IMO the Hissho bonus shouldn't be stackable at all (maybe increase the magnitude to compensate).

Many people feel Legendary Heroes is powerful in the early game since you get the L3 admin hero on turn 2. I think this points out that admin heroes are the only ones that are useful in the early game. Corp heroes are powerful later, and fleet heroes are only relevant once you have combat. My suggested fix would be to make the other hero classes relevant earlier.



You should prevent Endless War and Blockade Breakers from being taken together.



Many people feel the Hissho bushido bonus is too strong, since you can easily keep +80% FIDS the whole game. I have modded this to either +10% per system (+40% total) or making it affect "FID (no S)" only. This matches the Hissho Space Cadet penalty. However, the bonus is also easy to abuse by trading the same planet back and forth multiple times; this abuse can only be fixed by a game code change, not a mod.

One of the biggest problem in ES is the fact that is is so much easier to dominate using military than is is to defend. This is inherent in how the combat system works, it also is magnified by the expense of learning defensive tech and finally the fact the "Masters Of Destruction" has no counterweight Trait and is very cheap for what it does.



Inherent Combat Problem



People always refer to the combat system as rock paper scissors, but it is not, if it were RPS then A attack would counter B attack would counter C attack would counter A attack. Notice the previous does not mention defenses. With RPS you have an equal chance of a win a loss or a tie. With the current system if they use defenses you have a 2/3 chance to completely bypass the defense chosen by continually changing what offense you use. This means that if they choose to use defenses by weight it is beyond other factors only has 33% effectiveness compared to 66% percent effectiveness of weapons. This does not take into account any other factors, but when you add in the next two factors it magnifies this problem.



Tech Tree Cost



The problem with defenses in the tech tree is often the only thing you get from research is defense. Many times in the Military Tech Tree to progress you must choose between a weapon tech or a defense tech. The problem with this is weapons solely by themselves can win fights, you can build a offense only ship and succeed. This is not true for a defense only ship the best outcome for a defense only ship is too tie. From a game theory perspective if given the choice between a weapon tech and a defense tech it will always be preferable to take the weapon tech. This means over half the defensive tech is too expensive too learn because of opportunity costs.



Masters of Destruction



Taking all the above into account you then add in the Trait MOD, this trait makes it ridiculously cheap to produce all weapon ships. to the point with Militaristic that you can mass produce ships so cheap you can throw them away. This by itself is bad but coupled with the above and the fact that there is no defensive version. You make a game that already favors attack that much more weighted against defense and peace.







In short MOD is Broke and a must have Trait.

Must Have:

Scientists 2/3, Optimistic, Cloning and Businessmen gives an advantage at the beginning of a game.

Wasted Space isn't that critical in the long run, and allows to add an 8 pt trait.

Sniper and Optimal Defense can compensate for the Wasted Space.



Waste of trait points:

Technologies: don't help the player in the long run.

Each faction should have its own default technologies as part of their affinity.

Instead of 10 pt per technology, a player can choose 2 or 3 technologies if he create a faction.

Or, if its possible, to create Tech Points. When a player create a faction he gets the trait points and 5 Tech Points, and can choose how to invest it.

Tech lvl. 1=1pt

Tech lvl. 2=2pt and so on.

Positive Traits:

Optimistic: As has already been said several times, this trait is INCREDIBLY helpful since it allows you to lower tax rates and get better ind/sci bonuses for less dust loss, on top of allowing more painless expansion into other systems since the expansion disapproval will be mitigated.



[Traitthatincreasesshipweightcapacity]: As you can tell, I forgot the name of this trait mostly because I think using it is a bit unfair. It's significantly better than the other combat-based traits because an extra few guns will always be better than a marginal increase in accuracy or health. Not only that, but this trait is vastly more flexible than the others which just provide a flat bonus to all ships, whereas with this one you can tailor every ship individually with increased armour, weapons, etc.



Blockade Breakers: Admittedly, this one depends rather heavily on other traits being used, most notably the Amoeba faction trait. However, doing so creates one of the most imbalanced builds in the game as you absolutely dominate trade with no effort besides sending a scout.





Negative Traits:

Sloppy Sawbones: To be honest, I've never actually had a Hero injured yet let alone one who needs to be healed. Even then, a slightly raised price is hardly equal to large amount of points you get to spend on other traits.



