Ressources in MP vs SP

[vonduus]

I have been playing through a few MP games with a friend. Here is one of our observations:

If we consider the amount of ressources (metal, crystal) in a SP game as the normal amount, then in MP each player has access to only half the normal amount. In SP, I conquer a  planet and get x ressources for the price of 20 AIP. In a MP game with two players we have to conquer two planets to get the same average amount of ressources (x) per player, but now it is costing us 40 AIP.

An example:

On an 80 planet map, SP mode, I normally take out  around twenty planets before I go for the AIs home planets, in order to get a decent pool of ressources and knowledge points. The late game usually consists in taking out up to ten more planets, to get a clear road between the jump-off points for the final attacks. When I am ready for the end run, I have killed, say, 30 planets, having thus amassed 30x ressources and 60k knowledge points, at the cost of 600 AIP.

On the same map, MP mode, using the same basic strategy, we end up with 30x ressources and 60k knowledge points, for the price of 600 AIP, totals haven't changed. But the ressources are now divided between us, giving us 15 x each, unlike the knowledge points and the AIP, which is shared.

SP: 30 planets = (30x ressources + 60k knowledge + 600 AIP)/player
MP: 30 planets = (15x ressources + 60k knowledge + 600 AIP)/player

This is a huge reduction in ressources per player. Is this intended? If so, why?

Of course there is some synergy at work here, two cooperating players somehow perform better than the sum of two single players, and so the AI has to be correspondingly stronger to make up for this. But not that much stronger, in our opinion. In SP the scarcity of ressources are an important challenge among others, in MP it becomes the main pita, overshadowing all others, causing us to constantly sit and wait and wait and wait for ressources to build up. Pursuing the obvious alternative, ie. taking out more planets, leads to crazy AIP levels. We have temporarily overcome this problem by giving ourselves positive handicaps, but we can't help thinking that this 'solution' is a kind of cheating. 


 

[eRe4s3r]

Or to put it simpler, in MP 2 players do not face twice the difficulty each , but 4 times the difficulty. (of 1pl SP)

[vonduus]

Or to put it simpler, in MP 2 players do not face twice the difficulty each , but 4 times the difficulty. (of 1pl SP)

Yes, exactly.

I am not sure if I want anything changed, our little cheat fixes the problem for us. But I am curious of how other people deals with this.

[x4000]

Nope, your analysis is not quite correct.  Trust me, I play everything from 2 player to 4 player, as well as solo, the balance is pretty close to the same.  For one thing, planets inherently have more resources in multiplayer games.  So capturing one planet will, on average, yield more resource harvester spots in games with increasing numbers of players.  It's not doubled, but it is increased.

Also, when you compare to how the AI gets more ships in multiplayer compared to solo, they are not doubled or even nearly so.  So you wind up with more ships and such at your disposal relative to the total number of AI ships, plus there are a few more resource slots per planet, etc.  This leads to a slightly different balance than solo, at each number of players greater than one, but at the same time leads to pretty much the same difficulty.  This was tuned quite extensively before the game was ever released, we wouldn't have overlooked something this major.

[vonduus]

Nope, your analysis is not quite correct.  Trust me, I play everything from 2 player to 4 player, as well as solo, the balance is pretty close to the same.  For one thing, planets inherently have more resources in multiplayer games.  So capturing one planet will, on average, yield more resource harvester spots in games with increasing numbers of players.  It's not doubled, but it is increased.

Also, when you compare to how the AI gets more ships in multiplayer compared to solo, they are not doubled or even nearly so.  So you wind up with more ships and such at your disposal relative to the total number of AI ships, plus there are a few more resource slots per planet, etc.  This leads to a slightly different balance than solo, at each number of players greater than one, but at the same time leads to pretty much the same difficulty.  This was tuned quite extensively before the game was ever released, we wouldn't have overlooked something this major.

Thanks, great to know. I knew about the AI not getting the double amount of forces, but I did not know that there were more ressources per planet. I agree it is a different balance, we tend to have loads of knowledge and a scarcity of ressources compared to SP. And I guess it can be called 'pretty close to the same', I get fewer apples, but some more bananas. So our little cheat is really a cheat after all, as other people seems to manage pretty well without it.

I did not think that you had overlooked this, I was just looking for an explanation, and now I have got one. 

[x4000]

No problem! Glad I could help. Energy also tends to not be a concern in mp, incidentally.

[HellishFiend]

No problem! Glad I could help. Energy also tends to not be a concern in mp, incidentally.

For some reason, that just gave me an idea for a control node:
http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,4098.0.html

Some people would avoid this node like the plague, but I personally would use it every game, because I dont mind managing my reactors.