Yes. That's a great set of simple and efficient changes. 

I agree with Icegremlin. Some of the faction traits should be revisited. Sophons are too reliant on their scientist law for 20% decreased industry cost. 

The Horatio trait perfect genes for 100% faster hero revival also never comes into play, as I have said before. 

I think a small change that could go a long way would simply be to not allow healing of heroes anymore. That way losing a hero in a battle or invasion actually means something. 

sheredynplayer wrote:

I agree with Icegremlin. Some of the faction traits should be revisited. Sophons are too reliant on their scientist law for 20% decreased industry cost. 

The Horatio trait perfect genes for 100% faster hero revival also never comes into play, as I have said before. 

I think a small change that could go a long way would simply be to not allow healing of heroes anymore. That way losing a hero in a battle or invasion actually means something. 

I would say

Omniscience: +0% - +20% Industry on Empire for 5 turns after completing a technology based on Omniscience bonus (maybe even 25%)

Hero Healing: +1 Turn timer length per Hero level, 50 Dust per Hero level, +1x Dust cost per Hero level.

At level 20 that's 40 turns, or 40,000 Dust, going down each turn. Timer can be halved with Dust-9, thirded as Horatio, while cost can be halved with Vodyani quest.

40,000 sounds like a lot but you should be producing several thousand Dust a turn by then, and if you're not well, that's why the timer exists to reduce the price over time.

Is there any way that we can add an option to prevent anyone but the host from saving the game or autosaving the game in Multiplayer? I would be ok with even locking those saved games, forcing players to only be able to play the race that they were playing at the time of saving to prevent load game cheating? 

I say this because my friends and I have been playing a game and we're all concerned about certain people in our group who don't always play by the rules (There are 7 of us). They can easily save game and while we're on a break re-load the game and join as another faction. This allows them to map hack by seeing what others are up to. Even if I'm not playing with friends we all know this game takes longer than one session and would be a nice multiplayer feature for playing with random players.

I just had an idea about the ecologists starting law. We know that ecologists can colonize any planet excluding gas. But currently this is not super useful, simply because colonizing planets with low food output early in the game takes way too long.

In theory you could colonize sterile planets like ash, desert or lava and use their industry bonus to get your system running quickly. But this doesn't work out in practice until you produce enough food on your other systems to ship a lot of food over. And at that point its not earlygame anymore and you probably already researched a good amount of colonization techs. 

So I propose the following solution for the Ecologist starting law in addition to its current effects: 

When colonizing non-fertile planets, gain an additional 20 food output on outpost. 

In my opinion, this sounds like a simple solution to an otherwise bit underwhelming law. I know you guys changed the law to grant +15 approval, but in reality the ecologists should be about big food bonuses and quick growth. Their other laws reflect this, but as I have said there is not much reason to colonize planets other than the fertile ones with big food output which are easy to settle anyway. 

I've always wondered why ecologist laws don't give discounts to terraforming costs. 

Another option to solve the Riftborn puzzle: can they be forbidden from being put into the spaceport?

Thats actually not a bad idea @Dragar.  If riftborn were construct only and non-transferable it would fit the lore and the system plus nothing would need to be changed. That way they could go wide, but just not use a lone lava as a pop brewing center stuffing the industry-less systems with riftborns.  It follows my own rulebook acrynon of KISS  (Keep it simple).

For the Hissho nerf how about  -1 keii per system over over colonization limit? That way you could still go wide if you are consantly fighing. Also I feel like Hissho should maybe have more severe penalties for low keii, maybe less Ship/troop damage? Would fit in with the whole concept of keii, with your soldiers being unwilling to fight for a dishonorable emperor.

plutar wrote:

Thats actually not a bad idea @Dragar.  If riftborn were construct only and non-transferable it would fit the lore and the system plus nothing would need to be changed. That way they could go wide, but just not use a lone lava as a pop brewing center stuffing the industry-less systems with riftborns.  It follows my own rulebook acrynon of KISS  (Keep it simple).

Right! They hate travelling in space. And all the problems go away if you can't ship them.

sheredynplayer wrote:

I just had an idea about the ecologists starting law. We know that ecologists can colonize any planet excluding gas. But currently this is not super useful, simply because colonizing planets with low food output early in the game takes way too long.

In theory you could colonize sterile planets like ash, desert or lava and use their industry bonus to get your system running quickly. But this doesn't work out in practice until you produce enough food on your other systems to ship a lot of food over. And at that point its not earlygame anymore and you probably already researched a good amount of colonization techs. 

So I propose the following solution for the Ecologist starting law in addition to its current effects: 

When colonizing non-fertile planets, gain an additional 20 food output on outpost. 

In my opinion, this sounds like a simple solution to an otherwise bit underwhelming law. I know you guys changed the law to grant +15 approval, but in reality the ecologists should be about big food bonuses and quick growth. Their other laws reflect this, but as I have said there is not much reason to colonize planets other than the fertile ones with big food output which are easy to settle anyway. 

Speak for yourself, that law is bonkers imo. I always push ecologists by turn 20 to colonize everything I have and setup preditive logistics which will result into the industrial bang. Every planet you colonize at least gives you 30 industry, 10 science, 5 food and 5 approval. 

Non-riftborn empires at least should be able to move riftborn pops tho. And i kinda like how you can "enslave" riftborn pops through diplomatic demands - if they become unshippable that will be gone i presume and the only way to get more riftboys in your empire will be conquering more riftborn systems and there will be no way to get more riftborn in your empire peacefully. My point is you can't get Vodyani peacefully in your Empire but it's fine because once you got one you can breed more Vodyani pops - with riftboys that's not the case.

