Testing Government and Influence

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LienRag
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#31 Post by LienRag »

Okay, I finished this first testing game.

So, first question about this new Influence mechanism : where’s the fun in it ?
Right now, one has just to put one on three planet to Influence focus : what does it actually bring to the game ?
Where is the strategy ? Where is the challenge ? What does it change in the decision process of the player ?

It’s not even preventing snowballing, it just reduces its speed, as it reduces everything in the game.

All planets cost the same Influence : how can that bring new strategic thinking into the game ?
If the first planet cost 0,1 IP and the second 0,2 then the third 0,3, that would make some sense, but right now it doesn’t make any.

Yes, with Centralization policy the Empire shape is to be taken into account, and that forces the player to think more about what he wants to colonize and what he’ll leave aside. But that’s basically all.

All planets bring the same Influence, whatever their Population is. I guess it’s to avoid snowballing of the IP production when population-boosting techs appear, and I can understand that concern.
But still, it doesn’t seem to me to be the right way to do it. Yes, the Interspecies Design Academy brings a bonus to Influence focus if one chooses to switch from Research focus, and that’s a clever idea ; but that should’nt be the only one.
Right now it means that a player will use the lamest planets (tiny, without specials, …) for Influence focus, which leads to colonizing even these lame planets being a valid strategy, which reinforce the « colonize everywhere » we try to get rid of.

Influence-boosting specials are not very difficult to implement, but that’s a minor thing ; what we need is a real Influence topology, that will both be the basis of careful thinking by the player that builds it and create opportunities for opponents to wreak havoc to an Empire by aptly crafting their attack.
I’m thinking of having Influence-focused planets reduce IP cost by 0,1 on all connected planets of the same Specie, reducing cost by 0,2 on all planets in the same system, getting one more IP produced if there is another planet set to Influence in the next starlane hop, getting one more IP if there is a planet set on Logistics focus in the same system, getting 0,01 IP by population under the right Policy, whatever.


The Policies themselves now : yes, I know it’s a work in progress, I’m not expecting perfection on first try, but still the only thing I can comment right now is what exists in the 0.5 testing version.

First, they really need more fluff and work on their coherence : there’s a reason why they’re called « Policies » and not « random boni »…
For example, I don’t really understand how adding one fuel can be a « military policy » : game-wise, it is indeed interesting, but immersion-wise, it doesn’t work at all, at least for me. It’s possible to test with these flaws, but imho it’s something that need to be fixed before release.
Ir seems to me that there need to be some real design work on « what is a Policy », and how they fit in the game.

I do think that, at least to my preconceptions of what Policies would be (fundamental choices made by an Empire), there are too many Policy slots at endgame.
I may be wrong, but having a maximum of two Policy slots of each category seem to be the better design goal in order to make each choice count. Exceptionnaly, through clever and specific strategies, a third slot could be made available (like George the Medio’s proposal to have independant but friendly Natives offer a Policy slot ; or, if my War and Peace proposal is implemented, reaching a specific threshold of Supremacy ; maybe some specific Influence success could do the same ; maybe a Social slot could be offered for 50 turns of peace, or something similar).
Actually, Native-acquired Policy would be imho much more fun if they were specific slots (« Interspecie relation slot » for example) rather than ordinary slots….
For ordinary slots, having one by the building Military Command seems good to me ; a second one should imho be given by a more advanced technology than Military Robotic Control, and as written above getting a third slot would need very special occasions, not just researching a Tech.
That would mean more choices of Policies, of course : rather than having five Military slots a typical game would have only two, but Policies would combine bonus and malus in different ways, so there would be a good variety of gameplay.

I understand why some Policies cannot be used together, but I still think that’s a mistake.
Finding a way to concile seemingly opposed concepts is a staple of innovation in politics, and could be a fun part of the game.
I’d suggest to go more for synergies between Policies, for example having a Centralization Policy could give more bonus when used simultaneously with an Industrialization Policy, and specific Military policies could also have more effect when used with Industrialization...

The fact that Policy costs rise when the game advances (depending on the number of planets affected, if I understand correctly) is a two-sided aspect. But the fact that there is no way to predict what the cost of a Policy will be in a few turns is a real problem.
Having costs grow prevents the « everything gets cheap in endgame » issue, and that’s of course an important point.
It also makes more important the early choices about which Policy to adopt while there is still more Influence points available than need for them, which is quite good (though a bit harsh for less experienced players who will have a hard time correcting their initial mistakes).
But the constant race between IP production and rising costs is tedious imho, and prevents real flexibility with Policies : changing Policies should have consequences, not be nearly impossible.
It should be a strategic choice made with caution, not something so expensive as to be prohibitive.


