Thanks Roland Johansen for your feedback.
The 150% bonus was removed in the VDC patch on which ICE has been built. I did not put the bonus back as I think it was a change for the better. However if you do want the 150% back, you'd need to do a HEX-hack. At offset 1EEB16 in the exe, change '00' to '96' for 150%, or you can choose any other number like '64' for a 100% bonus.
Ah, it was already in VDC. Didn't know that.
Why do you actually think it's a change for the better? I didn't see that one coming. I just thought it was an oversight.
Don't you heavily use housing to expand your population in normal (non /nohousing) games? How do you suggest to create a significant population when you have normal housing rates and no housing ability? Even with the +150% growth rate, I out-expand my population growth (but not by much if I time stuff well and quicky build cloning centers).
With no +150% growth bonus in a /nohousing game, the growth traits also instantly become extremely valuable for the human player. It's then hard to even play without them. And cloning centers become the most important building in the game.
All of course, IMHO.
Most of all: thanks for the hex-hack description.
I like to play with the /nohousing switch because the AI can't do housing well. So when I use it, it always feels like I'm playing a different game than the AI.
Well, I don't usually get feedback that a negative brings too many picks to the table
Hey, I also like to make stuff harder and better balanced. Of course, no two people will actually perfectly agree on this game's balance.
Even with housing, I think -pop is a pretty bad pick and I would rather take for example Repulsive, -GC than -pop. In any case all picks in the custom race screen are valued for the human player. I use a different valuation model for the a.i. and for them the -growth is valued even lower than -12. (a.i. only does occasional 1-turn housing in between build projects)
Didn't know that the AI actually incidentally uses housing.
I must admit that I'm just playing my first game with ICE-x, but I don't feel the pain with using pop-50%. I surpassed everyone in pop in 3508 except the Sakkra, but that's why they're the Sakkra.
They also had a great start. Now, in 3523, I'm double the Sakkra size and at least quadrupple everyone else's without any conquest. With several housing planets, one can get a growth rate which is far far beyond the natural base 100% growth rate.
'-50% pop' is of course a disadvantage, especially during the first few years when you colonise your starting system and start housing there.
(I use a science path to develop production buildings to improve housing rates in 1-pop planets. I usually start developing automated factories first, then colony base, then research lab. The Robotic Factory is also great for housing rates. (Pre-warp start.) But I don't think that very unusual. )
Maybe, you play very different and therefore have a different experience.
This is a bug that already exists in classic moo2, is related to the artifacts bonus, and I don't know how to fix it atm. In any case what you see is real: if you do the click, you get extra science for one turn.
Ah, I guessed as much. It's not important. I just don't do the click.
About Warp Interdictor; yes it is more costly and agree that it is a micromgmt pain to track in which system you already have one if you have a sizeable empire. (have no solution for it unfort.) About the a.i.: it does many stupid things and building the Interdictor more than once in a star system is imo not that high on "the list of a.i. moronity."
Ah, Markus already feared it might not be that easy. It's of course far less influential on AI performance than say AI tech-path or AI non-ability to move pop or AI inability to quickly colonise a complete star system. I had just hoped, it would be fairly easy to fix and it would reduce some micro management. Maybe you'll find it someday.