Dust Impaired: Similar to the above, Dust-related combat actions are a rarity for me to even see let alone use mostly because I think nearly everyone kits out their Heroes as administrators and not as admirals.

For most of my factions, they all have the Optimistic Trait, which allows me to lower the tax rate just a little bit to get the Fervent Empire Approval while still having good Dust income. It is also a miracle on the UE/Sheryden Affinities, allowing a tax rate increase to get the Production Boost.



The other things I find myself oftentimes including are:



Scientists: Mainly because in the late game, that 30% Science Boost is EXTREMELY HELPFUL, and is allows me to research techs at a significantly faster rate.

Entrepreneurs: The +1 Dust for every population unit on every type of planet is really nice, espevially in the late game where I have systems of 50+ Population.

Crowded Planets: Even at level one, +1 Population to Tiny, Small, and Medium Planets is a pretty nice bonus, and at level two a Tiny Terran Planet, with the Improvment to Tiny/Small Planet Populations can hold as much population as a Medium Terran, Jungle, or Ocean.



Negative Traits:

Dust Impaired: Doubling the cost of hero Dust abilities at the cost of -4 points seems kind of poor, although with the "Sloppy Sawbones" trait you get -10 points, which can cover the cost of a home world anomaly, either the Terraformed Planet, Mineral Rich or its Food equivalent, or a combination like Deadly Weapons/Huygens Rings. It also covers the cost of a starting tech, such as N-Way Fusion Plants or Xenology.

Sloppy Sawbones: +100% Healing cost on Hero is well worth the -6 points it gives.

Spray and Pray (1 or 2): While I personally dislike taking this beyond level 2, it allows you to take just those few extra points off, or cover something like Fast Travelers or Meticulous Analysis.



EDIT: I forgot to add Blockade Breakers/Eternal War Combo. While I dislike it (I tend to win more Diplo/Science Victories) it is an awesome combo, allowing trade bonuses with the Empire you're at war with.

I just wanted to chime in and point out that while a lot of people are going to post about their favorite traits, I'm not sure it's totally possible to balance custom classes while keeping them interesting. There will always be combos that are just great. Being able to specialize is the real key to custom classes, which will always make them more powerful than general races, but it's also what makes them interesting. A lot of players, like myself, enjoy making great custom races, thinking about good combos, and then trying them out.



With that in mind, I do want a challenge. However, I think that can generally be done with a difficulty slider. As far as online, a simple option to not allow custom races should be available. This way, players who want to have a absolutely equal playing ground can. With that said, keeping the option to leave custom races in gives online another level before the match even begins.



Now, that's not to say tweaks can't be implemented. Even adding an extra level of customization would be awesome, if you guys have the time at some point. Anyways, great game and keep up the good work.

I almost always see people with Eternal War. Unless you specifically build yourself for trade, alliances are all but useless (especially in no AI games). You'd need to boost the benefit of alliances (like percentage increases in combat effectiveness or allowing allies to assist in battles).



Personally, my favorite build is Sophon affinity with boosts to morale, industry, and dust, a random terraform boost, and the tech to build science buildings. Has trouble with early rush down, but with a few more turns, it becomes a research/dust juggernaut, with me often leading in FIDS and tech.



Useless techs for me are the combat related ones. They are outdone by a a military leader. They'd need to be cheaper or have side benefits for me to consider.

The approval ones, without them it is hard to maintain a sense of expansion or the ability to tax 60% at the games start, which is especially good for the UE.

NovaBlazer wrote:


I used Stellar Guardians and +Food production to cause my early plants to grow very very quickly, and thus my influence sphere was HUGE. This effectively stunted all the other empires and they had to start fighting with each other. It wasn't until very very late in the game that they started turning on me because my sphere was pushing so far out and gobbling up planets that they owned, so I could just cold war attack them.

I might have to start a new game, because that sounds badass!

I have some suggestions to make the picks more balanced:



ANOMALY

Dust Lode (+3 Dust) -> Cost from 8 to 6.

Huygens Rings (+1 Dust + 2 Science) -> Cost from 5 to 6.

Metallic Waters (+1 Production +10 Approval) -> Cost from 8 to 6

Mineral Rich and Rich Soil are better than these three, so leave them at Cost of 8.

