So, here is the question for the players - how are you finding balance in 2.2 I'm curious in what others think, cause I only played 2 games so far and can't play more. Not right now, sadly, not with how this game is right now, with all performance and AI issues.
So far the stuff I found is limited to this:
- research for bonus minerals from space station is good idea, but it's too weak. There is no way it's enough. I feel like it should be upped from 10% to 20 or even 30 per research. The mineral consumption goes up and up. You have special building to increase mineral production, thankfully, but you don't always have a good mineral-producing planets. Not to mention tall playstyle.
- Idea for upgraded buildings to require rare resources is good, but lack of upgraded versions of rare resource producing buildings really hurts specialized worlds. You could disperse alloy, consumer goods and research all over the empire - and have no real need for rare stuff. Or you could try to specialize - and suddenly you have to pay either lots of money on the market, or lots of minerals, to produce stuff to be able to have lots of t2 and t3 buildings on a single planet. It's not so much a complaint, but rather it's making tall gameplay a lot less enjoyable then it was initially looked.
- speaking of rare resources - the lack of any upgrade/research to increase the yield is a bit sad. It's nice to have +4 rare resource from space stations, but output stays the same, while consumption only goes up and up. Again, market is here to help us, but a research/tradition/starbase module for increased yield would be nice to have. The sense of progression is also a factor in these things.
- Limit of 1 robot assembly plant per planet and lack of upgraded version make robots a bit less fun. But that's a bit complex, since robots are the only way to have 2 pops growing on a planet at the same time.
- Something funky about alien empires ethics distribution. Megacorps and militarists are everywhere. In my 2 normal games and few test ones I rarely saw peaceful aliens. Out of 12 empires 3 would be megacorps (me included), 2 hives/machines, maybe 1 democracy and the rest are various imperialists and hegemonists (if this word even exists). The militarists part is not that bad (thought it makes every game into neverending cold-war scenario), but the megacorps AI have no regards to admin cap. They expand 100% the same as normal empires do, sometimes even bigger. Funny as it might be to see trade consortium directly controlling 20% of the galaxy, this makes no sense on many levels, from their own crippled research rates to the very idea of megacorp.
- Speaking of megacorps, their commercial agreement should either be valued differently or the negative modifier from 'too many commercial pacts' reduced. Very rarely I have an opportunity to have even 1 pact with an empire eligible for megacorp features. Twice I started as megacorp and had to reform - because I had no access to this government form special features! Everyone was either a (mutual) rival, ally of a rival, hivemind, megacorp, or distance+too many commercial pacts. And +100 from giving them gifts was not enough. Which is kinda bad, because trade agreement with megacorp is more valuable for recipient, since megacorp would be placing their stuff at your planets, and this stuff would benefit both parties. And usual trade agreement don’t provide that kind of benefits.
- alloy balance is still wonky, but I can’t say it’s totally bad – there is a chance I’m just not used to the new economy;
- lack of refunds when rebuilding stuff is sad when I want to replace producing districts with housing ones, cause that’s a lot of minerals going nowhere. But the lack of refunds in regards to starbases is very harsh. I’m not saying I should be able to dismantle starbases that I got from devouring swarms for alloys for free (though it would be neat), but some kind of refund would be great nonetheless. 25%, and some research/perks for more. In midgame a lot of minerals going into manufacturing so that mineral surplus is not that great. And buildings and districts cost a lot of minerals. Having some of the costs return would be great
- with all new things and buildings I feel that some techs could be consolidated. It would be too much, but I feel like having all 3 production bonus buildings as one tech is nice idea. Right now we have all these new things and sometimes it takes literally 70 years to get to something like t2 consumer good factory. It might be subjective, but I think tech pool got a lot bigger with no change to research speed, number of picks or tech weights. The whole ‘tech as cards’ system is nice, I’m not saying it should be reworked. Just tweaked to accommodate the fact that we now have around 30 completely new tech cards, while research rates stayed the same.
