The idea that Influence is the resource for external matters, and Unity is the Resource for internal matters is neat, thematically, but I believe that when it comes to Planet Ascensions, it doesn't really work out all that well from a mechanical perspective.
To me, there are two arguments for making Planet Ascension cost Influence:
1.) Planet Ascensions are most relevant for empires with few planets, since every Ascension will benefit a bigger part of your overall empire. An empire that does not wish to expand horizontally currently does not have a lot of use for Influence: They don't want to expand, they don't want to Claim, and it would be nice to have an alternative to spamming dozens of habitats.
2.) A small empire is bound to have a lower amount of overall production, so it seems counter-intuitive and counter-productive to me that they would need to produce their Ascension Resources through jobs, instead of making use of the one Resource (Influence) that isn't heavily tied into the industry. Especially since these empires are also the ones who benefit from running Edicts, which also cost Unity.
Overall, it seems to me that Ascension-heavy empires would work best as their own "archetype": A tall empire that does not spam habitats and instead focuses on improving the actual planets that it has. If Ascensions had a semi-static Influence Cost (X + Y per existing Level of Ascension on the planet), then it could function as the primary way of (not actual, but in effect) "Expansion" for that archetype, while also still allowing wider empires to throw a few levels of Ascension on some key worlds (like Ecus or Research centers) when they have the spare resources.
Maybe I'm missing some obvious problem with this implementation, but I feel like this would lead to a much more interesting implementation than what we have now.
To me, there are two arguments for making Planet Ascension cost Influence:
1.) Planet Ascensions are most relevant for empires with few planets, since every Ascension will benefit a bigger part of your overall empire. An empire that does not wish to expand horizontally currently does not have a lot of use for Influence: They don't want to expand, they don't want to Claim, and it would be nice to have an alternative to spamming dozens of habitats.
2.) A small empire is bound to have a lower amount of overall production, so it seems counter-intuitive and counter-productive to me that they would need to produce their Ascension Resources through jobs, instead of making use of the one Resource (Influence) that isn't heavily tied into the industry. Especially since these empires are also the ones who benefit from running Edicts, which also cost Unity.
Overall, it seems to me that Ascension-heavy empires would work best as their own "archetype": A tall empire that does not spam habitats and instead focuses on improving the actual planets that it has. If Ascensions had a semi-static Influence Cost (X + Y per existing Level of Ascension on the planet), then it could function as the primary way of (not actual, but in effect) "Expansion" for that archetype, while also still allowing wider empires to throw a few levels of Ascension on some key worlds (like Ecus or Research centers) when they have the spare resources.
Maybe I'm missing some obvious problem with this implementation, but I feel like this would lead to a much more interesting implementation than what we have now.
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