I quite like the GUI, actually.
One big problem though is that the button to clear the Policies is where the « OK » or « validate » button usually is. This lead to a lot of reflex clicking on it…
The fact that there is no way to cancel the clearing of Policies is a problem also. When I cleared them by mistake I tried to replace the same Policy since effects usually apply at the end of the turn, but it still cost me Influence points as if I was changing the Policy.
Apparently it’s not possible to clear only one Policy, it’s either none or all (I think that's what Freem was pointing ?). Is that a bug or a feature ? It makes very expensive to change one Policy mid-game, when most slots are occupied…



I’ll comment each one now (with my limited experience of the game, of course) :

Centralization : Interesting idea to exchange some boni for constraints on the Empire shape, but the Research bonus at start for a Production-oriented specie, and the Production bonus for a Research-oriented specie, makes using this Policy quite a no-brainer except in very specific situations. Especially since at start there are no real alternatives, it’s Centralization or nothing.

Industrialization : Interesting idea to have Production-focused planets more stable, but isn’t the Production bonus quite huge ? It seems to me that it’s a no-brainer for a Production-oriented specie, when the Research bonus gained from Centralization is no more a must have.
I wasn’t able to see which Technologies were cheaper with this Policy, though.

Scanning Continuuously : I really like how this Policy (the only Military one that makes sense, by the way) works very differently from other mechanics of the game, and the trade-off between detection and stealth. But if your opponent is Laenfa or Sly (which was the case in my game, the first neighbour was Laenfa) it becomes a no-brainer…
And if you’re Laenfa or Sly and your opponent uses this Policy (which he will if he understands the game), then you’re toast.

Terraforming : Why not ? The worst problem with Terraforming is not really it’s duration but it’s cost, so I didn’t use it even if I terraformed a lot.

Environnmentalism : Also, why not ? I didn’t use it anyway.

Marine Recruitment : Well, that’s sort of a bit weird with the fluff – or lack thereof – that is offered for it, but game-wise it can be interesting. It’s a bit of a « meh » Policy though, which imho there should’nt be (not optimal Policies yes, Policies without real flavor no).

(more when I remember what the other Policies are !)

Magnate
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#32 Post by Magnate »

Oberlus wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:36 pm You can set colonies to influence focus to produce more IP.
Please can someone put this in the Pedia entry (Meters->Influence). I spent about four hours playing last night and couldn't work this out - it didn't occur to me that it's an available focus! I guess there will in future be techs that provide boosts to influence production (I couldn't find any), and races whose preferred focus is influence, but in the absence of any of those it would help to spell it out.

Also, are there going to be penalties for negative influence? Other meters can't go negative so it's anomalous, and it feels wrong to be conquering the galaxy with -900 influence ...

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Oberlus
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#33 Post by Oberlus »

LienRag wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:41 am this new Influence mechanism : where’s the fun in it ?
Right now, one has just to put one on three planet to Influence focus: what does it actually bring to the game ?
Where is the strategy ? Where is the challenge ? What does it change in the decision process of the player ?

It’s not even preventing snowballing, it just reduces its speed, as it reduces everything in the game.

All planets cost the same Influence : how can that bring new strategic thinking into the game ?
If the first planet cost 0,1 IP and the second 0,2 then the third 0,3, that would make some sense, but right now it doesn’t make any.
Yes.

All that has been discussed in several threads, e.g. see

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11363
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11652
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11739

Current implementation is in development and does not include all of what has been decided yet, including a colony influence upkeep that goes up with distance to capital.

Yes, with Centralization policy the Empire shape is to be taken into account, and that forces the player to think more about what he wants to colonize and what he’ll leave aside. But that’s basically all.
I disagree. Centralization policy is brutal, it needs rebalancing to make it less annoying, for it costs you more than it returns in most cases. Again, everything is under development yet.

Right now it means that a player will use the lamest planets (tiny, without specials, …) for Influence focus, which leads to colonizing even these lame planets being a valid strategy, which reinforce the « colonize everywhere » we try to get rid of.
I'm not that sure. If you can choose between a big and a small planet, you'll grab the big one even if what you need is a IP-focused planet. You can later find out another planet for influence and set this new one to production when it's population is greater.
If you have nothing but a small planet to colonize, you'll get that planet even if you are looking for another research/production planet.
If you can choose between getting a new small planet and not getting anything (reserve PP for later, or build army, or whatever), you'll get the planet when it does not mean falling behind on other areas (like defense), regardless of influence.

