What do you think of these changes?

[ExNihil]

Hi Guys,

I made a mod in which I try to streamline the current game balance and improve what I perceive as weak points. I don't touch ships and stations, and I try to stay true to the vanilla design paradigm.

I would very much like input on the changes I made, and especially whether you think they could and do improve the current game. I hope the devs will include some if 'em in the main game in the future.

Note: ignore the change to materialism since I will probably roll it back.

Here are the changes:
Ethics

Authoritarian / Fanatic Authoritarian
-resettlement cost reduction increased to -33% / -66%.
-slave unrest modifier replaced by +10% / +20% monthly influence gain.

Egalitarian / Fanatic Egalitarian
-influence from factions bonus increased to +25% / +50%.
-utopian living standard was buffed (see pertinent section below).

Materialism / Fanatic Materialism
-the robot maintenance cost reduction was replaced by +1/+1 / +2/+2 leader capacity and leader pool size.

Spiritualist / Fanatic Spiritualist
-the unrest mitigation was nerfed and moved to temple buildings (see the Buildings section for more details).
-introduced -15% / -30% edict cost reduction bonus.

Militarist / Fanatic Militarist

-the army damage bonus was replaced by +1 / +2 maximum rivalries.

Xenophile / Fanatic Xenophile
-replaced the trust growth bonus with -30% / -60% tradition cost increase from xeno pops.
-the xeno pops happiness bonus that was previously added was moved to the plurality forum building.
-added a special xenophile upgrade to the visitor center that unlocks with tech (see the buildings section for more details).
-added a special xenophile specific civic that gives extra trust growth and +35 trust cap.

Buildings Changed

Temple
-spiritualist ethic attraction reduced to +10% .
-added -10 unrest mitigation on planet.

Holotemple
-spiritualist ethic attraction reduced to +20%.
-added -20 unrest mitigation on planet.

Citadel of Faith
-added -40 unrest mitigation on planet

Visitor Center
-increased unity and energy output by +1 each (now gives +3 / +3)

Psi-Corps
-increased cost by 50 influence points (had no influence cost before).
-empire unrest mitigation increased to -30.
-added empire wide +10% governing ethics attraction.
-added +10 unity output (produced nothing before).

Military Academy
-increased the damage bonus to produced armies to +20%.
-removed the -10 unrest on planet mitigation.
-added +100% planetary foritifications / +100% garrison health bonus.
-replaced the +2 engineering output with +2 unity output.

Replaced mineral silos with new buildings (see below)

New Buildings
Polytechnic Complex : a new planet unique building that is unlocked through the discovery tradition (see traditions section below).
-its output is +2/+2/+2 research points (i.e. +2 research points in each research field) and it also gives +1/+1/+1 adjacency bonus to research structures.
-(5/8/17) updated to a new building icon

Plurality Forum: introduced a xenophile only upgrade to the Visitor Center that requires the tradition unlock + t2 tech research (has the tradition as a prerequisite for the tech).
-gives +65% Xeno migration attraction (15% increase), +10% habitability (+5% increase), +5% happiness to xeno pops on planet and outputs +4/+4/+4 unity, energy and society research.
-(5/8/17) updated to a new building icon

Hyperstorage Facility I-III: the mineral silo buildings were replaced Hyperstorage Facility buildings.
-the idea here is to increase both mineral AND energy storage using a single building, making planetary specialization easier, while making a rather useless vanilla building viable.
-level I: 500/500 mineral/energy storage, +1/+1 energy/mineral adjacency bonus (will only affect mineral or energy producing buildings).
-level II: 1250/1250 mineral/energy storage, +2/+2 energy/mineral adjacency bonus.
-level III: 2000/2000 mineral/energy storage, +2/+2 energy/mineral adjacency bonus and -15% pop consumer goods cost on planet.
-because of the substantial buff to this building chain it unlocks through a dedicated engineering tech chain (t1/cheap t2/expensive t2) rather than through the mineral processing tech chain.

Changed and New Civics

Diplomatic Corps
-added a new xenophile exclusive civic called Diplomatic Corps that gives +33% trust growth and +20% trade attractiveness.

Militaristic Culture
-replaced the old bonuses (+25% army dmg / -25% army upkeep cost) with +25% morale, -25% army build cost and +35% army build speed.

