Economies of Scale

Good thinking and you are 100% correct. We have included a few different things that indeed to fall under "economies of scale". Your planet tax idea we kind of implemented via the allegiance system (declining tax income over distance from homeplanet) and we did toy with the the star one and its undecided. Finally, I hope the AI improvements will mean there are powerful forces out there to be reckoned and will require a large budget to successfully defeat.

Sweet! I was worried I would not be able to make any meaningful contributions in the multiplayer aspects of the beta. There are more things I want to address and will do so after work and more reflection on system dynamics and personal preferences vs general interactivity and information occlusion.

good to know it's being looked at.

i think its rather well known, after a certain point and a certain number of planets (ie having enough room to have 15 of each labs), theres no incentive to expand (ie 'NEEDING' more space to build) and your economy is so large you cant spend it fast enough.

Way to missuse a word.

But I like the idea.

I often find myself looking for information and spending an inordinate amount of time trying to calculate things. I realize this is a personal preference so it may not be of any value to the developers but I would like to see a quick reference tab or section of some sort that gives me all the vital information for my empire and fleets. I think this would go a long way in facilitating an epic feel. Additionally to be able to see general data stats in real time for my empire as well as others if I have relations with them would be a great thing. This would include all diplomatic and military relations.

Moreover I really want an encyclopedia function built into the game with all the general unit info as well as techs and bonuses organized by race and category with visual examples when possible. This will also augment the immersion and epic feel at least for me. Additionally a user stats section with lots of data organized by race would really add value for me so I can track my progress with each as well as a section for multiplayer data. I also think such a thing would be of real value for the developers when work begins on the X-pack to be able to get this data from players should they chose to send it to you.

I always play the game at ultra high resolution (see below) so I have lots of room for displaying stuff. Thus I would like to be able to move elements of the GUI around and save those preferences.




Regarding resources, I think a system where the more a player has of something the more likely that player is to incur a pirate raid(s) separate from all other in game reasons for pirate attacks in the current build. I also think that all damage value should be added to the pirate side for additional ships. That way the system is self sufficient and can scale to some degree.

On the tech tree I would like to see some techs that require total control of a star system and more than one. Moreover some tech that gives bonuses to specific fleet composition and ship levels would also go far from an immersion aspect specifically.

I'm also on the fence about the total economic aspects of the late to end game play on large and huge maps. As I stated in my prior post there is this build up then a hollow let down. Granted this situation may simply be because the beta does not have the full tech tree and what not but I get the distinct impression the system was designed for small to medium size multiplayer games that would last in the one to two hour range. Now I'm not implying that is bad in any way but it does detract from the epic sense for me. Accordingly I believe there needs to be new dynamic introduced that is designed to come into play either automatically or after some specific conditions are achieved specifically targeted for large and very large single and multiplayer games. This dynamic will add to the epic feeling considerably. This is especially so if it can only come into play for such maps.

Another personal preference would be the addition of random events both general and race specific as well as for individual players. Such things add so much to game play value and immersion in my opinion.

The ability to trade or make peace using relics would also be something nice on the diplomatic front at face value. However given that element of the game is highly crippled now I don’t know if such a suggestion would be viable.

In general I would like to see the tech tree scale in size and cost with the number of stars or even planets for that matter.

Regarding the AI, I think AI players that are of the same race should have an affinity for developing alliances with each other and an aversion to relationships to others.

Addressing what amounts to my biggest peeve with the game, I would like to be able to set an auto retreat options for ships especially capital ships based on damage and distance to retreat jump area. I have lost so many high level ships because I simply can't click on things fast enough and accurately assess situations in the seconds involved in large battles before ships get to the point of hopelessness. This is especially frustrating when there are several battles going on at one time in different systems. If anything is going to turn me off from wanting to play this game this is that thing.

On the topic of capital ships, there should not be a limit on capital ships for purely logical reasons. I believe there is a better way to handle this limitation by design. I think a serviceability or some maintenance variant cost that increases based of total capital fleet size after a specific number of ships should be used instead. Such a system would allow for several large fleets for very large game maps.

There is more but that is all I have time for now.

@TGE - As I stated in my PM I think in numbers so much the concept of economies of scale seemed a highly appropriate term to use given the intent of the topic and its relationship to optimum production value excluding constant returns and diseconomies of scale as applied to the general game mechanics encompassed within the static economic model. I guess economies of scope could be considered more appropriate.

Nonetheless, creative usage of language is the foundation of dynamic change for something we consider "living" and paramount to our success as a species. Anyway, thank you for the compliment.

I agree with everything 1Spartan is saying here but I just wanted to add that I'd much rather see fleet sizes dependent on maintenance costs. Simply because it makes more sense... and that it would give smaller empires the chance to make a last desperate stand if they had the money for it... kinda like a draft...

@Artenis - That was my original intent because of the inherent scaling factor as you basically pointed out. I changed my position however due to the fact that capital ship limitations are a forced limit within the tech tree and is frankly a major game dynamic in early game play, plus expansion of the tech tree is of great import in my opinion thus my compromise idea.

If they added another tech level where the fleet management system changes to a serviceability or maintenance system after the top level limit is reach and the player is charged big money to unlock it then we get the best of both worlds for all types of maps and players (and rigs).

Some of this has made it into the game, but most has not and just isn't feasible. Perhaps for a sequel it's something we could look at. Right now the game is pretty much locked down and we're just tweaking and bug fixing.

That is cool and I figured as much given the late stage of development and the deadline quickly approaching. I have much more qualitative feedback add but given it would all be moot and take me several hours to fully articulate in a cogent and concise manner so I'll save it for the next installment of Sins and its beta program - if applicable of course.


Anyway for what it is worth, I know you guys bust ass to do these games to the highest quality possible with exceptional amounts of user input within a plethora of given constraints and market realities for targeted consumers and production schedules.

In the end that is all that truly matters and as a result I firmly believe Sins will be a resounding success and a worthy credit to everyone involved in the realization of the franchise.