But I do agree that this way is probably not the best way to encourage less colonization.

George the Medio
:lol:
I don't know why I find that hilarious.
I understand why some Policies cannot be used together, but I still think that’s a mistake.
Finding a way to concile seemingly opposed concepts is a staple of innovation in politics, and could be a fun part of the game.
Except when you are talking about obvious opposites. You can't encourage growth and discourage growth and expect to get anything good from that.
Either you allow opposite policies to cancel out each other effects (and so you are wasting two policy slots for nothing) or you disallow placing certain policies together. The former would piss off certain players ("why does the game let me do that stupid thing?").
I’d suggest to go more for synergies between Policies
Seconded.
the fact that there is no way to predict what the cost of a Policy will be in a few turns is a real problem.
You're probably right.
the constant race between IP production and rising costs is tedious imho, and prevents real flexibility with Policies : changing Policies should have consequences, not be nearly impossible.
It should be a strategic choice made with caution, not something so expensive as to be prohibitive.
The strategic choice was to set (or not) some more planets to influence focus some turns ago. Impossible would be only if you mismanage your planets.

there is no way to cancel the clearing of Policies
Worth opening a feature request.

Apparently it’s not possible to clear only one Policy
You sure? I think, I'm not sure, I was able to remove Centralization when it was depleting my IP pool.
Is that a bug or a feature ?
If that's how it works, then it's bug IMO.

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Oberlus
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#34 Post by Oberlus »

Magnate wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 8:02 am Also, are there going to be penalties for negative influence? Other meters can't go negative so it's anomalous, and it feels wrong to be conquering the galaxy with -900 influence ...
I guess so. I think lack of influence will cause stability drops, and thus colonies stopping production.

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#35 Post by Geoff the Medio »

LienRag wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:41 amI do think that, at least to my preconceptions of what Policies would be (fundamental choices made by an Empire), there are too many Policy slots at endgame.
The plan is for policies to replace a lot of the bonuses from having a tech researched. Two or three slots per category would be reasonable mid-game, but by end-game, four or so per category is probably more reasonable.
...like George the Medio’s proposal to have independant but friendly Natives offer a Policy slot
Sounds like an important contributor to the project.
The fact that there is no way to cancel the clearing of Policies is a problem also.
That button can be removed, or a confirmation popup added.
Apparently it’s not possible to clear only one Policy
Double click a policy in a slot. Works for me.
When I cleared them by mistake I tried to replace the same Policy since effects usually apply at the end of the turn, but it still cost me Influence points as if I was changing the Policy.
I can't immediately reproduce this. I quickstarted, produced a military command, adopted Centralization and Continuous Scanning. Cycled a few turns. Clicked clear. Double-clicked Exploration, and it cost me IP. I double-clicked to remove it, and got the IP back. I then double-clicked Centralization and Continuous Scanning and re-adopted them at no cost.
I’ll comment each one now (with my limited experience of the game, of course) :
Specific suggestions, or a pull request, to fix balance issues would be helpful.
Scanning Continuuously : I really like how this Policy (the only Military one that makes sense, by the way) works very differently from other mechanics of the game, and the trade-off between detection and stealth. But if your opponent is Laenfa or Sly (which was the case in my game, the first neighbour was Laenfa) it becomes a no-brainer…
And if you’re Laenfa or Sly and your opponent uses this Policy (which he will if he understands the game), then you’re toast.
Probably needs some balancing then, to make it more useful for other cases but not on its own defeating the stealth-focused species, especially at the start of the game.
Terraforming : Why not ? [...] I didn’t use it even if I terraformed a lot.
So... you don't see a reason to use it, or you don't see a reason to not use it? Either way, what would make it more balanced?
Environnmentalism : Also, why not ? I didn’t use it anyway.
Don't know what that means.

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LienRag
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#36 Post by LienRag »

I forgot to mention two points that I’ll adress first before answering the various remarks :

- The initial +3 Influence Points bonus for the Capitol is way too low. There is absolutely no point in having to put the fourth planet on Influence focus. +5 is a minimum, +10 would probably be better.