Police State
-increased the global unrest mitigation from -20 to -50
-added -35% distance from capital governing ethics attraction penalty

Policies

• Changed the unrestricted native interference policy to allow pacifists / fanatic pacifists to adopt it. This should incur faction penalty (WIP).
• Changed the Capacity Boosters leader policy to allow egalitarians but not fanatic egalitarians to adopt it. This does incur a serious faction penalty.

Living Standards
Chemical Bliss
-costs halved to 1.5 consumer goods points per pop.
-added a -20% pop growth malus.
-all production negatives reduced to -40% from -60%.

Utopian Living
-added +30% unity production per tile bonus (this effects only the output of unity producing structures)
-added a +10% pop growth bonus.

Social Welfare
-added a +5% pop growth bonus.

Impoverished Conditions
-added a -5% pop growth malus.

Subsistence Living
-added a -10% pop growth malus.

Edicts Changed and Added
-Map the Stars was moved from the rare technology Global Research Initative (which unlock the Research Institute building) to be available at game start, and its cost was increase to 1.25 influence (was 1).

Technologies Changed and Added

AI-Controlled Colony Ships:
-colony development speed bonus increased to 66%
-colony ship price reduction increased to -33%

Self-Aware Colony Ships was replaced by a new technology called Cryogenic Stasis
-gives +1 pop on new colony. This bonus replaces the expansion tradition’s bonus (see traditions section below).

Gaia Creation:
-prerequisite tech changed from Climate Restoration to Ecological Adaptation + Atmospheric Manipulation, to allow change to the World Shaper ascension perk.

Xeno Cultural-Exchange:
-a new t2 society tech the unlocks for Xenophiles only after the Xeno Tourism tradition is picked and it unlocks the Plurality Forum building.

Tile Blocker Techs + Ecological Optimization
-to try and balance out a bit Mastery of Nature, which is a bit on the OP side of things (will be nerged in patch 1.8 according to the game's devs), I changed the costs of all tile blocker techs from a base of 480 to a base of 360 (t1cost1).
-added a t2 tech that comes after Ecological Adaptation (terraforming) called Ecological Optimization. This tech gives -25% tile blocker removal cost (redundant for players who pick MoN) and +25% tile blocker removal speed bonus.

Automatic Exploration
-the automatic exploration feature was moved into a new starting tech called Basic Exploration Protocols . Players can choose to manually explore - which has clear advantages, or not.
-a new t2 tech called Advanced Exploration Protocols replaces the old Automated Exploration Protocols tech, and it gives +50% survey speed bonus.
-this new tech is the preerequisite for the advanced science lab tech/component that is discussed in the next item below.

Curator Labs and Advanced Shipboard Science Lab
-the techs Curator Exploration Science Lab and Curator Archeology Lab were merged into the Curation Exploration tech and the component itself was buffed.
-the curator archeology tech/component were removed and replaced by a t2 non-rare tech which unlocks an upgrade to the basic shipboard science lab. The new component gives a modest 10% bonus to anomaly research speed, a 5% discovery chance bonus and -5% failure chance mitigation.
-the curator exploration lab, which unlocks with the rare curator tech is substantially better, giving +30% survey and anomaly research speed bonuses, -20% anomaly failure risk and +10 anomaly discovery chance, making it worthwhile - if you can get it early enough.

Traditions

Discovery

• Adoption Bonus: changed to +1 research alternatives (research station build cost moved to prosperity)
• Science Division: gives +1 leader pool size in addition to the -33% scientist recruitment costs
• Polytechnic Education: changed to unlock a planet unique building called Polytechnic Complex (see the buildings section above for details)

Prosperity

• Adoption bonus: changed from -33% mining station cost to -25% mining station / research station cost reduction.
• Finisher bonus: changed from -33% terraforming cost to -25% ship upgrade cost. Terraforming bonus moved to the World Shaper ascension perk (see below)
• Trans-stellar Corporations was renamed Trans-Stellar Shipping and it no longer unlocks private colony ships (this was moved to the expansion tree, see below), instead giving -15% consumer goods cost reduction.

Domination

• Protection Racket: removed the slave unrest mitigation, increased the tributary gain bonus to +15%
• Fleet Levies: Vassal contribution increased to +30%

Expansion

• Adoption bonus: changed to unlock private colony ships instead of the pertinent prosperity tradition. The previous bonus (+1 pop on new colony) was made into a technology (see above for details).
• Finisher bonus: changed to -33% unity cost increase from number of owned colonies
• Courier Networks: changed to give +2 core systems instead of the expansion finisher.
• A New Life: pop growth speed bonus replaced by +50% migration speed bonus.

