Ophiuchus wrote:Personally wouldnt want to merge influence cost with planet focus switching though.
Why? It would be a simple and straightforward approach to counter any and all mass focus switching micromanagement exploits. That's a fundamental issue of the whole focus mechanic, currently addressed by having an extra reduction of the meter on the turn the focus is switched away from that meter.
Which IMO is not an optimal solution, as depending on the type of meter and tech level that can translate into a very severe or almost negligible cost. Having focus switching cost influence provides a catch-all solution that should address all such potential exploits.
Also, we are currently considering policy card activation having a influence cost. Policy cards, in terms of game mechanics, are essentially something like a focus setting, but on the empire level.
What do you think of the timer-based or slow-then-exponential local growth ideas? That were my counter for the cheap switching cost and short-term planning. Too complicated? Valid?
(rereading i think you ment those as well)
Yep, meant those as well. So far we've managed to stick with a meter growth rate that is more or less consistent across all kind of meter types. Some meters might have to grow/shrink at different speeds than other meters (to account for differences in scale, see supply, troop, industry and planetary shield meters). But the growth/shrink rates are constant, not dynamic, which makes thing a lot simpler, transparent and easier to comprehend for the player.
Which is why I want to avoid making exceptions to that unless there isn't really any other solution. As I said in my prior post above, we
had such an exception, and it got ripped out. Although, to be honest, the pop meter still is the exception to that rule, but at least it does not depend on how many turns after a focus switch has happened, but on the current level of the meter, which is somewhat easier to comprehend.