- Enemy Capitol Independance Movement : I get the idea and I approve of anything that breaks the (boring) uniformity of Influence cost as it is now, but I disapprove its implementation.
We want, I think, to reward the capture of enemy Capitols ; so a temporary penalty to influence can be interesting, but a permanent one goes contrary to the game logic.
We can make Capitols easier to defend and as such harder to capture, we shouldn’t make them a lesser prize for their conquerors.
Having the IP production bonus come from the Library (kept after conquest) rather than from the Palace (destroyed after conquest) would be more logical (the captured central administration helps assimilating the newly conquered planets into the Empire) and a high incitation to conquer enemies.
A Resistance Movement could happen on all conquered planets as long as the Palace stands, and decay slowly after the Emperor’s head is put on a spike. An Independance Movement could happen on the conquered Capitol (with a value higher than the IP production bonus given by the Library) and decay over time – we could even have it go back to full power (so full Influence cost) each time a loyal ship enters its space. That would make more varied strategies possible and/or necessary around captured Capitols.


Oberlus wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:36 am Yes.

All that has been discussed in several threads, e.g. see

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11363
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11652
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11739

Current implementation is in development and does not include all of what has been decided yet, including a colony influence upkeep that goes up with distance to capital.

Yes, I’ve read them and was surprised to see something very different in the game. If it’s a WiP, I guess it makes more sense.
Influence upkeep that goes up with distance to Capitol is definitely one way of creating some topology in the game, it shouldn’t be the only one.



Oberlus wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:36 am I disagree. Centralization policy is brutal, it needs rebalancing to make it less annoying, for it costs you more than it returns in most cases. Again, everything is under development yet.

Maybe I didn’t express myself clearly : I didn’t mean that’s the only thing that Centralization do, I meant that Centralization (and his opposite Confederation) is the the only thing that force some thinking in the Influence management.



Oberlus wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:36 am
I understand why some Policies cannot be used together, but I still think that’s a mistake.
Finding a way to concile seemingly opposed concepts is a staple of innovation in politics, and could be a fun part of the game.
Except when you are talking about obvious opposites. You can't encourage growth and discourage growth and expect to get anything good from that.
Either you allow opposite policies to cancel out each other effects (and so you are wasting two policy slots for nothing) or you disallow placing certain policies together. The former would piss off certain players ("why does the game let me do that stupid thing?").

You are right when talking about Policies that do only one thing. That was not what Policies were supposed to be in the earlier discussions (at least as I understand them) and that is not imho what will make Policies fun and strategic to play.
Not only Policies (at least early ones) should have one negative point as well as a positive one, but imho they’re more interesting if they have more than one positive point : so instead of « I want to do this so I pick that Policy » we’ll have « I want to do this and there is that Policy that gives me a bonus in that direction : should I pick it and then try to optimize the second bonus, or should I pick instead this other Policy that gives two unrelated boni that work better together but don’t really help me on my initial objective ?».
As long as Policies do many things, combining them becomes possible and sometimes useful, even if some part of one Policy contradicts some parts of the other (and basically, Terraforming+Environmentalism exists IRL, it’s called green capitalism).



Oberlus wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:37 am
Magnate wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 8:02 am Also, are there going to be penalties for negative influence? Other meters can't go negative so it's anomalous, and it feels wrong to be conquering the galaxy with -900 influence ...
I guess so. I think lack of influence will cause stability drops, and thus colonies stopping production.

As I wrote elsewhere, I’m not sure that’s the right way to do it. Having mechanical consequences that will prevent ever going into deficit to be a viable strategy makes for a boring game (I mean, being able to halt Research for a while or to go full Research without much Production makes for a more varied game, even if the consequences can be dire if the opponents are able to take advantage of these choices).
I really think that Influence deficit should render an Empire more vulnerable to enemy actions (mostly, but not necessarily only, enemy Influence projects), but not have direct immediate consequences on Production or Research in absence of enemy actions, so going into IP deficit would be a high-risk but viable strategy.



Geoff the Medio wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:17 pm
LienRag wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:41 amI do think that, at least to my preconceptions of what Policies would be (fundamental choices made by an Empire), there are too many Policy slots at endgame.
The plan is for policies to replace a lot of the bonuses from having a tech researched. Two or three slots per category would be reasonable mid-game, but by end-game, four or so per category is probably more reasonable.

Oh, thanks for the explanation.
Can’t say that I’m happy with that, though.
Getting boni from researching techs is a staple of 4X games (yes, FreeOrion doesn’t have to do what other 4X games do, but on this precise topic I don’t see what FreeOrion would get from departing from this standard) and is more intuitive and enjoyable imho than constantly having to choose which bonus to get.
I mean, once a player was able to research a Tech, he gets a definitive bonus that no one can take from him, and which adds to any other that he can get by other means and other Techs.
There’s some irreplaceable satisfaction in that achievement, and it makes the game go through successive phases, which makes for a more varied experience imho.