Terraformed Planet (Random Positive Anomaly) -> It's random, so you don't know what you get, and the average anomalies are around the same use as Mineral Rich and Rich Soil. So, it definitely shouldn't cost MORE than those. Maybe change cost to 7?

Unlucky Colonists (Random Negative Anomaly) -> Yes it's random, but without exception every one is not as bad as poor soil or mineral poor. So, either Poor Soil and Mineral Poor need to be worth more negative points, or this needs to be worth less. I'm guessing this less, so probably change cost to -4?



ECONOMY

Blockade Breakers - This should be split into three levels. It is currently too powerful for its cost. I would say: 5 points and you are able to bypass blockades on your systems. 10 more points and you can establish trade treaties when at cold war. 7 more points and you can establish trade treaties when in war. So, 5/15/22 points.

Businessmen - Why is this the only trait that costs 10/20/35? All the other ones (research/food) are 10/20/30. This should be the same as those.

Merchants - Unlike some other abilities, putting more points in this makes it less effective. I'd vote for costing only 6 points for the second level. So, 8/14 points.

Spendthrifts - Same question/change as Businessmen. It should be -5/-10/-15



POPULATION

Crowded Planets - The second point doesn't add as much potential population as the first one. So, the points should probably be changed to 12/20 points.



SCIENCE

Tolerant - Definitely needs some love. The first point is more useful than the second as it allows you to pre-colonize planets that will become useful after you research the tech. The second lets you do this as well, they are just "better" until improved. In either case, it's way too expensive. I vote for 15/25 points.



TECHNOLOGY

All too expensive! It's currently 10 for first level techs and 15 for second level techs. I'd go for maybe 4/7/10 (for purchase of third level techs). If that's too cheap, or if third levels are too potent, then maybe 6/10?

After 90 hours played I feel I've got enough of an idea of how everything works to contribute here. My favorite race to play is a Trader Amoeba-type faction. They use Sloppy Sawbones 2, Dust Impaired 2, Feeble Warriors 2, Legendary Heroes 2, Optimal Structure 1, Deep Roots 2, Anarchists 2, Fragile Hulls 2, Space Cadets 3, Blockade Breakers, Spendthrifts 3, Merchants 2, Diplomats 2, Growth Plan 3, Builders 3, Optimistic 2, The Price of Beauty 3, & Dust Archaeology 1.



My more detailed thoughts are below.



ANOMALY

+ Rich Soil; Huge boon to early game expansion

+ Unlucky Colonists; can be severe, but is sometimes a good trade off for 6 pts.

SCIENCE

+ Scientists; useful in early to mid game for most strategies, except Traders

+ Space Cadets; harmful to most strategies, but very useful to Traders

- Tolerant; conceptually awesome, but pt cost needs to be at least halved

FLEET

+ Anarchists; severely diminishes military power, but incredibly useful in diplomatic strategies

+ Fragile Hulls; with a good enough defense, armor isn't necessary

- Masters of Illusion; only good for initial colony ships

+ Optimal Structure; good for faster colony ships, more deadly warships. One of the best.

DEFENSE

+ Deep Roots; adjusts your playing strategy, but gives you some free pts. for doing so

+ Feeble Warriors; ships & improvements are the way to go for system defense

HERO

+ Dust Impaired; free pts.

+ Legendary Heroes; necessary for turn 1 civil engineer

- Micromanagers; don't use - go the legendary hero route

+ Sloppy Sawbones; Heroes don't die that easily

DIPLOMACY

+ Diplomats; useful for Traders

+ Eternal War; if you want to be aggressive, go all out

- Naïve; has a greater impact in endgame than optimistic, but you need a happiness boost in the early game, not the end game

SPACE BATTLE

- Humane Weapons; not enough pts. to be worth it

+ Offense First; good for glass cannon strategies

+ Optimal Defense; good for tanking

+ Snipers; Good for everything, only beaten by Optimal Structure

- Spray 'n Pray; not enough pts. to be worth it

BUILDING

+ Builders; one of the best acceleration traits

+ Masters of Destruction; good military and glass cannon strategies

+ Militarists; same as Masters of Destruction

+ The Price of Beauty; good for diplomatic/trade/isolationist strategies

- Unskilled Builders; not worth it to grow so slowly

POPULATION

- Black Thumbs; probably not worth it

+ Cloning; great early game & okay mid game

+ Crowded Planets; great early game & okay mid and late game

+ Growth Plan; good mid game

+ Optimistic; almost mandatory for early game

- Pessimistic; I have no idea how an empire would survive with this trait.