With Dirty Hands Act tier 3 planets cost 500 industry to colonize, even with Sophons I usually get 100 industry on my main system and can colonize all other planets before next elections. Sometimes I can do thisin my second system as well. Endless difficulty, endless pirates.

mamarider wrote:

sheredynplayer wrote:

I just had an idea about the ecologists starting law. We know that ecologists can colonize any planet excluding gas. But currently this is not super useful, simply because colonizing planets with low food output early in the game takes way too long.

In theory you could colonize sterile planets like ash, desert or lava and use their industry bonus to get your system running quickly. But this doesn't work out in practice until you produce enough food on your other systems to ship a lot of food over. And at that point its not earlygame anymore and you probably already researched a good amount of colonization techs. 

So I propose the following solution for the Ecologist starting law in addition to its current effects: 

When colonizing non-fertile planets, gain an additional 20 food output on outpost. 

In my opinion, this sounds like a simple solution to an otherwise bit underwhelming law. I know you guys changed the law to grant +15 approval, but in reality the ecologists should be about big food bonuses and quick growth. Their other laws reflect this, but as I have said there is not much reason to colonize planets other than the fertile ones with big food output which are easy to settle anyway. 

Speak for yourself, that law is bonkers imo. I always push ecologists by turn 20 to colonize everything I have and setup preditive logistics which will result into the industrial bang. Every planet you colonize at least gives you 30 industry, 10 science, 5 food and 5 approval. 

Yes, this is what makes this law good. Of course you have to factor in the opportunity cost of colonizing planets, which costs a good amount of industry aswell. While you are paying 320 or 640 industry per colonization, you could be building small attacker or protector ships which you usually have to do at some of your systems against pirates and other factions.      

Next, you have to ask yourself what you are actually gaining with this law. Unless you really rush research preditive logistics you will have a couple colonization techs already: Mediterranian, tundra, savanna and 2 of these 3: Snow, steppes, arid.

This means you gain access to these planet types: Barren, Toxic, Arctic, Ice, Desert, Lava and maybe Ash if you haven't researched it already, along with the 1 planet type you missed out on from the 2nd tier of scientific research.

So the gain is probably 10-20 turns of researching all these colonization techs when you choose this strategy. Its really not bad. But I don't imagine this was the core idea behind this law. If they wanted this law just to have a big powerspike in industry with preditive logicists, they could have simply reduced the industry cost for colonizing planets in your system along with allowing you to colonize them.      

I think, the point of this law is to colonize higher tier planets to make use of their strong industry output early in the game without having to spend precious turns on researching the technology. Its a great idea, it just doesn't work out in practice because of the low food output, as I explained already.

sheredynplayer wrote:

mamarider wrote:

sheredynplayer wrote:

I just had an idea about the ecologists starting law. We know that ecologists can colonize any planet excluding gas. But currently this is not super useful, simply because colonizing planets with low food output early in the game takes way too long.

In theory you could colonize sterile planets like ash, desert or lava and use their industry bonus to get your system running quickly. But this doesn't work out in practice until you produce enough food on your other systems to ship a lot of food over. And at that point its not earlygame anymore and you probably already researched a good amount of colonization techs. 

So I propose the following solution for the Ecologist starting law in addition to its current effects: 

When colonizing non-fertile planets, gain an additional 20 food output on outpost. 

In my opinion, this sounds like a simple solution to an otherwise bit underwhelming law. I know you guys changed the law to grant +15 approval, but in reality the ecologists should be about big food bonuses and quick growth. Their other laws reflect this, but as I have said there is not much reason to colonize planets other than the fertile ones with big food output which are easy to settle anyway. 

Speak for yourself, that law is bonkers imo. I always push ecologists by turn 20 to colonize everything I have and setup preditive logistics which will result into the industrial bang. Every planet you colonize at least gives you 30 industry, 10 science, 5 food and 5 approval. 

Yes, this is what makes this law good. Of course you have to factor in the opportunity cost of colonizing planets, which costs a good amount of industry aswell. While you are paying 320 or 640 industry per colonization, you could be building small attacker or protector ships which you usually have to do at some of your systems against pirates and other factions.      

Next, you have to ask yourself what you are actually gaining with this law. Unless you really rush research preditive logistics you will have a couple colonization techs already: Mediterranian, tundra, savanna and 2 of these 3: Snow, steppes, arid.

This means you gain access to these planet types: Barren, Toxic, Arctic, Ice, Desert, Lava and maybe Ash if you haven't researched it already, along with the 1 planet type you missed out on from the 2nd tier of scientific research.

So the gain is probably 10-20 turns of researching all these colonization techs when you choose this strategy. Its really not bad. But I don't imagine this was the core idea behind this law. If they wanted this law just to have a big powerspike in industry with preditive logicists, they could have simply reduced the industry cost for colonizing planets in your system along with allowing you to colonize them.      

     

I think, the point of this law is to colonize higher tier planets to make use of their strong industry output early in the game without having to spend precious turns on researching the technology. Its a great idea, it just doesn't work out in practice because of the low food output, as I explained already.

It is not only for preditive logistics. The main power of this law is that it allows you to SKIP colonization techs and save a lot of science on the way to scientific victory. That is a strategy I developed for Sophons - skipping early colonization techs with ecologists and then moving to behemoth terraformation. The amount of techs you skip that way is enormous. So this is a really powerful law if utilized correctly.

I don't ever go for arid and steppes tech even. Only snow cause tech is good by itself (+10 approval per hot/cold, + super good engine). Techs I usually skip are arid, steppes, ash, barren, lava, toxic and sometimes ice - 6-7 is a lot.