2E Feedback

User avatar
Tyrel Lohr
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Posts: 1466
Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2007 3:48 am
Location: Lusk, WY
Contact:

Re: 2E Feedback

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

System Statistics: I have to admit that I have grown to really like the new system statistics as they add additional resources that can make a system worthwhile. As a player it is also more interesting to find a system that is great for food production and ship building, but maybe not for anything else. Realistic? No, not really, but as a game it is fun.

That all being said, some of those special features could just be wrapped up into the special traits that are going to appear in the Companion. Ancient ruins provide a tech bonus, for example, and similar traits could provide bonuses to Shipyards, Intel, etc. The strategic resources kind of already do this to a certain degree, but there would be some differentiation between them and other more unique system and planet specials.

Commerce: I do like have the number of jump lanes that connect to a system influence its commerce value. It gives players more incentive to try and colonize and take control of systems that have a lot of jump lanes. Otherwise, my experience in 1E campaigns is that an empire would usually avoid systems with large numbers of jump lanes unless they either had very good statistics or could serve as defensive linchpins. 2 Capacity, 1 RAW systems that had 6 jump lanes and weren't easily defendable? No one wants that kind of real estate without some extra incentive.

The current commerce value calculation is Census x Jump Lanes. In 1E, a 10 Census, 6 RAW, 3 Jump Lane system would normally have had a commerce value of 60, whereas the same system has a commerce value of 30 in 2E. If we went with Census x Highest Infrastructure, the system's commerce value would instead be 100.

It may just be simpler in the long run to go back to having trade links just return 10% of a system's total economic capacity. That would work best with the system changes I outlined in the other theoretical changes thread where agriculture is integrated into Census.

I have to admit that I just broke out my old Imperial Starfire book to check to see what they did with their trade rules. They use the 10% of overall income as trade revenue and a setup fee equal to 3x the smaller empire's total income. The VBAM trade links cost quite a bit more than that at 30 EP each, but those costs work good when you consider that a good system might earn you 5 EP per turn in trade.

BTW, the internal commerce revenue demonstrates that there is trade happening between your own colonies; that is why you can trade at your own colonies as well as those that you have a trade treaty with.

Sidebars: As I make the next round of changes I'm going to try and locate as many of the wordier "what was I thinking?" text sections and isolate them in their own boxes. I do agree that it would be easier to get around the rules if they were more straightforward with less prose encapsulating them. I am also thinking that at 140 pages and growing I'm back to a previous problem of trying to shove too much content into the Campaign Guide, leading to information overload. I really, really need to try and get the page count down to about 100 pages of rules (not including scenarios) so that it is easier to find things.
[i]"Touch not the pylons, for they are the messengers!"[/i]
User avatar
Emiricol
Captain
Captain
Posts: 267
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:09 am
Location: Near Seattle
Contact:

Re: 2E Feedback

Post by Emiricol »

I strongly prefer you to keep the new system statistics. They greatl enrich the game without undue complexity.

As to trade... I prefer the new rules but I am not married to them.
BLHarrison
Lieutanant Commander
Lieutanant Commander
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 6:02 pm

Re: 2E Feedback

Post by BLHarrison »

While I also wish to keep the current stats, I do have a suggestion. Combine Science and Orbitals into single stat. Call it something like "General Traits", "Other Traits" or something simular (I also like "Intangables") Because (by what ever name) the stat is so "general" it can be used to justify supporting both the tech and shipyard infrastructures.
Locked