ECONOMY

+ Blockade Breakers; expensive, but mandatory for Traders

+ Dust Archaeology; needed for a Turn 1 civil engineer

+ Merchants; mandatory for traders

+ Spendthrifts; mandatory for traders

TECHNOLOGY

- All Technologies are way too expensive to seriously consider

Saranea wrote:
Traits





Anomalys



Poor Soil: -1 food -1 science -10 moral - 5 points to low

Is this really that bad? I mean usually your starting system is not the one that my put my hero on and use as 'core' for my future empire. If I can't find any system around the starting system that is better suited for the task I consider myself very unlucky.



In this regard getting 5 points for 1 food, 1 science, 10moral loss is really not that bad. It takes a little bit longer at the start but since I usually use 1/2 or 2/2 optimistic it isn't really that big a problem.



Edit: Ok in the trait menu it says 1 food, ingame it says 1 food per population point. Quite a difference. I withdraw my question.

Nice sum up Saranea, thank you

Technology





Summery:



- Every single tech is to damn expensive

- Sowers are FORCED to take the tech for Tundra planets, making their choices of traits even worse (add the 60 points only)





Affinitys / Techtrees:





United Empire:



25% - 100% tax = 0% - 60% more prod

+10 Ship XP

startplanet: terran

techfocus on Ship HP, Invasion, and strategic resource mutiplyer

65 points



- great for HP heavy ships

- mid-/lategame prodbonus

-> a good affinity at all gamestages





Cravers:



+1 Locust point per turn

25% FIDS for 40 LP,, -25% after 60

startplanet: Arid

techfocus on fleetsize, locustupgrade and weapondamage

65 points



- boosted earlygame

- needs an watchfull eye because of depleted planets

- needs to be played expansonistic -> military focus

-> if the snowball is running they are great, getting blocked 50 rounds and they are dead





Amoeba:



See all systems

techfocus on trade, defend own space, and alliance

startplanet: Ocean

60 points



- great strategic overview

- mostly played for trade / diplomatic victory

- getting blockadebreaker on them + a scout to get contact = easy solved dust&Sciene problem

-> might need a rework on the affinity







Sophons:



0% - 50% Tax = 50% - 0% Science Bonus

-50% supportmodul cost

startplanet: Terran

techfocus on defend own space, influence area, science output

65 points



- normaly the technological leader

- scientific victory is still slower then endless buildings (so you go normaly wondervictory)

-> a good affinity and a Scienceheavy techtree with a little turtlepower, fall behind in tech and you loose







Pilgrims



Ability to evacuate a star system

startplanet: Jungle

techfocus on trade, warp drive, heroes

65 points



- their affinity is worst, read: never used, bad in any form

- the early warp and hero bonuses help - depending on the map





Horatio



Hero Clonng

50% faster hero healing

techfocus on hero, pop and on food

65 points



- herocloning is strong on adminheroes and well build fleetheroes







Sower



-50% Food

40% prod is added to food

startplanet: Tundra

techfocus on production

60 points



- the 40% foodconvert is a bit to low -> slow earlygame

- they need Xenobotany (tundra tech) to get going

- start on a tundra planet

- all together make a weak start and easy picking for others, add only 60 points and it get downwards

- their mid and lategame shine (if you have the money midgame to buy heavy isotope refinerys) due to good production





Hissho:



Bushido (each last 45 rounds)

- 5% more damage for 45 turn if fleetbattle won (stackable)

- +15% FID (no Science!) for each invasion victory (stackable)

startplanet: Jungle

techfocus on weapons and ship XP

65 points



- a good warriorrace that gets stronger the more you fight

- even after the 5th (?) tweak on bushido they are still (to) strong

- to easy to snowball out of controll

-> bushido still needs work (perhaps let ships and fleetheroes get XP faster?)