Also, I still think that it’s more fun and interesting to have to choose a small number of Policies having varied boni (and to juggle with how to combine them) than to pick the exact Bonus one would need.


Geoff the Medio wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:17 pm
...like George the Medio’s proposal to have independant but friendly Natives offer a Policy slot
Sounds like an important contributor to the project.
He definitely has Vision, but maybe this Vision is a bit common ? :wink:



Geoff the Medio wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:17 pm
Apparently it’s not possible to clear only one Policy
Double click a policy in a slot. Works for me.
D’oh ! Thanks.



Geoff the Medio wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:17 pm
When I cleared them by mistake I tried to replace the same Policy since effects usually apply at the end of the turn, but it still cost me Influence points as if I was changing the Policy.
I can't immediately reproduce this. I quickstarted, produced a military command, adopted Centralization and Continuous Scanning. Cycled a few turns. Clicked clear. Double-clicked Exploration, and it cost me IP. I double-clicked to remove it, and got the IP back. I then double-clicked Centralization and Continuous Scanning and re-adopted them at no cost.

You’re right, I can’t reproduce it either, it works as you describe it.
I don’t understand what happened. Maybe I just got confused ? At minimum it would need clearer explanations so as to avoid confusing noobs.





Geoff the Medio wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:17 pm
LienRag wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:41 am I’ll comment each one now (with my limited experience of the game, of course) :
Specific suggestions, or a pull request, to fix balance issues would be helpful.

I do when I can, but since I don’t grasp fully how Policies are supposed to work (and globally consider that as of now they don’t really work) it’s not easy to suggest precise and relevant corrections.


Geoff the Medio wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:17 pm
LienRag wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:41 am Probably needs some balancing then, to make it more useful for other cases but not on its own defeating the stealth-focused species, especially at the start of the game.

The only thing I can imagine right now is to have a symetric Policy « Under the radar » that gives more stealth to the detriment of Detection, but it’s not very creative nor fun.
The fun part could come if they had different timing, creating a window where the Scanning player would have the upper hand for a few turns on the one going under the radar, before the tide turns.

Note also that this policy allows for ties in Stealth and Detection Strength : will the code know how to manage that ?



Geoff the Medio wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:17 pm So... you don't see a reason to use it, or you don't see a reason to not use it? Either way, what would make it more balanced?

I’m not sure if it’s a problem of balance, more a problem of flavor ? Like you said, I didn’t see neither a reason to use it nor to not use it. It’s the sort of « meh » policy that we should try to not have, imho – imperfect Policies yes (as an incitation to research better ones), but flavorless no.
Having it reduce the cost of terraforming would certainly make it much more useful, but I’m not sure how it would impact the balance of the game.
If it actually reduce terraforming duration enough to be able to terraform a newly settled planet before the settlers die out, then it gets one useful use case that I didn’t see when making my first comment. I didn’t test that, though.


Geoff the Medio wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:17 pm
Environnmentalism : Also, why not ? I didn’t use it anyway.
Don't know what that means.
That as I heavily Terraformed I didn’t try to use it so can’t really talk about it except from a theorical point of view. And from that theorical point of view, it’s another policy that has nothing against it but not that much for it – the fluff has some flavor, but that’s all imho.



I'll now follow with the rest of the Policies, as promised :

Allied Repair : so actually there’s a second Military Policy that makes sense… It’s interesting as it does what nothing else in the game does, and also fluff-wise it’s quite logical that the logistic necessary to repair allied ships would require a full-fledged Policy.
As I played solo, I obviously didn’t use it.
But with the high costs attached to buying a Policy, is it really worth in multi-player games ?
It’s obviously useful, but that useful ?

Balance : I like the idea, the fluff is absolutely not convincing, not sure if the boni are worth the hassle.

Checkpoints : Interesting idea, the fluff at least exists, a bit limited imho.

Colonization : It’s subjective I suppose, but to me it breaks credibility : I can’t see how a full policy would be adding a +1 fuel to a ship. It’s not uninteresting in the concept, it just doesn’t work imho. Maybe it’s because I didn’t play Laenfa nor Sly and I would probably see its point if I had ?
Maybe it would make more sense if we had a « Colonization » Policy Slot and various Policies to choose from (Stealth, Fuel, Armor, Speed, maybe even Cost) for it ?

Confederation : I get the idea, I still think that Empire shape should be cared for in more creative manners (but I don’t have much ideas about which except maybe for the Nomes I proposed some time ago).

Design Simplicity : Again, interesting idea. At least it brings some variety in ship design. I guess it makes Energy Frigates and Organic Hulls competitive again ? Not sure if the bonus is sufficient though . The fluff is not really convincing either.

