Not sure if this is already a known issue, but I put in a little time last night setting up some tests so I figured I'd ask around.



The Star System Improvement Magnetic Field Generators is described as having the effect of:

+15 Science on Star System

+5% Science per Population on Helium / Ocean / Arctic / Barren

-3 Dust upkeep

The +15 Science on Star System seems correct, however the +5% Science per Population on Helium / Ocean / Arctic / Barren seems off. I suppose I was never clear whether the +5% Science was meant to be +5% of the total System output, the planet output, or the +15 Science that the improvement provides, but the "Per Population" is definitely wrong. After a bunch of tests, it seems that the effect is simply a flat +5% to the output of any Helium / Ocean / Arctic / Barren planets in the system, with no scaling "per-population" effects. E.G. An Arctic Planet with an output of 100 Science becomes 105 Science, or a Helium Planet with an output of 200 Science becomes 210 Science. The amount of population on the planet has no effect; it is always a flat +5% boost for the planet.



Essentially I believe it should be rephrased to "+5% Science output on Helium / Ocean / Arctic / Barren" to more accurately reflect its effects.



Just thought I'd let people know, or ask in case I'm missing something here.

I think it's mathematically abiguous. If S is the output of one population of one planet with P population points, then P*S=overall output. If that planet is now helium/ocean/arctic/barren then a 5% modifier will work on either side: P*(1+5%)S=(1+5%)overall output. So whether you apply the modifier on the overall output of a planet or on the output per population of the same planet, it's the same regardless.

Yeah, I think ambiguous is pretty spot on. I see what you're saying, that you could rephrase it as, "Each population's Science output is raised by +5%," but it is still very misleading. Especially since in every other instance in the game where you see "+X per Y" or "+X per population," you can multiply X by your population to get your net effect. In particular, here I read it as "+[(5)*(PopulationonHelium/Ocean/Arctic/Barren)]% Science" and just plugged in the variables. E.G. a system with 1 population on an Arctic gives you [+5%] * [1] = +5%, 3 population on Arctic gives you [+5%] * [3] = +15%, etc. Essentially, I had been reading it as P*(1+P*5%)S = (1+P*5%)overall output. I would imagine this is a fairly common way for people to interpret it, as I've come across other discussions where it seems people believed that's how it worked. It's definitely how I expected it to work until I tested stuff out.



In either case, changing the description to leave out the "per population" bit would definitely leave no room for error when it comes to reading it, with the additional benefit of making it more clear that the +5% bonus is applied to the Science output of the planet, rather than the system as a whole.

I agree with your points, the tooltip could stand being clarified somewhat. However, at this stage of the game's life as more of a legacy title than the one being focused on right now, unless a substantial issue crops up it is unlikely that this will be amended.

Yeah, that's what I would figure, but just thought I'd let people know in case anybody else was under the same misconception I was.