Hail all.

I ran into something strange while leveling up my governor, and that was the Civil Engineer ability.

Ok, I myself am a engineering student and I'm really flattered, but isn't +25 brute production points a little too much?

I mean, the administrator alone produces more than many of my colonies, if you think about it... So far I've played a few hours and this is my only hero, but I imagine this isn't the only "absolute number" bonus from abilities.

IMO it'd be best to keep the bonus and penalties at a percentage rate, is it not?

The brute +25 production is fantastic early on, really great for jumpstarting colonies, but the percentage based ones will overtake them in usefulness late game. +25 is worth less than the 10% when your planet is pumping out 500 production a turn



I like to have admins with the +production and +food and the +happiness bonuses all stacked. Move them to newly founded/conquered systems to bring them into the fold quickly. Or you can leave them in the best systems to keep them as real powerhouses

nefloyd wrote:
The brute +25 production is fantastic early on, really great for jumpstarting colonies, but the percentage based ones will overtake them in usefulness late game. +25 is worth less than the 10% when your planet is pumping out 500 production a turn



I like to have admins with the +production and +food and the +happiness bonuses all stacked. Move them to newly founded/conquered systems to bring them into the fold quickly. Or you can leave them in the best systems to keep them as real powerhouses

Yeah, but in terms of interpretation and role playing, I mean. Isn't a +25 production bonus a little bit strange for a administrator alone to give?

The guy has a production bonus bigger than my colonies, some of them combined.

I find it strange, but it is, indeed a good "put your new colonies up to speed" thing.

Well, that's just part of the benefit of having the hero, not really strange.

Whether or not it's "balanced" is the real question. It seems way damn useful, as in "restart the game" if you don't get one as a hero. Since admins gain experience based on what you build in their assigned system, it also makes the guy level up faster for more benefits

Dhanun wrote:
Yeah, but in terms of interpretation and role playing, I mean. Isn't a +25 production bonus a little bit strange for a administrator alone to give?

The guy has a production bonus bigger than my colonies, some of them combined.

I find it strange, but it is, indeed a good "put your new colonies up to speed" thing.

Role-play it this way then. Here's some flavor-text.

Your administrator has now been assigned a 'Mobile Fleet Auxiliary' ship. Essentially a massive flying space factory used to boost production in any system it's in by a fixed amount, these behemoths are incredibly useful for any colony wishing to get off to a good start.

nefloyd wrote:
Well, that's just part of the benefit of having the hero, not really strange.

Whether or not it's "balanced" is the real question. It seems way damn useful, as in "restart the game" if you don't get one as a hero. Since admins gain experience based on what you build in their assigned system, it also makes the guy level up faster for more benefits

True. That might be a good thing to review when they get to balancing the final beta version.

Strand wrote:
Role-play it this way then. Here's some flavor-text.

That might work. I'll even rename the station to Star Forge, too!

He's a really good Engineer.

I agree with the OP. Civil Engineering (and Crop Geneticist) is such a boost early on that it just doesn't make sense to pick any other abilities first. When I start up a game, I go straight for the Administrator hero(es), every single time. And there's no equivalent for Dust or Science, which makes Corporate suck compared to Administrator. I think it would make much more sense if they were converted to percentage bonuses instead of a flat bonus; that way, it can scale well (not so godly early game, but still useful late game) and make other options viable.

Take industry as an example. There is both a +25 flat bonus at level 2, and a +20% bonus at level 4. At a high enough level you can have both, of course. But it is an "interesting decision" which one to take first. In the late game +25 flat is essentially worthless. But it is highly useful in early, and maybe midgame for new planets. So the question is, should you prioritize short term gain? This type of "interesting decision" is ... well ... interesting, and I think we should keep it.

Short-term vs. long-term is interesting, I agree with you. But... there's really not much of a decision to be made. You can have both Civil Engineering and Efficient Schooling by the time you're level 4. That's not enough time for the percentage bonus to overtake the +25 flat bonus in any significant way. You'd always take the +25 first, and the +20% later. (Unless you hired an Administrator in the late game, in which case you could do it the other way around if it gives you more production; either way, you're not really choosing one over the other as you can have both). Even worse, unless you're planning on a really early war or something, why would your first hero not be one with the Administrator class? (And even then, the +25 production would be great for fielding a fleet quickly.)



Maybe if you had to take one or the other, or if you had to wait a certain number of levels before being able to pick the other one, then yeah, you'd be choosing short- vs. long-term.

Dhanun wrote:
Yeah, but in terms of interpretation and role playing, I mean. Isn't a +25 production bonus a little bit strange for a administrator alone to give?

The guy has a production bonus bigger than my colonies, some of them combined.

I find it strange, but it is, indeed a good "put your new colonies up to speed" thing.

I don't agree. If you sent your empire's top legendary architect to a new colony, don't you think he'd get a city up and running a lot faster than the local yokels setting up their camps?



But for gameplay, yes I agree it is overpowered. Even in the late game, there are always new colonies that greatly benefit from the flat industry/food bonuses to quickly build up.

Halken wrote:
I don't agree. If you sent your empire's top legendary architect to a new colony, don't you think he'd get a city up and running a lot faster than the local yokels setting up their camps?

He would, but how much he manages to make it better depends on what he has to work with (percentage bonus!). He shouldn't be able to take a 0 production planet and make its system more than 10 times more productive (considering it has just the 2 production from the default improvement). That seems odd to me.