Diversity : Interesting, but underdevelopped. As it is it’s flavorless, and the fluff isn’t convincing at all.

Divine Authority : One of the Policies that are the most similar to choosing a Government. Why not, but the fluff is quite cliché.

Engineering : Interesting indeed, hard to grasp the exact effects without a greater experience of the game than I have. Fluff is non-existent.
Also, in the FOCS file I see where the Influence cost of ships is but not where the Upkeep benefit takes place ?

Exobot Productivity : I’m not sure that making Exobots more efficient is a good idea, and as I wrote above find the « I have a problem, I pick a Policy » logic quite boring. Apart from that, I guess it makes sense.

Exploration : Seems too specialized a Policy to justify the cost of adopting it ?

No Growth : Weird but if it has its use case, why not ?

No Supply : Nice way to hide an Empire on the Galaxy Map…

Population : Interesting, but as I wrote above I don’t think there should be Policies that do only one thing. Also, since the Population growth is mostly a problem when it is infinitesimal (at the start of the game), making it grow by a relative number rather than a flat one doesn’t seem to be that useful.
Anyway, I looked at the FOCS code and I can’t understand where the bonus is ?

Racial Purity : I guess it’s useful for Trith or maybe for no-natives Galaxies ? The fluff makes me a bit uneasy but is coherent with the fluff for some species.

Reserve Tanks : Really another « meh » Policy. Is there a situation when it’s worth the cost of adopting a Policy ? Maybe I don’t have enough experience…
Fluff-wise, having a better fuel efficiency would be more convincing imho than having « reserve tanks » - how is that a policy ? Maybe even a growing fuel efficiency the longer that policy is in effect ?

Stockpile Liquidation : Needs work on the fluff, but I guess that it has its use.


So globally, I believe that as I wrote earlier, Policies that do only one thing are both boring in terms of gameplay and not very convincing in terms of fluff.
Many of the ones that give a direct bonus would be more interesting for the gameplay if they had other beneficial mechanisms (I don’t know, like Diversity reducing the costs of some Techs like Xenological Genetics, or giving a +1 Stability following « trade lines » in the Empire) rather than direct boni.

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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#37 Post by drkosy »

At first I have to say that I like that influence mechanic right now. It is still work in progress I know, but right now with my first game I really don't settle every asteroid belt just because I can. As well it gets more important to choose which species you take for colonization. Maybe there could be more differences because nearly all have "good influence". Indeed there is my first attempt. Ether documentation or mechanics are wrong because good influence is listed as 150%. In planetary meters "normal" influence is showed as 4 IP and below the "good" influence bonus is listed with 1,5 IP but 150% of 4 should be 6 (4+2), not 5.5 (4+1.5).
Second thing is the lack of documentation. I searched pedia for that mechanics but did't find how to get new influence slots. I red in a post here, that you get your social slots from architectural psychology and megalith's technology, but did I get a second economics slot?
Since most policies cost more the bigger your empire is, it's best to rush research towards them early. There tech related species like scylor get them more easy witch should be addressed somehow (maybe by setting influence to bad for scylor to need longer achieve the IP for policies).
I think there is great potential in that mechanics and I'am looking forward to see how that concept evolves :D
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#38 Post by Oberlus »

I'm playtesting current version with the focus on learning and using current policies. Geoff has added a lot in the recent months, with varied and diverse effects to flesh out the general mechanics.
I think it's time to help out on finetuning the current content to make it more interesting and balanced.


Centralization.

Currently
  • Unlocked at start.
  • Capital: -2 supply, -2 stockpile, +0.2*pop RP&PP.
  • Colonies supply-connected to capital: -0.2*JUMPS_TO_CAPITAL (max -3, so 15+ jumps costs the same) IP.
  • Colonies supply-disconnected from capital: -3 IP.
Most effects are counter-intuitive for me, fluff-wise.
Game-wise, the -2 capital supply has little effect once you plant your first colony (close enough), the extra unfocused RP&PP is quite a boost early game, but the massive influence penalty offsets it when you get enough colonies and that makes the policy short-lived.