-> right now THE race for destroyer spam, and anything else that involves fighting/invading





Automatons



can save ind produvtion for later

gets interest on saved production

startplanet: Jungle

techfocus on orbitingships give FIDSboost, terranplanets, more interest for ind

65 points



- affinity sounds fun but is hardly noticeable (aka: accumulate 2 rounds building nothing - loosing dust/sci, then go ind > dust or ind > sci and if you need to instandbuild whatever ... it feels good, but ... useless compared to most affinitys)

- why it has a junglestarter if the techtreeaffinity is a terran is a mistery







Summary:



- Pilgrimm affinity is the weakest, Hisshos affinity is to strong

- Sowers need 70 points or another startplanet, else their start is their end









Standardraces



United Empire (70 points)

- a strong race and with the last buff (2x shipHP) their traits shine

- have no problems in any form (leveld, high HP ships and no dust problem)

- n-way fusion round their early game

-> very strong beginner race





Sophons (73 points)



- 3 startechs (40 of their points) and a little speed and sightrange ... a "bit" to much tech and minor boni

- the other 30 main points is the 30% science buff which carrys them through the game

-> kickstart sciencerace which is ahead the whole game in tech ... could be optimised but a solid pick

-> rocksolid choice for beginners



Hissho (73 points)



- the startanomaly helps them to keep on in the sciencerace until round ~40 then the spave cadets kicks in hard

- the very strong ships helps them and synergize greatly with bushido

-> bushido is still to strong (even without the Science bonus now) but making them a balanced pick for warmonger

-> a strong choice if you can manage your science



Amoeba (73 points)



- very hard pushed into diplmatics (mutal understanding, naive) and trade (diplomats, symbiosis)

- nice for early expands (rich soil for fster repopulation, masters of ilusion for cheaper colo ships)

- mapvision get them in favorable strategic position from which they win the game

-> solid choice





Automatons (70 points)



- good trader with turtlepower for ships (+20%HP) and systems (optimistics + fearless warrior)

- but the tradeoff are hard:

a hard to use affinity paired with low CP count on fleets

on top higher cost for hero abilitys and a dustmalus

a random negativ anomaly which can deside your fate (high gravity anyone?) or even a slight buff (aurora waves)

-> definatly not a race for beginners and luckbased on top of it (and the missing art/introvideo hurts *hint hint*)

-> a medicore race





Cravers (71 points)



- a militaristic race (more CP, cheaper ships, getting research for destroying)

- the affinity is a blessing and a curse - as is the eternal war

-> a fun race which needs to expand and invade from start to finish

-> a medicore race and not for beginner





Horatio (77 points)



- herocloning is tricky (when do you do t, how to time the academy place reseaches?) but worth it

- they are expansionists and their traits reflect it well (stellar guadian, cloning, crowded planets)

- in a direct confrontation they need their fleetheroes due to high ship costs without any boni on them

-> a solid pick but a little tricky if playing aggressively





Sowers (66 points)



- they can colonize everything with 75% FIDS

- to work they need a anomaly (metallic waters), a tech (xenobotany) and tolerant (58points!)

- they build faster (but only buildings)

- the downside are slow ships (which slows their slow earlygame further) and a 20% techmali -> on a suitable difficulty you will be behind ... the whole game ... if you do not pick your actions right and eat an oponent (good luck!)

- originally a strong race, but they didn't survive the 2 nerfs they got

-> right now a very bad pick





Pilgrimms (79 points)



- they trade whenever and with whoever, and excell at it (bloackade breaker, diplomats)

- their affinity is a bad joke, as is their fighting ability, get in an strong alliance and play the tradegame

-> win with a wonder or economic victory

--> a hard to play race because of the not useable affinity and bad picked traits

--> if you like a challenge take them, else stay away





Sheredyn:



see United empire











Disclaimer



Thank you for reading this wall of text .

Please note that English is not my first language & it's late at night.











