WarKirby
Arty person
how about making Recycling Tanks give you some minerals back when a unit dies, or is deleted, within or near the city.
Sea bases are too weak.
They are entirely, just not worth it.
1. Compared to alpha centaurii, sea bases are capable of far less yields. The most important one, is the coastal food. In SMAC, it was 2 food per tile, in planetfall it's only 1. This makes it extremely difficult to get good growth from such a base
2. Sea improvements are nowhere near as good as they used to be. They were originally balanced in the manner of building something on the same tile as a kelp farm. Without the ability for those to share tiles, most tiles with anything productive on them will only produce 1 food. And tiles with a kelp farm can almost never make more than 3 food.
3. No enhancement buildings. SMAC had the Aquafarm, Subsea Trunkline, and Thermocline Transducer. These increased the yields of sea improvements in the base. Without the ability to make these, sea improvements are just horribly gimped.
A: No defense penalty. Combat at sea uses equal odds for defend and attack, or maybe it's only mind worms that get the higher defense.
B: With their high speed, mindworms and sealurks strike at units garrisoned in sea cities from all sides.
C: With naturally poor production of sea bases, you have a very hard time building a defense force. AND the mind worms have an easier time of attacking you.
You can't build bunkers in the sea, or hide near ridges to limit their angles of attack
D: The recent change to make aquaformers invisible in your territory, doesn't work too well in practice. It protects from IOD, sure, but sealurks can still see and attack your formers. And will do so merrily.
I don't understand this onePSI defense is better on the sea, both for native life or normal units forced into PSI-combat - the 50:50 odds don't differ from the combat results I get and as soon as you throw in Hypnotic Trance, you have the advantage on your side.
I'm against this for the reason stated above, however I have to withdraw my earlier statement that this kills choice - it rather moves choice. Now you have choice between kelp or anything else; if kelp and an overlay can be combined, the choice is between the different overlays. I'm not sure which is better and would still tend to stick with what we have, but given the choice between your first suggestion and this, my vote goes here.
I don;t think it's that psi defense is better on the sea, but that sea units have better psi defense. There is a difference there.
Your troops standing guard in sea bases, are vulnerable to attack. But you can't take advantage of a rapid counterattack with choppers/ships, because they're not weak to that like land based worms are.
I think morgan is too powerful now. Since the addition of those corporations, he takes the lead in every game I play. in a game I'm currently on, he has an impossibly vast tech lead over everyone else, including me. and I'm the university!
Related: the university seem weak.+20% research is nice, but that's all it is. the other awesome stuff other factions have kind of overshadows it. And morgan is generally better at research anyway, due to the capability to devote a higher % of energy to it from having more money, and having more energy to begin with thanks to the trade route bonuses. And also having one ridiculous super city with every corporation in it, having specialists that give 2 food, +200% research, and so much other stuff I can barely remember.
I do find the morgan corporations fun, and I'd rather not see them weakened too much, but morgan seems to dominate the game now, in human or AI hands.
At least in that hands of the human player, Zhak isn't too weak - his special regarding less tech trade restrictions
I really don't like that special ability, at all. Bypassing a game option is not a good idea. If I turn off tech brokering, it's presumably because I don't want tech brokering, All it accomplishes is making zakharov circumvent the rules the player sets. What value does that add to the game? I find it silly.
When tech brokering isn't restricted, it's a worthless ability that does nothing. Something tha'ts so gameoption dependant can hardly be dconsidered a solid strength.
I really don't like that special ability, at all. Bypassing a game option is not a good idea. If I turn off tech brokering, it's presumably because I don't want tech brokering, All it accomplishes is making zakharov circumvent the rules the player sets. What value does that add to the game? I find it silly.
When tech brokering isn't restricted, it's a worthless ability that does nothing. Something tha'ts so gameoption dependant can hardly be dconsidered a solid strength.
One thing that might be nice, is some benefit to the university for staying atheist. It doesn't realy feel right to follow any religion with them.
Also, more specifically about the morgan problem. I think Morgan Data Systems, Pharmaceuticals, and Entertainment are too powerful. Right now my capital is size 27, it's producing 408 research per turn. With essentially infinite health, happiness, and 2 food from doctors, my population is only limited by how many doctor slots I can get. It also has 5 boreholes around it.