I suggest
  • Unlocked by Interstellar Logistics (same as Confederation policy).
  • Capital: +1 supply, +0.5*(#owned colonies supply-connected to capital)*HabitableSize TargetPopulation, +20 TargetConstruction, +3 IP, +0.1*(total planet size of non-gas/belt owned outposts supply-connected to capital) PP, +0.2*(#different environments in outposts&colonies supply-connected to capital).
  • All colonies: -1 supply, -1*HabitableSize TargetPopulation, -10 TargetConstruction.
  • Colonies supply-connected to capital: -0.2*JUMPS_TO_CAPITAL_OR_ADMIN_CENTER (max. 10, 50 jumps from capital/center) IP & stability.
  • Colonies supply-disconnected from capital: -10 IP & stability.
Fluff-wise, it makes more sense that central planet of empire is the one with better logistics. Problem with centralization is places too far from center are poorly connected/supplied (hey, small-town boy, if you want fun or cure for cancer you oughta go the capital), and disconnection means scarcity (all distribution is done from center, no center -> no distribution -> people angry).
Allowing at a later point in the research tree to calculate the IP penalty based on closest administration center (instead of just the capital) allows for the policy to be usable when empire grows.
Coupled with the other bonuses, it makes the policy worth usable later game.
Central planet getting extra population the more vassal planets it controls is also expected, and hence the bonus based on total-habitable-size-of-connected-colonies.
The extra unfocused PP bonus based on total-planet-size-of-connected-outposts and extra unfocused RP bonus based on #different_environments_connected adds extra sugar, but these probably should be in different policies compatible with Centralization (e.g. Outpost Mining for the PP bonus and dunnowhat for the RP bonus).
It makes for a nice policy for Tall empires.
All suggested factors are untested (not implemented) and subject to changes.

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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#39 Post by Ophiuchus »

For me centralization feels completely different (at the start).
I usually try to role-play that low influence is really bad and keep influence mostly above zero.

Centralisation is so powerful compared to other resource production that is a no-brainer like automated history analyser at the beginning (turn 4).

For our average humans you get 4 research and 4 industry. Even with Nascent AI that is better than having three colonies.

For Sly basically that means that (usually) you just prepare a long time for colonisation and then if your tech is good enough you throw out centralisation and colonise all those prepared planets in the same turn.
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#40 Post by Oberlus »

Ophiuchus wrote: Tue Jan 26, 2021 1:03 pm For me centralization feels completely different (at the start).
I think you got me wrong.
As I said, Centralization is good early on, due to those extra PP and RP. Totally a nobrainer, as you commented. BTW, if it's a nobrainer, that's bad.
The problem I want to point out is it becomes a liability quite soon, when you get enough planets (quite few planets): it increases influence costs but does not increase the extra PP and RP, so you have to drop it (as you commented).
The suggestion I made is to make it worth for longer than early game.

Anyways, I realized later that the influence problem lies somewhere else, in the BASE_INFLUENCE_COSTS macro. I'm not referring to that "OLONY_ADMIN_COSTS_PER_PLANET" macro name, but to the fact that (1) this colony influence upkeep is brutal (total 0.2*N²) and will not allow any empire to grow further than a few planets before being impossible to keep positive influence, and (2) it is not replaced by the CONFEDERATION or CENTRALIZATION policies. The latter was expected as per previous discussions on influence colony upkeep.

CENTRALIZATION and some other policies should be the ones defining the empire's strategy for influence upkeep, tailored to the different expansion strategies:
- Wide vs Tall: many planets in little time, or fewer planets with larger ouput.
- Compact vs Spread: small, dense area (probably supply-connected, makes little sense to go for disconnected) with smaller distances, or large, sparse areas with bigger distances (possibly but not necessarily supply-disconnected).

CENTRALIZATION is the best policy (the concept) for compact empires. It should be good for tall empires, or most often. It should substitute the standard influence upkeep by the jumps-to-capital-based cost (I suggest removing the 0.2 constant, 1 jump = 1 influence points, which can make for 12.3 IP per planet when having 100 planets spread in a circle around center).
CONFEDERATION should be the one for spread empires. It should be good for wide empires, or most often. It should substitute the standard influence upkeep per something smaller than N² (I suggest N*sqrt(N) = N^1.5, which makes for 10 IP per planet when having 100 planets).
NO_SUPPLY could be renamed to something nicer and be the one for supply-disconnected, hidden empires: no supply, extra stockpile extraction and planetary stealth. Compatible with CENTRALIZATION and CONFEDERATION.

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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#41 Post by Oberlus »

We need a mechanic for negative influence stockpile carrying on negative effects and eventual loss of colonies.

The idea I like the most is as follows:

IP default causes drops in stability, and low stability leads to losses in colony output (multiplicator with late priority), and eventually the colony rebellion.
Bigger defaults should incur into bigger stability losses. And option is to pay for each negative IP with stability points.

