I haven't decided what units I want to vote for, but just had an interesting experience with the Zenith Power Generator that I thought I'd share.
Retrying my 8HW "Oh my God... it's full of hybrids!" game, and getting one of my early choke points set up when the Zenith Trader comes through. Naturally, I pause and take advantage of their "layaway" plan to plop down a few super-defenses (radar jammer, armor buffs, and Black Hole Generator), even though I can't build any of them right now without kneecapping my econ.
Except I accidentally click the ZPG instead of the BHG (EIEIO...). I'm sitting on 11M energy right now, so have absolutely no need for more at this point, so while it's still paused (i.e., nothing's been built on it yet), I go ahead and scrap it --- the wave increase and AIP on death does not
proactively synergize with my high-altitude vision for leveraging the assets of this planet (namely, it's a choke point).
Only problem is that the AIP still increased for the scrapping. This seems like a bit high of a cost for mis-clicking in a
game. We're not playing Thermonukular War, after all.
Furthermore, I think that the 3.6M M/C cost of the ZPG at least partially offsets the on-death AIP cost. I can see the point when the ZPG is captured from a planet, as it introduces some strategic considerations and risk-reward to the planet it's on. However, the associated benefits are immediate upon planet capture --- the Player does not have to pay any building costs for the ZPG in this case.
Items from the trader (in particular the ZPG) do not generally adhere to the same capture-based dynamic: the Player can choose where to build these structures, and the Player has to dearly pay to build them from scratch. For example, a simple strategy is to buy the ZPG on an internal planet, thereby negating the wave and AIP costs. And it is worth mentioning that the Player cannot buy these at will due to the travelling nature of the Z-Trader.
For the Z-Trader ZPG specifically, I would suggest removing the AIP and wave costs --- if not entirely, then at least only enforcing it after it has completed construction. As noted, the only point to the current mechanic is to punish the player for mis-clicking, as it is a trivial step to choose to only build these on internal planets where the AIP and wave costs are negated.
It is also worth noting that the ZPG is the only Z-Trader building that gives the Player a global bonus, rather than a local one. I would thus further suggest that the AI receive a (
SMALL!) global bonus for these structures as well. Currently, the only decision is whether to take the planet or not; having it provide a bonus to the AI's forces (e.g., spec forces cap, reinforcement cap, etc.) would make the decision a bit more interesting, as the Player must then decide whether to take the planet, kill the ZPG (and take the AIP hit), or leave it (and take the AI bonus). The AI already has a few buildings like this, such as the Interplanetary Munitions Booster (I think that's the right name?), so having one such as this (especially with the special forces changes recently) would fit right in.
Finally, a more general observation along the same lines as above. Aside from the ZPG, all of the Z-trader items are local to the planet in terms of their bonuses. For example, if the Player is facing a Shield Ninny, they will likely be capturing several Armor Boosters during the game. However, it is fairly likely that the desired choke point will not be one such planet. This means that even if the Z-Trader comes through the choke point planet, the Player would be unable to provide this bonus to this vital planet unless he forfeited the bonuses he won from taking planets belonging to the Shield Ninny. I would suggest divorcing the capturable caps from the caps for the Z-Trader, so that the Player retains the choice of whether to "invest" (read: kneecap econ) in such a building on a particular planet and which planet should receive the benefit of that investment.
Poll