Prerelease 1.201H (Difficulty adjustments for lower/mid diffs, pause all change)

[x4000]

This is the reason I don't mind the higher ones being quite a bit slower then the mark I turrets since that gives the I's a reason to always be useful as a stop gap measure.

The tech Is are still faster, the whole scale has just been slid downward by 30 seconds.  So that should have the effect you want, I hope.

I think the main reason that I'm energy limited is that in an 8 player game, each player potentially has 1/8th of the number of planets, so 1/8th of the number of resources and energy. Resources however in single player games decrease by the number of them you have, so even in a single player game you're quickly getting to the point of maybe having half of the potential resources (due to lossage), but still 100% of the potential energy, wereas in multiplayer they'll have about 1/8th of the potential resources (because they'll be minimal to no loss), but a hard-ish cap on 1/8th of the potential energy. (If that makes sense?)

Well, each player in an 8-player game can build one reactor of each type on each of the 8 starting planets, so 24 reactors total per planet, whereas you just get the 3 at full efficiency per planet, so I see what you mean.  Had not thought about that before.  The resource lossage doesn't decrease at all anymore, actually, it's all based on the energy reactor costs now.  So that's one thing that might potentially help, I don't know.

For example my forces were pretty much only Tech I's (in fact they were all I's except for the starships and whatever I'd parasited from the enemies, which wasn't all that much this time), and I was continually bouncing up against the energy limits even with 3x I/2x II/1x III per world.

The higher-tech ships don't cost more energy, actually, so that's another advantage you could use if need be.

I have the feeling there's something wrong in the balance here, I just can't put my finger on it.

Well, in many senses it is not supposed to be balanced, right?  I mean, insofar as it is supposed to be distinct from the base experience, not just a multiplicative copy of it.

Interestingly enough, in this instance I actually didn't think of anything. Which is rather scary. O.o

It happens!

[darke]

Well, each player in an 8-player game can build one reactor of each type on each of the 8 starting planets, so 24 reactors total per planet, whereas you just get the 3 at full efficiency per planet, so I see what you mean.  Had not thought about that before.  The resource lossage doesn't decrease at all anymore, actually, it's all based on the energy reactor costs now.  So that's one thing that might potentially help, I don't know.

Ahh! *enlightenment!*

For example my forces were pretty much only Tech I's (in fact they were all I's except for the starships and whatever I'd parasited from the enemies, which wasn't all that much this time), and I was continually bouncing up against the energy limits even with 3x I/2x II/1x III per world.

The higher-tech ships don't cost more energy, actually, so that's another advantage you could use if need be.

And this I forgot about! *takes notes*

I have the feeling there's something wrong in the balance here, I just can't put my finger on it.

Well, in many senses it is not supposed to be balanced, right?  I mean, insofar as it is supposed to be distinct from the base experience, not just a multiplicative copy of it.

Right. The "something wrong in the balance here" feeling I was getting was because I had forgotten that every player's reactors on a planet were disconnected. So that in multiplayer each player can place one of each level of reactor at full efficiency before it degrades. That will definately make this game type much more energy poor then both multiplayer and single player. Not that it's a problem though.

Definately means that in a multiple-starting-planet scenario, the players should focus on using their extra knowledge from multiple planets on getting II level ships, and ignoring the I level as soon as possible.

[x4000]

Right. The "something wrong in the balance here" feeling I was getting was because I had forgotten that every player's reactors on a planet were disconnected. So that in multiplayer each player can place one of each level of reactor at full efficiency before it degrades. That will definately make this game type much more energy poor then both multiplayer and single player. Not that it's a problem though.

Definately means that in a multiple-starting-planet scenario, the players should focus on using their extra knowledge from multiple planets on getting II level ships, and ignoring the I level as soon as possible.

That's cool -- I like that the foci are a bit different in a muti-planet start.  Gives the game more variety, especially since it sounds like the different balance of energy and such is not a problem for you.  Excellent!

[darke]

Definately means that in a multiple-starting-planet scenario, the players should focus on using their extra knowledge from multiple planets on getting II level ships, and ignoring the I level as soon as possible.

That's cool -- I like that the foci are a bit different in a muti-planet start.  Gives the game more variety, especially since it sounds like the different balance of energy and such is not a problem for you.  Excellent!

Well it currently means "6 reactors (3xI/2xII/1xIII) per planet" is essentially required. But given you start with 8x the normal starting planets resources -- which are at least 50% (75%?) more then the usual you'd get -- the extra cost of running the reactors tends to even itself out. Plus if you're running at a higher average mark level -- such as just building mark II ships as soon as you can -- you're going to have a higher average cost so you'll be draining your resources faster anyway even without needing to max out your reactors.

I suspect it's one of those "different game modes, so needs different tactics" things.

[x4000]

Cool!