Sincerly

Traits





Anomalys



Dust Lode: +3 Dust for 8 points - to expensive



Huygens Rings: +1 Dust +2 Science - 5 points for an early boost is perfect



Metallic Waters: +1 prod +10 moral - to expensive



Mineral Poor: -1 prod -1 dust -10 moral - 5 points is to low



Mineral Rich: +3 prod - well priced



Poor Soil: -1 food -1 science -10 moral - 5 points to low



Rich Soil: +3 food - a bit to expensive



Terraformed planet: no influence on a positiv anomaly, from dust lode to garden of eden - to random for the 10 points



Unlucky Colonist: get a random "negative anomaly" - you can be lucky or unlucky with this one ... to random for 6 points (make it 4/10 for the anomaly impact! high gravity - a tier 2 anomaly is way worse and harder to remove then ice10)



Summary:

- postive anomalies costs nearly the same, but their influence is greatly different and so should their price

(+3 food let you build +ind exploit, Hugyens rings give the early game dust and science bonus - perfect price for what it does, my favorite)

(Metalic water on the other hand is way to expensive for what it does - maybe if it had +2 prod it would be worth it)

- negative anomalies give to less points for making the early game harder







Science





Scientists: 10% S for 10 points - good to take, valid choice, worth the price



Space Cadets: 10% S malus for 5 points - never took it, you will allways be behind and will get more behind the longer the game is, picking it will cost you the game

(and it's the reason why sowers are unplayable, hisho can compensate through bushido)



Tolerant: 50% / 75% FIDS on unreseached planets: way to expensive for what it does (even 15/30 would be to expensive, perhaps 12/25?)







Fleet





Anarchists: -1 /2 CP for 6 point - it's okey to take or leave, seems a good balance



Big fleets: 1 / 2 CP for 10 points - to expensive because other fighting related traits do better for the same price



Fast Travelers: 1 / 2 Move for 5 points - who takes this? to expensive - bumb to 2/4 or half the cost



Fragile hulls: -15% / 30% hull for 5 points - only useable in destroyer spam/ suicide fleets



Master of Illusion: 20% / 40% Ind reduction for 5 points - useful early for rapid expanding, perhaps 8 points would be better



Meticolous Analysis: 1 / 2 scanrange on ships for 3 points - worthless (maybe +2/+4 or aply to solar systems would help this trait help seeing some games played)



Optimal structure: 15% / 30% more space for 10 points - best shiptrait and supreme over anything else



Slow travelers: -1 / -2 movement for 3 points - it's okey as it is only relevant early game



Strong Alloys: +20% / +40% Ship Hp for 10 points - in my opinien the 2nd best shiptrait - after the 2x HP shipbuff even more so - is worth the points



Wasted Space: -10% / 20% weight on ships for 8 points - who in his right mind would ever take this? (except destroyer spammers, and even they would only take 1 point ... the effect/cost is just to high)







Defence





Deep Roots: lose faster control and get it slower back - 1 per point ... make it 2 or 3 and it's worth taking - for turtles



Fearless warriors: +12/25 Defence/pop - in itself good, compared to other traits not worth it for the points



feeble warriors: -8 def/pop or -8deff/pop + -25% def - 2nd point is less points for what it does, still often taken ("if i cannot hold with fleets then the siege is lost anyway")



Rebellion: faster controlgain on conquered systems - price is right, but useless compared to other things



Revenge: +25% MP/invasion and 25% Deff when system lost for 4 points - if you need it you normaly lost the game anyways, or it's only 1 system after you defended, not wot taking



Stellar Guarians: +2/4 Influence for 5 points - down to 4/8 points and it would be perfect ... usefull vs AI, players ignore it (eternal war or just declare war ... and then it's jsut a "i can scout a bit further, but with movement of 16+ worthless then)





Hero





Death befor dishonor: +20%/40% EP on fleetbattles for heroes - a bit to expensive else a good trait



Dust impaired: +50%/100% ability cost for 2 points - balanced



Heroic Medicine: 25%/50% reduced healing costs - to expensive and you normaly don't loose a hero if you are not ambushed/careless ...



Legendary Heroes: less upkeep, leveled heroes to start - nice kickstart IF you have an administration hero to start it's fine balanced, else it is way to expensive



Micromanagers: more heroupkeep and less EP for 6 points - who uses that? no one, not even for the 6 points



Power masters: 25%/50% abilitycost reduce .. seldon picked, because: others are way better and is situational and so on ...