Harmony

• Adoption bonus: changed from +10 pop happiness to +15% pop growth.
• Finisher bonus: changed to -15% pop unity penalty reduction.
• The Greater Good: added -20% edict influence cost reduction.

Supremacy

• War Games: now gives +2 levels to generals as well.
• Overwhelming Force: added +25% army build speed bonus and -25% army build cost reduction.

Diplomacy
The diplomacy tree was reconfigured.

• Federal Unity and Entente Coordination were merged into a single tradition pick called Federal Unity. The per federation member unity bonus in this pick was increased to 8%.
• Dynamic Ecomorphism was renamed Dynamic Biomorphism and its bonus was changed from +10% habitability to +1 genetic trait points.
• A new base tradition called Xenological Protocols is now the prerequisite for both Alien Tourism and Dynamic Economorphism. It gives +20% trade attractiveness and +100% influence from subjects (protectorates).

Ascension Perks

World Shaper
-added -33% terraforming cost reduction (former finisher bonus of the prosperity tradition).
-added the technology Gaia Creation as a bonus research option that appears with the perk's adoption (the normal bonus tech Atmospheric Manipulation remains in place).

Technological Ascendancy
-research speed bonus increased to +15%.

One Vision
-[strike]increased the unity tile production bonus to 15%.[/strike]
-reduced the governing ethics attraction bonus to +20% (was +30%)
-added -20% founder species pops unity penalty reduction.
-added -20% xeno pops unity penalty reduction.

Master Builders
-added the technology Mega Engineers as a bonus research option that appears with the perk's adoption
-added -25% megastructure price reduction.

Traits Changed

Resilient
This trait was reconfigured because it was almost completely worthless given the army system of vanilla. I tried to remain true to the vanilla trait description with the changes.
-the garrison health modifier was removed. (while conceptually sound, game mechanics-wise this didn't do anything noteworthy)
-increased the pop fortification bonus to 100% (was 50%)
-added +50% army damage when defending.
-added +25% army health bonus.

Robust
This advanced trait is mostly useless because by the time it appears the +30% habitability is almost completely redundant.
-removed adaptive and extremely adaptive as opposites of this trait, so it can now be picked in conjunction with either one and thus compensate for the reduced habitability bonus.
-habitability bonus decreased to +10%.
-added +50% army health bonus.
-decreased the price of this trait from 7 to 4.

Very Strong
-reduced the price from 3 to 2 trait points.

Arrested Development
-the -100% experience gain was nerfed to -75% experience gain.

P.S. thanks to @Gratak and @beckermtfor ideas and advice.

 

[extrapancake]

Looks really good, will definitely give it a try. Why make chemical bliss even worse though? (edit: nevermind I misread, looks great)

 

[ExNihil]

Looks really good, will definitely give it a try. Why make chemical bliss even worse though? (edit: nevermind I misread, looks great)

Thanks!

 

[DanaDark]

Honestly just too many changes to be able to tell you what I think without having spent several games try various play styles.

Nothing looks horribly unbalanced though. So, there's that.

 

[ExNihil]

Indeed....

Any suggestions anyone?

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Those look quite a bit more reasonable than the previous ones.
I'll get into details when I have the time.

 

[Mr Thursday]

Lots of interesting change and meaningful. So comprehsive it needs to be played.

A New Life: pop growth speed bonus replaced by +50% migration speed bonus

Actually makes sense thematically , and better balanced.

Resilient
This trait was reconfigured because it was almost completely worthless given the army system of vanilla. I tried to remain true to the vanilla trait description with the changes.
-the garrison health modifier was removed. (while conceptually sound, game mechanics-wise this didn't do anything noteworthy)
-increased the pop fortification bonus to 100% (was 50%)
-added +50% army damage when defending.
-added +25% army health bonus.

This trait is now worth the point spent on it.

 

[Jorrhast]

Adoption bonus: changed from +10 pop happiness to +15% pop growth.

My inner munchkin cringed when I was reading this... which probably means the change is good
Overall, looks better than what we currently have. Need to playtest though, too much changes to jump to conclusions.

 

[ExNihil]

My inner munchkin cringed when I was reading this... which probably means the change is good
Overall, looks better than what we currently have. Need to playtest though, too much changes to jump to conclusions.

