu, to get the true number, to then think about wether or not I should keep the fleet or sell it. I'd rather have the upkeep number be already multiplied by inflation in the fleet menu (and anywhere else). Also, it makes little sense to only have fleet upkeep be affected by it, because Heroes, while attached to fleets as Admirals, do suffer from inflation, but when on systems as governors don't. I'd like to see the upkeep multiplier be applied on systems so that it affects SSI and governor upkeep.

Also, while I like the new way Lumeris can pressure others, I think the repeatable temporary effect should probably be a pacifist law (with a build-up effect), it's functionally similar, as you trade influence for Inflation reduction [already implemented and tested in my personal mod] to allow other factions to use the pacifist playstyle, instead of only allowing it for the Lumeris. They can keep the inflation reduction on trade HQ, although I think it's too strong considering they can have 4 HQ (I think 5% might be more sensible), because otherwise the new meta will be stacking buyout cost reduction and inflation reduction and then you have the issue of selling for more than what you paid to buyout (which is still present on Quadrinix with material expertise...).