Sloppy sawbones: 50%/100% healingcostincrease for 3 points ... most take it (balanced)







Diplomacy





Diplomats: 25%/50% tradeincome for 6/15 - balanced



eternal war: no techtrade, no peace or more for 10 points - gives to much points for the effect: get it to full war vs everyone or reduce the points, atm it's to strong in MP



Naive: +4 moral per peace/allied - who takes that? who relys on the diplo of the AI or players for happieness: no one in their right mind ... make it +2/+4 moral per 2 player in the game for 8/16



Symbiosis: +15%/30% trade per cooperation - worth it, balanced







Space Battle





Deadly Weapons: 12%/24%/36% more damage for 5 points - best for beam spammers, balanced(?)



Dust Recyclers: 10/20 dust per CP killed for 5 points - early game great (destroyer spam)



Humane Weapons: 12%/24%/36% less damage for 2 points - why would you? right: never



Knowlede Gathering: 20/40 FP per CP killed for 5 points - great early and even midgame (destroyer spam)



Mutal Understanding: 5% more min and maxdamage per ally for 5 points - never better then deadly weapons, same price, and you need 3 allys (unreliable) to make it worth the points - never picked



Offense First: -5%/10%/15% Deff on ships per 2 points - only worth it if you are points short or destroyer spam



Optimal Defense: +5%/10%/15% Deff on ship per 5 points - less worth then deadly weapons per point, maybe for 3-4 point per level ...



Snipers: 5%/10%/15% more Weapon accuracy for 5 points - worth every single point (best for kinetics)



Spray 'n Pray: 5%/10%/15% less Weapon accuracy for 2 points - gives to less points for what it does -> useless







Buildings





Builders: -10%/20%/30% ind cost for bildings for 8 points - worth it



Masters of Destruction: 25%/50% less ind cost of weapons for 10 points - to good for destroyerspam, in a balanced ship (50% weapons) still worth it ... needs rework



Militarists: 10%/20%/30% reduced shipcost for 8 points - a bit to good, espacally if combined with master of destruction, add destroyer spam and it gets worse



The Price of Beauty: 10%/20%/30% increased shipcost for 4 points - make it 5 or 6 and it would be considerable



Unskilled Builders: +10%/20%/30% ind cost for bildings for 5 points - never saw it used, maybe bumb to 7 points or less malus?







Population





Black Thumbs: 10%/20%/30% less Food per 5 points -



Cloning: +1 Food T3/T2/T1 for 10/16/25 points - great bonus, but a bit to expensive



Growth plan: 10%/20%/30% more Food per 10 points - way to expensive



Optimistic: 10/20 moral on system per 8/18 points - 1 point allways taken as moral is needed all the time, maybe the 2nd level is to costly



Pessimistic: 10/20 moral less for 3/8 points - lower the moral hit or increase the points gained, else it is a waste, really needs work to see it in game





Economy





Blockade Breaker: Trade even in war for 15 points - way to cheap for what it does (take diplomats + Symbiosis + eternal war and its 35 points for full trade routs at 80% more effect ... leaving over 30 points for offense as dust and research for the whole game are save ... which makes it way to strong and a no brainer)



Businessmen: 10%/20%/30% more dust on system for 10 points - to expensive, seldon used



Dust Archaelogy: +20/42 startdust for 1/2 points - often used as filler for the little points, 20 dust also as first round hero



Dust starved: 0 dust for 1 point - often used for "the 1 missing point" delaying hero by 1 to 4 turns ... very startplanet/traits dependend if it should be 1 or 2 points



Entrepreneurs: 1 dust/pop for 20 points - very strong trait at an high price ... I really like it but its really expensive, would see more games when it would be just a bit cheaper (18?)



Merchants: +1/2 traderoutes for 8/16 points - to expensive



Spenthrifts: 10%/20%/30% less dust on system for 5/10/16 points - to less points to take it, but more points for it can be countered by Entrepreneur ... hard to balance, atm only used to make Entrepreneur a bit cheaper as it provides to much dust anyways

Yea, endless war needs to be removed. Or given like a -2 or something instead. - It completely kills diplomacy because even if 1 player doesn't have endless war, the others does so whats the point of not taking it. The only time I might not take endless war is in a 8 player game or a 6 player game with some others i know doesn't take endless war.



