resource shortages.

[cylordcenturion]

as i am sure many of you know the resource shortage system is a bit bare bones. no matter how large (or small) your empire and economy is, or how massive or trifling your deficit is, the penalties are exactly the same. this is stupid in terms of both gameplay and realism.
gameplay-wise we see things like machine empires running deficits of -100+ EC and working tons of researcher jobs. and realistically a 100= pop empire would not be hit the same by being short 1 mineral per month when its production/consumption is in the hundreds as a 20 pop empire short 500/month.

my solution: its fairly simple, jobs, pops, buildings, and ships require upkeep. if a given thing does not have upkeep it does not provide its function. a metalurgist without minerals cannot conjure alloys out of thin air, an unfed pop will not work, and an unpowered building provides no jobs. the order in which things are upkept is complex and difficult to figure out but you would be able to set priorities as a policy. i.e. prioritize ship upkeep so that you arent sitting ducks in the middle of a war.

 

[mial42]

I agree. IMO, a rework of deficits should be a priority for 3.1, since their nonfunctionality right now trivializes the most important system in the game: the economy.

 

[MatthewP]

For most things this seems a lot better. Ships are a bit of an issue though. If the player can decide to set ships to the lowest priority and just not pay their maintenance, that’s a pretty big exploit.

There are definitely solutions to this. One example: you could have ships get some penalties for not being maintained that take a long time to disappear (and cost extra maintenance while they are being removed). But hopefully if this suggestion is taken someone will do a pass through all the things that can “not provide their function” and make sure that is defined so it has a reasonable gameplay penalty.

 

[GOLANX]

For most things this seems a lot better. Ships are a bit of an issue though. If the player can decide to set ships to the lowest priority and just not pay their maintenance, that’s a pretty big exploit.

There are definitely solutions to this. One example: you could have ships get some penalties for not being maintained that take a long time to disappear (and cost extra maintenance while they are being removed). But hopefully if this suggestion is taken someone will do a pass through all the things that can “not provide their function” and make sure that is defined so it has a reasonable gameplay penalty.

I would suggest that energy shortages would cause a brown out to all places where it is used including ships based on the amount, the only things that should really get priority ate the ones neccesary for the resource to be produced, in this case energy grid. A 1% deficit = 1% reduction in fire rate,sunlight, sublight, hyperdrive speed,, and production from every ship and structure that uses it.