Fwurg

[Brend]

Chriz, Mercury and I have observed that the special goods are biased with regard to the raw materials they consume.

We assume that cost 4 , and 4 . As the will most likely be changed to this (and all costs for Hyperspace Lanes will be reduced by a factor of 4).

Now, for each special good, we count the raw materials consumed to create a single special good. We get the following distribution:

	Count	Ratio
	20	33.3%
	13	21.7%
	8	13.3%
	8	13.3%
	7	11.7%
	4	6.7%

((Continued in next post due to forum bug with icons+tables.))

[Brend]

As you can see, the economy is lopsided towards , and it becomes very easy to switch between the gasses based specials. Should we wish to change this, one of the things we'll have to take into account is that any change in the special goods will have profound impact on the current economy.

I propose we use this thread to discuss the issue, and see if we can somehow come up with a solution together!

[Chriz]

In my opinion changing raw materials for the most prominent gasses focused special goods ( , , ) would have a very large impact on the economy resulting in people overhauling there systems. This is in my opinion not the solution.

I propose to look at it from the other side. We should look into creating two new special products that contain mostly and to restore the balance a bit.
What we need would be:
+ -> new special good 1 ?
+ -> new special good 2 ?

The updated table would be then:
20
13
15
12
12
12

This would still mean Gasses has a large share but it would be more acceptable.
Anybody who has an idea for new special good 1 or 2?

[Brend]

I'm not sure whether I am in favour of coming up with two new special goods; but it is an interesting approach to the problem.

Regardless of my feelings about the approach:

A long time ago at the start of the game, when technologies were still a new concept, the idea to introduce a 'research' good was mentioned a few times. I do not think it would be a good idea to replace the normal cost of technologies, but we could look into the creation of a technology credit:

+ -> technology credits

With some players having large groups of population, we might look into a population-related special good. For example, we could go with a 'City Zone' which is effectively a mega-city that allows larger populations to live there. These zones could have upkeep in the form of:

+ -> Luxury Products


Again. I'm not sure whether this is the correct route to go.

[Mercury]

We assume that cost 4 , and 4 . As the will most likely be changed to this (and all costs for Hyperspace Lanes will be reduced by a factor of 4).

See also here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1036

[Elmer]

I second the notion to increase the costs of

Maybe we can use technology credits for advanced technologies? Thechnology credits replacing normal tax sounds interresting as well, but I wonder how much that would actually be used.

I am not opposed the luxury-products so far.

We can of course change the raw material from the , maybe from gasses to metals or rare elements? This will drive the focus away from gasses as well, although it as great impact on the current economy, making this rule change hard to implement.

[Elmer]

I noticed an irregularity of the special products, at this moment the is the only one requiring 3 + 3 products. All the other ones require 4 raw materials + 4 products.

I think we can get rid of this irregularity by making the 4 + 4 . This way they require 1 more and 1 less.

Alternatively, and somehow this feels better to me, is by making the costing 3 +3 . By keeping the special products not all the same we keep the door open for other odd special products.

[Brend]

I see no reason to change the current special goods components in the way you describe. The problem isn't or it's the skew between and the rest (with a lone bottom).

Though I agree with the fact that we have a single different good, I don't think this is a problem.