I'd very much like to read the conclusions of a playtest by someone other than myself .

As for the growth speed - I really disliked the flat happiness buff, since its both too powerful, and makes the game boring. I sorta feel happiness, like habitability, is too easy to acquire. Still, I don't like the growth speed as well, although I think its better: growth speed should be probably left to techs, to make this a bit more important. But I was sorta out of ideas what could go there without enraging players, and the only other thing is ethic attraction, which I also dislike.

 

[ExNihil]

Lemme pick your brains about materialism (I know what I wrote in the OP).

My reason for changing the robot main. cost reduction to the leader capacity bonuses was that in vanilla the robot main. costs are really quite low to make a big difference in most games, which in my experience sorta made this perk into a niche perk for when the player takes the machinist civic. Otherwise robot costs become serious only in the later parts of the game, in which it is usually very easy to compensate for them. Also, if you go synth ascension this perk is sort of redundant, since you have so many power stations going there and such a powerful energy production bonus from the synth attributes that you are probably drowning in energy.

To illustrate this point: 10% robot main cost reduction equals 1 point of energy saved for every 10 robot pops. 20% equals 2 points of energy for every 10 pops OFC. So, if you have 30 robot pops you'd save a whopping 3-6 energy...

By the time I can build 30 robot pops, which means I paid (without machinist) 4.5K energy / 1.5K minerals, I have sufficient economy that 3-6 energy really isn't a big enough deal to matter.

Consumer goods cost on the other hand just scales up, and it does affect living standards and the like, so it's much more worthwhile, although it did need a buff.

So I could either seriously buff this perk, but this would become highly IMBA with synth ascension, or remove it.

Now, I would optimally change the main. costs of robots, remove the synth bonuses to energy completely, and add an cumulative negative impact on energy production from number of robot pops. But these are huge changes, probably savegame breaking, and they don't fit in this mod at all, so I'm not going to do this.

Question is, what do you think of the +1/+1 / +2/+2 leader capacity and leader pool size? Do you have other suggestions? would the robot main. cost be better there?

I was thinking of adding a special materialist civic that focuses on robots to compensate for this change, giving say -20% robot main. +20% robot build speed, or something along these lines.

@beckermt - a followup to our discussion.

 

[Milten]

Seems good to me.

Temple
-spiritualist ethic attraction reduced to +10% .
-added -10 unrest mitigation on planet.

Any particular reason for this nerf? Unrest mitigation is worthless with how it all works right now. The only effective (and useful) unrest suppression building is Slave Processor on a planet full of slaves and it deals in percentage reduction.

Military Academy
-increased the damage bonus to produced armies to +20%.
-removed the -10 unrest on planet mitigation.
-added +100% planetary foritifications / +100% garrison health bonus.
-replaced the +2 engineering output with +2 unity output.

Still pretty much the same thing, although I don't really see why it should produce unity. Imo it would be more interesting if it had militarist ethic attraction, perhaps then there would be a reason to build it on more than one planet.

Utopian Living
-added +30% unity production per tile bonus (this effects only the output of unity producing structures)
-added a +10% pop growth bonus.

Social Welfare
-added a +5% pop growth bonus.

Impoverished Conditions
-added a -5% pop growth malus.

Subsistence Living
-added a -10% pop growth malus.

Looks at Zimbabwe. Looks at Sweden. Well, if you think it's better for the balance.

Overwhelming Force: added +25% army build speed bonus and -25% army build cost reduction.

I basically build an army once through the game and then just throw it around the galaxy, so all build speed/build cost bonuses seem pointless to me.

 

[ExNihil]

Any particular reason for this nerf? Unrest mitigation is worthless with how it all works right now. The only effective (and useful) unrest suppression building is Slave Processor on a planet full of slaves and it deals in percentage reduction.

True indeed. I nerfed it since I moved it to a building, and temple buildings are already quite good to begin with. Also unrest mitigation is waaay to common, and I want it to be a bit more precious. This is also the reason why I removed it from protection racket. Actually, the spiritualist unrest mitigation is global, affecting both slaves and free pops alike - at least as far as I know. So this is actually useful when having some slaves on planet. Also, it can be useful when conquering new territories, since -10 unrest points equals 1 defending army, and you do want to build some unity generating buildings often. Saying that, the slave processing building is certain more effective.

Still pretty much the same thing, although I don't really see why it should produce unity. Imo it would be more interesting if it had militarist ethic attraction, perhaps then there would be a reason to build it on more than one planet.

