ah, never heard of that condition. stringtables DESC_EXPLORED_BY_EMPIRE '''that has not been explored by the %1% empire'''' indicates the name is fitting and the macro has a bug.BlueAward wrote: ↑Thu Oct 27, 2022 10:48 pm However I suppose I do not understand the jumps condition, particularly the second condition. It counts planets within 5 jumps from my planet, but also within 2 jumps if I explored them? Is not the second condition redundant? I guess I do not understand it
it would make more sense the other way round (affected by up to 2 jumps of unexplored systems and 5 jumps of explored systems). but this makes it also weird - it means as trith: do not stop a ship in a system where are foreigners. (although i think we changed exploration to happen on flyby also, so "never fly by a foreigner's planet")
For some species this might make sense (pretending the foreigners are not there), but for Trith it does not make any sense fluffwise.
Also I think the implementation was intended to resemble the map. So count a planet if it was (or maybe is) visible, not if it was explored.
How about making this about supply instead? Fluffwise that at least means that there are trith in that system. And trith could think of going a NO_SUPPLY route.
balance-wise: the malus is capped at bonus zero. For many (endless) foreign species planets it is 40% of current target population.
This seems very weird. Should not depend on target population (note this happens after self-sustaining bonus is added). Fluffwise population does make sense.
Also that it is based on target pop could explain observed fluctation and (maybe) unknown malus. If based on population there might be also fluctuation, but I imagine considerably less.
For starting planet current pop ~= target pop and has 24 pop (including the self-sustaining bonus 9pop).
One planet means -2 pop, two planets -3.5, at three planets -4.7 ... with 11 planets the bonus is mostly eaten up. With better growth techs, this happens earlier.
Clearing out a sector for trith is thematical (extinguish or evacuate the natives, late game they can return to their home planet).
So my suggestion: base it mostly on supply (where one has some agency) and on population (not sure if intial or current).