Master of Destruction is way too strong, and to a lesser degree militarists. Theses two traits together makes a glass cannon destroyer cost 1/3 the normal cost. A faction without these trait essentially needs to have three times the amount of production to defend militarily against one with this trait. That means these trait are pretty much must haves, and is the reason why "rush tactics" seem OP to most people. So even in my 100% peaceful races I max out both of those, to defend against rush races.



Optimistic is also a must have just because it essentially gives an increase to every FID, but it doesn't affect multiplayer balance as much as the other ones.

I tend to think about this game in terms of multiplayer, just fyi, rather than fighting against AI mechanics, because although the AI can be beaten because they fail to understand how to effectively stop a strategy, they same is often not true of a human.



Now, as far as balancing is concerned, I think that before traits are adjusted we need to first consider affinities and whether theere are some that are substantially stronger or weaker than others, such as the Cravers and Hisso being very strong, and the Pilgrims being very weak. I think the core faction affinities have to be adjusted even before traits because the affinities tend to multiply the effects of certain traits, and make them more or less valuable.



That being said, there are certainly a number of traits that need some adjustment. In my opinion, stellar guardians is very poor for multiplayer purposes as humans have very little qualms about officially declaring war after they have already attacked your outlying colonies. Meticulous Analysis seems like a waste of points, 1 extra view range is not worth starting with 4 times the dust, or changing a 5 point trait into an 8 point trait. I also agree with most people here that technologies are all very overpriced, I have never seen any player win a game in multiplayer that had a tech selected to start with, and I have never used them myself. Tolerant seems nearly useless, because in the time it takes to research the tech required to colonize early planet types (which tend to be much more productive than later types when morale is taken into account), so reducing the FIDS penalty or reducing the cost would make sense there.



I don't believe that the military traits are useless as some people suggest though, and I don't think offense first is a must have. Offense first (especially if taken all 3 times) substantially reduces your ability to stop incoming weapons, and in one particular game where I used offense first, I was defeated despite having a much larger armada and better military technology by a much smaller enemy fleet using defenses. As for other military traits, I have seen some fantastic war-like builds using the Hisso or Cravers who have done early to mid-game rushes, and defeated powers with much larger economies. In one particular instance against a cravers opponent, I had a greater than 30% larger economy, but his ships had increased accuracy, damage, and tonnage, and combined with the militarists trait, he could keep up with my production. As a result, he took so many key systems that I was eventually defeated.



One other trait that seems to be a must have in multiplayer: Eternal War.

Nearly every game winner seems to use eternal war. It costs you nothing in terms of economic or military strength, but gives you a full 10% increase in something else by virtue of 10 extra points. I think this is far too much, and more than that it discourages people from creating alliances against large powers. If someone becomes powerful, players should ban together to stop him. Here, it just isn't possible because you feel like you need that 10% of something else instead. I would like to see the point gain from such a negative trait enormously reduced.

NovaBlazer wrote:
I just don't see either of these being useless. One of my most successful empires was built around gobbling up huge amounts of territory FAST and then just playing isolationist.



I used Stellar Guardians and +Food production to cause my early plants to grow very very quickly, and thus my influence sphere was HUGE. This effectively stunted all the other empires and they had to start fighting with each other. It wasn't until very very late in the game that they started turning on me because my sphere was pushing so far out and gobbling up planets that they owned, so I could just cold war attack them.



I find very few of the skills "worthless", I can think of a scenario for nearly all of them in which they would be of use.



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And as far as Blockade Breakers being a must have... I didn't even try this skill until my 6 or 7th empire. It's nice... but meh... I would much rather get my research points and dust through the skills that allow give it through CP points destroyed.

Thats because the ai is shitty like that. The moment you see a guy pop up the influence sphere, you go war dec him and reduce that influence the old fashined way.

Igncom1 wrote:
I might have to start a new game, because that sounds badass!

I think what I did was a (forgive me, I forget all the titles)

+ to ship movement

+ to food

+ sphere of influence

+ cheaper ships (without weapons)



Huge Map... 8 AI... salt to taste.



Then... instead of taking planets right next to you, take your next planet 4 or 5 stars away. And do it quickly! If you can make a triangle or a square of systems you will lock everyone else out you fill in the middle and strengthen your choke points. Spend a bunch of turns improving your research and fleet building. When your sphere of influence expands past an enemy system, just go cold war capture it.