The title is a bit of a joke. But Shortages in general are too crippling. They give hard penalties when really the penalties they give should be scaling.
Consider, from the Wiki
Energy shortage
If your empire needs 1000 energy but you can only afford to pay 999 energy a month and you end up in a deficit, you are slapped with a 50% Mineral penalty on top of the other stuff.
It's all like that. Your pops need 500 food but you only grow 499 food and have no more reserves? Blam, -25% Happiness and -75% growth. You've run out of CG because your economy is tanking? Blam, take another -25%.
No wonder economies can end up in a downward spiral. A deficit in a single resource can bring an empire to its knees. Given that empire economies can now be much more complex, this is far more likely to happen.
Some people will argue "Oh but you should learn to play, balance your economy, and apply the correct Policies for your empire". That's great. It's also not an answer. I've personally never had my economy tank so badly I couldn't recover, but it's not about me. It's not just players this affects; it's the AI. If the AI doesn't manage its resources correctly, it will be crippled and the game becomes less fun.
As I said, I think it'd be more reasonable if shortages gave scaling penalties. You should be heavily in the red and unable to pay for a lot of things before you get slapped with a full -50% Mineral penalty.
Consider, from the Wiki
Energy shortage-
-50% Minerals Output -
-75% Army Damage -
-75% Shield Hit Points -
-75% Weapons Damage
If your empire needs 1000 energy but you can only afford to pay 999 energy a month and you end up in a deficit, you are slapped with a 50% Mineral penalty on top of the other stuff.
It's all like that. Your pops need 500 food but you only grow 499 food and have no more reserves? Blam, -25% Happiness and -75% growth. You've run out of CG because your economy is tanking? Blam, take another -25%.
No wonder economies can end up in a downward spiral. A deficit in a single resource can bring an empire to its knees. Given that empire economies can now be much more complex, this is far more likely to happen.
Some people will argue "Oh but you should learn to play, balance your economy, and apply the correct Policies for your empire". That's great. It's also not an answer. I've personally never had my economy tank so badly I couldn't recover, but it's not about me. It's not just players this affects; it's the AI. If the AI doesn't manage its resources correctly, it will be crippled and the game becomes less fun.
As I said, I think it'd be more reasonable if shortages gave scaling penalties. You should be heavily in the red and unable to pay for a lot of things before you get slapped with a full -50% Mineral penalty.