I was considering the militarist attraction. Problem is how it will affect the AI. I can probably bypass this using weights though, so this could be a good feature. Alternatively I could give a very bonus to admiral/general recruitment cost per military academy building. Say, -1 to -3% per building, but that might be problematic. As for unity, well it makes it a better building. Why conceptually? Its a building dedicated to the state and its traditions in a way, so it looked fitting. Alternatively I could have done +5% governing ethics attraction, but I don't want to cheapen this.

Looks at Zimbabwe. Looks at Sweden. Well, if you think it's better for the balance.

Well, your are correct. On the other hand, the very basis of non-utopian living standards AND slavery in what should clearly be "post-scarcity" civilizations is ridiculous. If you could build dyson spheres, feeding your masses and giving them flat-screen tvs wouldn't pose much of a problem. Also, other ridiculous stuff- why would being strong matter to mineral production or army damage in an era where you use advanced machinery to extract ore, and kill enemies remotely using precision weaponry.

I basically build an army once through the game and then just throw it around the galaxy, so all build speed/build cost bonuses seem pointless to me.

True, but without seriously changing the army mechanics and hard overwriting the defines.txt file there is no way for me to even begin to balance armies in Stellaris. The system at present is screwed up. These trait attributes at least make building armies cheaper and faster, which helps early on before you unlock the serious OP clone armies, and makes building defensive armies even easier.

NOTE: I might try to balance armies a bit by editing the defines file, but I'm a bit apprehensive, so it will be done in a separate optional add-on mod.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Okay, got a few minutes left from my lunchbreak - let's dot his.

Authoritarian / Fanatic Authoritarian:
Resettle cost might cause problems if you can stack below -100% - make sure to check for that case.
Other change feels quite marginal, but is probably okay.

Egalitarian / Fanatic Egalitarian:
Influence change is insane. Egalitarian is already very powerful thanks to the CG cost reduction.
I could see +15%/+30% if you absoltely *have* to buff it, but +25%/+50% is *WAY* over the top.

Materialism / Fanatic Materialism:
Okay, I guess.

Spiritualist / Fanatic Spiritualist:
Still a pretty "meh" ethic, imho.

Militarist / Fanatic Militarist:
Don't think that Militarist really needs a buff, but it's okay.

Xenophile / Fanatic Xenophile:
Reduced trad cost for pops is worthless, since the effect from num of planets can easily make up 90%+ of the cost increase past the first few traditions. Also *I think* this only affects the extra penalty (?). Not sure if adding special stuff based on traditions is a good idea.
Still seems pretty worthless as an ethic.

Temple:
"Meh" - seems like a nerf?

Holotemple:
"Meh" - seems like a nerf?

Citadel of Faith:
"Meh" - seems like a nerf?

Visitor Center:
Okay. Might now be usable in the early and mid game.

Psi-Corps:
Okay.

Military Academy
Okay.

Polytechnic Complex:
Probably overpowered. Yield total is very high when all adjacencies are used and it can be unlocked very early as well.

Plurality Forum:
Probabily overpowered. Feels like too many good yields AND modiifers in one package.

Hyperstorage Facility I-III:
Tier I is okay, tier II is really good, tier III is insane. Might also lead to situations where the player can stack -100% CG cost.

Diplomatic Corps:
Trade attraction might be too good. Careful with that.

Militaristic Culture:
Seems like a nerf?

Police State:
Okay, but still not good enough to warrant picking.

Policies:
Meh. I liked the hardlock restriction, but I can see why you'd want to go that way.

Chemical Bliss:
Inconsequential, I'd assume. Old value was fine, imho, since it is pretty much a hardcounter to unrest.

Utopian Living:
Idea in general is okay, but it severely devaluates the pacifist ethic.
Reduce unity to +20% or something, double growth bonus.

Social Welfare:
Might as well be +10%.

Impoverished Conditions
Might go all the way to -20% (since it's quite easy to stack positive modifiers).

Subsistence Living
Might go all the way to -50% (since it's quite easy to stack positive modifiers).

Map the Stars:
Probaly too powerful as an immediate unlock.

AI-Controlled Colony Ships:
Still mostly pointless. Main problem is that the tech comes too late to have a decent impact.

Self-Aware Colony Ships:
Still mostly pointless. Main problem is that the tech comes too late to have a decent impact.

Gaia Creation:
Okay, I guess.