One problem to solve is how to choose the planets that will get the stability penalties. A set of planets with the worse values certain meter(s) should be selected, and the stability points taken at random (preferably not uniformly). This set of colonies should be the ones with lower influence output (necessarily negative), but the algorithm should consider the option of all colonies producing the same influence and resolve the tie with distance to capital/admin. center, and dunno what to do with lowest stability planets (angry populations should defect sooner even if they have possitive influence output). All that is important to ensure that not all/many planets rebel at the same time, but gradually and starting by the onces that cause more IP losses, and that species values take a role in all this.

Another problem is how to implement that in FOCS.
How to track the penalisations in the colonies? Maybe a special could be added to the planets with penalisations, that will remove itself once influence default is fixed and the lost stability is back to normal (spending IP in the process), or, eventually, after some turns with negative stability the special turns the colony into unowned and removes itself.
How to deliver N negative points among M selected colonies? I don't know if that's even possible in FOCS.


If the above is not good enough or can't be implemented, what else?

Edits in bold.

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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#42 Post by Ophiuchus »

Simplest thing i can think of - global IP deficit lowers stability on all planets.
Bad stability means no increase of resources.

Add ways to decrease enemy resource meters (sabotage projects, policies).

IP deficit would effectively stall progression and remove all benefits of acquiring new planets/colonies.
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#43 Post by Oberlus »

Ophiuchus wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:12 pm Simplest thing i can think of - global IP deficit lowers stability on all planets.
Bad stability means no increase of resources.

Add ways to decrease enemy resource meters (sabotage projects, policies).

IP deficit would effectively stall progression and remove all benefits of acquiring new planets/colonies.
That does incur in the problems I commented in the post above iff we add planet rebellion. Not a nice solution if we want planet rebellion. I do.

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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#44 Post by Ophiuchus »

Oberlus wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 10:45 pm
Ophiuchus wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:12 pm Simplest thing i can think of - global IP deficit lowers stability on all planets.
Bad stability means no increase of resources.

Add ways to decrease enemy resource meters (sabotage projects, policies).

IP deficit would effectively stall progression and remove all benefits of acquiring new planets/colonies.
That does incur in the problems I commented in the post above iff we add planet rebellion. Not a nice solution if we want planet rebellion. I do.
Yes that was mostly orthogonal to planet rebellion (besides something like rebellion influence projects). I think we do not have any good/non-messy sketch/idea for rebellion.

I try to give some technical input into the system you outlined in your post. One could distribute stability malus points over all your planets, so the tracking would happen in the stability meter. Forget about FOCS implementation, if it is not currently possible it is definitely possible to add such an effect. So lets say, for -10 imperial influence you subtract one stability per turn in average, for -5 it would in average subtract a half stability per turn in average (so less than half the planets get at least one point subtracted). So e.g. for a normal distribution if you have 5 planets and -10 imperial influence, one probably outcome would be -2, -1, 0, -2, 0. Two planets have effect no stability, one planet has a single reduction which could get compensated by stability growth (so you would not see an effect at maximum stability), and two planets get a reduction which would not be compensated by stability growth. Low stability could generate rebels. And if the number of rebels is higher than local troops, rebellion takes place (so switching to focus influence or to defense can delay rebellion, this would also model decreasing resource output). There should probably be some policy which slowly removes rebels.

If one wants to take into account local influence production into stability, one could simply add the current influence meter to the stability target meter.

I think what would be more important to describe what kind of effects one would expect for a certain influence deficit over a certain time and then look for fitting mechanisms.
Also the intended experience would be good to know - how predictable rebellions should be, etc.

We are probably discussing this in the wrong thread here.
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Re: Testing Government and Influence

#45 Post by Geoff the Medio »

There are already mechanisms for influence and stability to interact, including various bonus effects that only work when a planet has sufficiently high stability, and some policies that can boost stability at the cost of influence. I don't want to add another based mainly around having an influence debt cause additional penalities directly, as this would potentially be a death-spiral situation that would be difficult or impossible to get out of, and probably rather unfun for players.

Rather, I'd like to add stuff that players will want to have influence to spend on, such as convincing neutral planets to join the empire or give it some benefit other than joining. There's also the already-implemented benefit of being able to adopt policies only when sufficient influence is stockpiled. Other empires' planets could also be manipulated, including making them less stable, via influence-dependent action.

Other mechanics could be tied to policies, like making issuing orders to ships cost and require influence, in exchange for some substantial benefit. That could include a policy that applies some penalty if the influence stockpile goes negative, but it shouldn't be the baseline / default mechanic.

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