Hey guys, I've been playing this unity beta for the past few days, and like many others I haven't had a very positive reaction to much of the unity rework -- I love the idea of making unity a more valuable resource in the game, but I don't think it has been implemented very well, as the new features simply add more things to spend unity on while not increasing the production of unity at all.
All of that aside though, I want to focus on Planetary Ascension tiers, and how they can possibly be improved:
First things first, we should address why the current Planetary Ascension system doesn't really "get the job done," so to speak
- The bonuses are weak, and relatively uninteresting. Increasing the bonus from a planet's designation is very bland, and to have a meaningful impact anywhere near that which you would get from simply researching new tech requires many tiers.
- It doesn't actually address a distinct difference in style between Tall and Wide empires. A Wide empire is not prohibited from ascending the same number of planets as a Tall empire, so it doesn't really do all that much to help the Tall ones out.
- The cost of Planetary Ascension tiers is in direct competition with Traditions, and the bonuses from traditions are widely better and work across your entire empire. Spending unity on planetary ascensions is almost never as good as continuing to unlock new Traditions and Ascension Perks, and even once you have all of those there is a strong argument for Unity Ambitions or other Edicts instead.
Well, thats out of the way, but what about the system is strong, or can be salvaged?
- The intention of the system is to reward players for building tall empires, and this is done by making any upgrade to a single planet increase the cost to all, making it prohibitively expensive to perform across multiple worlds. This works well, but it doesn't feel good. The increase in cost is annoying for the Tall Empire, as scaling it past a couple of planets. With only about 200 Empire Sprawl, so 100 above the limit where it does not work, your first Planetary Ascension costs over 1000 unity. The next costs 2500 more, and then 2500 more again. At this rate, assuming the extremely low sprawl of 200, getting 10 Planetary Ascension tiers on a single planet would cost a massive 122500 unity, all of which gives you very little. If you wanted a second world to reach Planetary Ascension Tier 10, it would cost ELEVEN times this much, making a grand total of 1,347,500--or nearly 1.5 million--unity.
- Reduces Empire Sprawl: This is a good kind of effect for planetary ascension, as it can have a significant effect on Tall empires, cutting their excess empire sprawl by a larger percentage than it would for a Wide empire, but it needs to be more significant.
Now, the extremely expert opinion which you have all been waiting for: How would I fix it?
Well, when you think of a tall empire, what do you think of? A civilisation living post scarcity, with few worlds but high output, competing with the brute force of hive minds and machines. What looks more like this in the game than Fallen Empires?
I believe that Planetary Ascension Tiers should begin the declining of pops on your world, but should provide MASSIVE boosts to the economy of the planet, and result in events which give opportunities for new technology research (buildings like those of fallen empires, but less powerful). The declining pops but increase to production will reduce the number of pops in an empire, which in turn will greatly reduce Empire Sprawl which counts each pop as 1. Better buildings can allow for more production on a few planets which have been massively worked on by their populations and are nearly reaching the status of those empires which have since fallen.
It makes most sense to me that this system of ascension would feed into itself, just like research provides incentive for more research. As buildings are automated to produce more resources on their own, the pops can be freed to pursue unity producing artistic or free thinking jobs, as their society has built to a point where they no longer need to work. A new living status higher than Utopian Abundance available exclusively on these ascended worlds -- perhaps as a decision -- could do this.
I have more thoughts on other systems, but wanted to put this all together in one place about one topic. What do you guys think? Any suggestions or things I might have miscalculated or mistaken? This community is amazing and I have faith that the devs will improve the system before it is included in a full update, but it's exciting to talk about potential improvements.
All of that aside though, I want to focus on Planetary Ascension tiers, and how they can possibly be improved:
First things first, we should address why the current Planetary Ascension system doesn't really "get the job done," so to speak
- The bonuses are weak, and relatively uninteresting. Increasing the bonus from a planet's designation is very bland, and to have a meaningful impact anywhere near that which you would get from simply researching new tech requires many tiers.
- It doesn't actually address a distinct difference in style between Tall and Wide empires. A Wide empire is not prohibited from ascending the same number of planets as a Tall empire, so it doesn't really do all that much to help the Tall ones out.
- The cost of Planetary Ascension tiers is in direct competition with Traditions, and the bonuses from traditions are widely better and work across your entire empire. Spending unity on planetary ascensions is almost never as good as continuing to unlock new Traditions and Ascension Perks, and even once you have all of those there is a strong argument for Unity Ambitions or other Edicts instead.
Well, thats out of the way, but what about the system is strong, or can be salvaged?
- The intention of the system is to reward players for building tall empires, and this is done by making any upgrade to a single planet increase the cost to all, making it prohibitively expensive to perform across multiple worlds. This works well, but it doesn't feel good. The increase in cost is annoying for the Tall Empire, as scaling it past a couple of planets. With only about 200 Empire Sprawl, so 100 above the limit where it does not work, your first Planetary Ascension costs over 1000 unity. The next costs 2500 more, and then 2500 more again. At this rate, assuming the extremely low sprawl of 200, getting 10 Planetary Ascension tiers on a single planet would cost a massive 122500 unity, all of which gives you very little. If you wanted a second world to reach Planetary Ascension Tier 10, it would cost ELEVEN times this much, making a grand total of 1,347,500--or nearly 1.5 million--unity.
- Reduces Empire Sprawl: This is a good kind of effect for planetary ascension, as it can have a significant effect on Tall empires, cutting their excess empire sprawl by a larger percentage than it would for a Wide empire, but it needs to be more significant.
Now, the extremely expert opinion which you have all been waiting for: How would I fix it?
Well, when you think of a tall empire, what do you think of? A civilisation living post scarcity, with few worlds but high output, competing with the brute force of hive minds and machines. What looks more like this in the game than Fallen Empires?
I believe that Planetary Ascension Tiers should begin the declining of pops on your world, but should provide MASSIVE boosts to the economy of the planet, and result in events which give opportunities for new technology research (buildings like those of fallen empires, but less powerful). The declining pops but increase to production will reduce the number of pops in an empire, which in turn will greatly reduce Empire Sprawl which counts each pop as 1. Better buildings can allow for more production on a few planets which have been massively worked on by their populations and are nearly reaching the status of those empires which have since fallen.
It makes most sense to me that this system of ascension would feed into itself, just like research provides incentive for more research. As buildings are automated to produce more resources on their own, the pops can be freed to pursue unity producing artistic or free thinking jobs, as their society has built to a point where they no longer need to work. A new living status higher than Utopian Abundance available exclusively on these ascended worlds -- perhaps as a decision -- could do this.
I have more thoughts on other systems, but wanted to put this all together in one place about one topic. What do you guys think? Any suggestions or things I might have miscalculated or mistaken? This community is amazing and I have faith that the devs will improve the system before it is included in a full update, but it's exciting to talk about potential improvements.
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