Xeno Cultural-Exchange:
Okay.

Tile Blocker Techs + Ecological Optimization:
Ecological Optimization seems pretty worthless. I would rather nerf MoN.
Wouldn't make the blocker techs cheaper. Makes colony spam even stronger.

Automatic Exploration:
Okay.

Curator Labs and Advanced Shipboard Science Lab:
Okay, I guess.

Discovery:

• Adoption Bonus: Probably too strong, considering that this is one of the best effects in the game.
  
• Science Division: Okay. Should probably become the opener.
  
• Polytechnic Education: See building comment.

Prosperity

• Adoption bonus: Okay, I guess.
• Finisher bonus: Still seems pretty bad, and is probably a nerf.
  
• Trans-stellar Corporations: Extremely powerful. Should be the finisher instead.

Domination

• Protection Racket: Okay, I guess.
  
• Fleet Levies: Okay.
• Still feels like an extremely niche / weak tree.

Expansion

• Adoption bonus: Meh. I think that's a nerf, but I never use early private ships anyway.
  
• Finisher bonus: Good, since it is insanely powerful.
  
• Courier Networks: Okay.
• A New Life: Seems like a nasty nerf.

Harmony

• Adoption bonus: Play vanilla instead, we will give you +25% in the future.
  
• Finisher bonus: Completely useless.
  
• The Greater Good: Okay, but still not great.

Supremacy

• War Games: Okay, although it was already a really good one.
  
• Overwhelming Force: Okay.

Diplomacy

• Federal Unity / Entente Coordination: Probably OP, unless the fed member cap is already in.
• Dynamic Ecomorphism: Very conflicted about this. Pretty useless if you go for Synthetic Ascension and not available until you unlock actual Gene Modding. Idea is good, doesn't work well with current pacing.
  
• Xenological Protocols: Trade attraction might be way too powerful. Be wary.

World Shaper:
Does still seem like a very weak pick.

Technological Ascendancy:
Probabily unnecessary, given how powerful research speed already is.
I'd go with higher chance for rare techs instead.

One Vision:
Actually a nerf, since unity cost reduction for pop is worthless.

Master Builders:
Broken beyond belief. This will allow the construction of Ringworlds around year 70 or so, and utterly break tall gameplay.

Resilient:
Okay, but you might as well have gone with +250% or even +500% fortification.

Robust:
This does still look terrible.

Very Strong:
Too strong (hah!) now, given that you can easily stack it with Industrious.

Arrested Development:
Unnecessay since the XP gain was bugged anyway. But I suppose it's punishing enough already anyway.

 

[ExNihil]

Thanks for the input @GAGA Extrem. I'll answer in detail later, but can you tell me why (a) you think that trade attractiveness might be OP? And (b) why pop tradition cost reductions are worthless?

 

[GAGA Extrem]

(a) I don't know how 100% Trade Attractiveness works. If it adds value to your trade items, for example, it would be incredibly broken when stackable.

(b) Pops have only marginal impact on tradition cost compared to num of traditions (not planets, I mixed those two effects up). A 20% reduction is effectively worth between 5% and <1%.

Example:

 

[ExNihil]

(a) I don't know how 100% Trade Attractiveness works. If it adds value to your trade items, for example, it would be incredibly broken when stackable.

(b) Pops have only marginal impact on tradition cost compared to num of traditions (not planets, I mixed those two effects up). A 20% reduction is effectively worth between 5% and <1%.

Example:
View attachment 290714

I'll fiddle with this in a few builds to see how it works and have more precise numbers, but it seems the pop factor is indeed weaker than I thought, although not worthless in my opinion. Whatcha think @beckermt?

As for the trade attractiveness, I believe it only impact the AI willingness to trade with the player and how often it will propose deals, but I'm not sure now .

 

[beckermt]

(a) I don't know how 100% Trade Attractiveness works. If it adds value to your trade items, for example, it would be incredibly broken when stackable.

(b) Pops have only marginal impact on tradition cost compared to num of traditions (not planets, I mixed those two effects up). A 20% reduction is effectively worth between 5% and <1%.

Example:
View attachment 290714

Wow that scaling mechanics for the tradition costs is... *ahem* stupid. Each tradition should raise the base cost per Pop, so that reducing costs per Pop actually makes a difference. Why establish such a massive base that you can't effect!? May as well just remove the Pop cost, since it appears that at ONE tradition it would almost outweigh having 60 Pops.