That’s my observations on balance so far. Really interested in hearing what other players thoughts on balance are right now.
So far the stuff I found is limited to this:
- research for bonus minerals from space station is good idea, but it's too weak. There is no way it's enough. I feel like it should be upped from 10% to 20 or even 30 per research. The mineral consumption goes up and up. You have special building to increase mineral production, thankfully, but you don't always have a good mineral-producing planets. Not to mention tall playstyle.
- Idea for upgraded buildings to require rare resources is good, but lack of upgraded versions of rare resource producing buildings really hurts specialized worlds. You could disperse alloy, consumer goods and research all over the empire - and have no real need for rare stuff. Or you could try to specialize - and suddenly you have to pay either lots of money on the market, or lots of minerals, to produce stuff to be able to have lots of t2 and t3 buildings on a single planet. It's not so much a complaint, but rather it's making tall gameplay a lot less enjoyable then it was initially looked.
- speaking of rare resources - the lack of any upgrade/research to increase the yield is a bit sad. It's nice to have +4 rare resource from space stations, but output stays the same, while consumption only goes up and up. Again, market is here to help us, but a research/tradition/starbase module for increased yield would be nice to have. The sense of progression is also a factor in these things.
- Limit of 1 robot assembly plant per planet and lack of upgraded version make robots a bit less fun. But that's a bit complex, since robots are the only way to have 2 pops growing on a planet at the same time.
- Something funky about alien empires ethics distribution. Megacorps and militarists are everywhere. In my 2 normal games and few test ones I rarely saw peaceful aliens. Out of 12 empires 3 would be megacorps (me included), 2 hives/machines, maybe 1 democracy and the rest are various imperialists and hegemonists (if this word even exists). The militarists part is not that bad (thought it makes every game into neverending cold-war scenario), but the megacorps AI have no regards to admin cap. They expand 100% the same as normal empires do, sometimes even bigger. Funny as it might be to see trade consortium directly controlling 20% of the galaxy, this makes no sense on many levels, from their own crippled research rates to the very idea of megacorp.
- Speaking of megacorps, their commercial agreement should either be valued differently or the negative modifier from 'too many commercial pacts' reduced. Very rarely I have an opportunity to have even 1 pact with an empire eligible for megacorp features. Twice I started as megacorp and had to reform - because I had no access to this government form special features! Everyone was either a (mutual) rival, ally of a rival, hivemind, megacorp, or distance+too many commercial pacts. And +100 from giving them gifts was not enough. Which is kinda bad, because trade agreement with megacorp is more valuable for recipient, since megacorp would be placing their stuff at your planets, and this stuff would benefit both parties. And usual trade agreement don’t provide that kind of benefits.
- alloy balance is still wonky, but I can’t say it’s totally bad – there is a chance I’m just not used to the new economy;
- lack of refunds when rebuilding stuff is sad when I want to replace producing districts with housing ones, cause that’s a lot of minerals going nowhere. But the lack of refunds in regards to starbases is very harsh. I’m not saying I should be able to dismantle starbases that I got from devouring swarms for alloys for free (though it would be neat), but some kind of refund would be great nonetheless. 25%, and some research/perks for more. In midgame a lot of minerals going into manufacturing so that mineral surplus is not that great. And buildings and districts cost a lot of minerals. Having some of the costs return would be great
- with all new things and buildings I feel that some techs could be consolidated. It would be too much, but I feel like having all 3 production bonus buildings as one tech is nice idea. Right now we have all these new things and sometimes it takes literally 70 years to get to something like t2 consumer good factory. It might be subjective, but I think tech pool got a lot bigger with no change to research speed, number of picks or tech weights. The whole ‘tech as cards’ system is nice, I’m not saying it should be reworked. Just tweaked to accommodate the fact that we now have around 30 completely new tech cards, while research rates stayed the same.
That’s my observations on balance so far. Really interested in hearing what other players thoughts on balance are right now.
.png){kind=avatar}
