Hello,

The inflation mechanic was modified in the mod to have a stronger impact on players' dust upkeep and takes a few new parameters in consideration, most notably: how many of them there are and how much dust they collectively produce.  In your situation, you might have been producing less dust than other empires, which is why you ended up with such a result.  The rework might still be a bit rough around the edges and we're still considering if it should stay or be modified again to be more palatable.

Have a nice day.

Wi1em wrote:

Hi, the mod's changelog is so huge I decided I just can't read it. Especially because later changes might go over previous changes in the log, etc. So I just started playing it.

What I immediately noticed is how everything is much more expensive. Or am I getting fewer dust? I'm not sure.

Previously, I could easily have 16 military ships (small ones) patrolling my space, fighting pirates, razing enemy's systems if they tried to build on "my" territory, etc.  With the mod, I can barely sustain 8 ships. For a while, at least. Eventually my "income" turned around into -300 per turn and in a few turns I lost everything I had.

The biggest offender on the dust balance report was "dust inflation" which I didn't even know existed before I installed that mod (I've played 120 hours before the mod).

Apparently, the mod is soon going to be integrated into the main game. What's up? Like, what's the deal, why is getting dust is such a pain the ass now?

Hi Wi1em,

The main thing to realise about dust is that most of your money can (should) come from selling resources on the market, rather than making dust. The former keeps pace with inflation, the latter does not. This is even more important in the mod, where military upkeep also grows with inflation. 

I think you make some good points; the Game Design forum has a thread specifically to discuss these issue sin the G2G Balance Mod. You should certainly post your thoughts there.

Inflation has been a very wonky mechanic from the moment it was conceived, it's not something that started with current G2G balance changes. Inflation existed before, but it affecting upkeep is a new thing. However I agree.

Where's the logic in that? I have a feeling the devs were trying to "fix" something with this, but can't see what.

The supposed original design intent of galactic inflation is for Pacifist empires to be able to indirectly undermine Militarists and other factions that neglect Dust, but before the balance changes Pacifists only hurt *themselves* the most due to constantly devaluing their own Dust, whereas other factions actually *benefited* from inflation due to it increasing resource selling prices. Especially wide militarist expansionists are the ones who have the easiest access to strategic and luxury resource nodes. Inflation affecting upkeep is an attempt to remedy that and properly punish big fleets, however like Dragar said ignoring direct Dust income and combating inflation as non-Dust focused faction is still pretty easy through selling sulprus resources, mod or no mod.

Dust is also the resource affected most by higher difficulties since on those the AIs get direct resource cheats, which will naturally affect the player's inflation as well.

Another change with the G2G mod is that currently Lumeris are the only faction that can actually decrease their own inflation through building trade routes and an influence consuming repeatable improvement. I think that should be changed so all factions have access to at least *some* form of inflation reduction, because while Lumeris excel at Dust production they're by no means the only faction capable of focusing on Dust and trade. Perhaps some of the inflation reducing effects could be moved to Pacifist or neutral party laws for example? Maybe senator abilities? That way Lumeris still get a headstart and I'm fine with them having much more powerful inflation reducing abilities that other factions don't have, but ideally other factions should also be able to shift their focus later on if they so wish.

Wi1em wrote:

> The main thing to realise about dust is that most of your money can (should) come from selling resources on the market, rather than making dust. 

Why? That's such a weird angle on the whole empire building system.

Resources exist as raw material for my production. Like food exists to feed people. To be able to sell excess, *if* I want to, possibly to exchange it for something else I lack is reasonable, but only if I indeed lack something, and really need that something, and choose to do so.

External trade should be optional, when I want to get something I can't produce internally myself.

I don't even understand how is dust "produced" by other empires can affect my economy? I never trade with anyone, never build trade HQs or whatever, I'm not interested in that.

I understand that if I don't check the upkeep of something before I produce it, it will be my own fault when expenses start getting higher than income. But here I'm getting punished for something I'm not responsible for. I see what my income is, I check how much upkeep a ship needs and I build it. And then the game punishes me for doing exactly correct calculations and just says: oh, well, now you have -300 income. just because.

Where's the logic in that? I have a feeling the devs were trying to "fix" something with this, but can't see what.

You should be selling unwanted luxury ressources on the market, or sometime strategic ressources when they are in high demand. You don't sell FIDSI, like food for example. 

Trade routes are entirely optional, though their biggest use is to increase the amount of luxuries gained per turn. Use them to gain the most important luxury ressources faster.

Dust is the same as money. If everyone has a lot of money, money becomes less valuable. Thats just how inflation works in real life aswell. And as the turns advance, everyone will most likely increase his dust production, so since upkeep is now affected by infaltion, you will have to pay more dust for the same amount of ships. 

You can abuse this system by simply selling your luxuries or strategics on the market. As inflation increases, their dust price increases aswell. Its perfectly fine to be negative in dust output, you can simply sell ressources every couple turns and never go bankrupt. 

That being said, the Inflation mechanic is inherently punishing to those which produce a lot of it, since it will become less valuable over time, and benefitting those who focus on producing luxuries or strategic ressources. The goal was that the upkeep should become very high, so that a faction which focuses on warfare and builds a lot of ships will be unable to afford a huge military and peaceful factions, which focus on producing a lot of dust will have the economic advantage. As you probably have guessed, this does not work out because you simply keep selling strategics or luxuries. 

A more thoroughly thought out overhaul is in order.

Devs were trying to address the endgame uselessnes of Dust production and  Lumeris in particular.