What a nonsensical calculation. I'm reminded of bonus food being per Pop instead of per planet that's actaully growing. @Wiz: Fix this?

Regarding Trade Attraction: The massive danger is two-fold.
1. Over 100% valuation and the game breaks.
2. Trading is tedious.

 

[ExNihil]

Influence change is insane. Egalitarian is already very powerful thanks to the CG cost reduction.
I could see +15%/+30% if you absoltely *have* to buff it, but +25%/+50% is *WAY* over the top.

Maybe I would. I was actually thinking of moving the CG to materialism and give egalitarians either some leader perks or citizen pop happiness. Whatcha think of this?

Xenophile / Fanatic Xenophile:
Reduced trad cost for pops is worthless, since the effect from num of planets can easily make up 90%+ of the cost increase past the first few traditions. Also *I think* this only affects the extra penalty (?). Not sure if adding special stuff based on traditions is a good idea.
Still seems pretty worthless as an ethic.

Temple:
"Meh" - seems like a nerf?

Holotemple:
"Meh" - seems like a nerf?

Citadel of Faith:
"Meh" - seems like a nerf?

Is a Nerf. But I also need to balance some of the ethic attractions. I sorta feel spiritualists/materialists and pacifists/militarists are IMBA.

Whatcha think of a simple ±10/20% happiness to xeno pops as the xenophile bonus?

nconsequential, I'd assume. Old value was fine, imho, since it is pretty much a hardcounter to unrest.

Not really. Hardcounter to unrest is armies. This makes it a viable alternative.

Utopian Living:
Idea in general is okay, but it severely devaluates the pacifist ethic.
Reduce unity to +20% or something, double growth bonus.

I disagree. This opens a good alternative synergy for pacifists.

But I will move the consumer goods bonus to materialists.

Broken beyond belief. This will allow the construction of Ringworlds around year 70 or so, and utterly break tall gameplay.

Ringworlds are rather weak and if a player wants to waste his resources building 'em by 2270, he should be able too. Compare this to habitats and its really no contest: cheaper, quicker, less unlocks, huge benefits.

The real issue here is the -50% building construction speed, which is very powerful. Yet this is one of the most expansive techs in game, so there is that.

I'd go with higher chance for rare techs instead.

Good idea, tnx.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Hi Guys,

Egalitarian / Fanatic Egalitarian
-influence from factions bonus increased to +25% / +50%.
-utopian living standard was buffed (see pertinent section below).

Egalitarian already has a pretty easy life with factions, with almost no antisynergies (even Xenophobe is OK if you play isolationist) and strong synergy with xenophile. +Influence might be a bit much given how much they can already get.

Materialism / Fanatic Materialism
-the robot maintenance cost reduction was replaced by +1/+1 / +2/+2 leader capacity and leader pool size.

If anything extra leader slots feels like an Authoritarian thing, possibly instead of Resettlement cost (which is going to be covered by Corvee System). It also helps the Authoritarian faction desire for governors everywhere.

Materialists' flavour is supposed to be "SCIENCE!", but they already have that. Not sure if you can put reduced tech penalty in via modding, but that would be interesting.

Hyperstorage Facility I-III: the mineral silo buildings were replaced Hyperstorage Facility buildings.
-the idea here is to increase both mineral AND energy storage using a single building, making planetary specialization easier, while making a rather useless vanilla building viable.
-level I: 500/500 mineral/energy storage, +1/+1 energy/mineral adjacency bonus (will only affect mineral or energy producing buildings).
-level II: 1250/1250 mineral/energy storage, +2/+2 energy/mineral adjacency bonus.
-level III: 2000/2000 mineral/energy storage, +2/+2 energy/mineral adjacency bonus and -15% pop consumer goods cost on planet.
-because of the substantial buff to this building chain it unlocks through a dedicated engineering tech chain (t1/cheap t2/expensive t2) rather than through the mineral processing tech chain.

This should probably be planet unique. Flexible +2 Adjacency with -15% CGC would be massive.
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[ExNihil]

This should probably be planet unique. Flexible +2 Adjacency with -15% CGC would be massive.

It is planet unique. I'll state that explicitly.

Egalitarian already has a pretty easy life with factions, with almost no antisynergies (even Xenophobe is OK if you play isolationist) and strong synergy with xenophile. +Influence might be a bit much given how much they can already get.

I'll take that to heart, tnx.