Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards |
So I was discussing with one of my coworkers as we carpooled to work this morning the problems with strategy games - namely, that "expand while possible, then attack" is the optimal strategy for SE, MOO, Civ, etc. We came up with a couple ideas for how to make the game more interesting for players who prefer to expand in other, less obvious ways than "across the universe" (e.g. expanding via developing ungodly amounts of technology, or expanding via developing your colonies to ridiculous levels), and Sandy came up with this really great idea that almost seems counterintuitive...
Exponential rewards!
What we mean by exponential rewards is this: Normally you have diminishing returns when it comes to technology and colony development - a level 5 cannon is not even close to 5 times as powerful as a level 1 cannon, but it costs far more than 5 times as much to research! This sounds good in theory, but in practice all it means is everyone ends up with the same tech, the same facilities on their colonies, etc. How boring!
With exponential rewards, though, a level 5 cannon costs 5 times as much to research as a level 1 cannon, but is MORE than 5 times as powerful! This encourages players to specialize in one tech that they're already really good at, so that they can reap greater rewards and not all players use the same strategy!
The same idea can be applied to colony development simply by messing with the population modifiers - instead of 2 billion people being only 50% more productive than 1 billion, make them three times as productive! Then you are truly encouraged to develop a few strong colonies, rather than spreading yourself thin with 50 zillion colonies across the map. Each colony becomes more important, like in Proportions, while still allowing you to quickly expand a bit early on without the hassles of "spend 20 turns building your colony ship, then another 50 turns developing the colony". Instead of punishing the player for expanding, which only slows down the game, REWARD him for taking the risk of putting all his eggs in one basket!
Sandy, you are a genius... I hope someone can make a useful mod out of this! It seems quite appropriate for Dark Nova, given that Dark Nova's theme is diversity of options available to players! 
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
hhmm as crimson says it would get rather high powered unless they started off patheticly week... also once u started down a tech tree it would be very difficult and wastefull to leave it and start another... i.e if u start researching csm tech for 10 levels ur not gona want to ditch it for something massivly weeker while ur opponenet continues down that very profitable path.
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
How is that worse than having racial traits which grant access to more powerful tech, though? At least with the rewards system, you CAN switch midstream
~~~
The power of the ancients is now yours to command. You are truly the Master... of the obvious 
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
The population impact I would definitely like to see, a colony of a mere 1M people should operate at nowhere near any sort of useful capacity.
However exponential returns on tech is a bit risky, it would leave you open to people exploiting the weaknesses of your path and give you little ability to react. Maybe if you were to have linear returns on upgrades past the first with a fairly large first level just so that getting level one in a tech tields something useful, then have it go linearly to double capacity every say, 5 levels of research.
I say, try it, see if it's easy to abuse.
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
You mention Dark Nova for something like this. For weapon, facility and other techs, i don't see is working, but for Colony development, I LOVE this idea!! Making higher population planets sooo much more valuable and worth trying to capture rather than glass them and re-colonize.
Nick (bearclaw)
"You don't know the Power of the Dark Side. I must obey my Master"
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
My idea is just work on scaling. You can build a 15 stock mineral mining facilities, or for the same space but 5x the cost, you can build 3 mining complexes that produce twice as much income. Or for 25x the cost and the same space you can build a megaplex that provides 3x the income. In this way, you can build colonies up rather than merely expanding outwards.
Of course, at the costs involved it probably wouldn't be economical at all to build megaplexes given the cost and how much space lies dead during the construction. But all stuff to be tweaked.
Technology is already too powerful in the game. I'd prefer a system that deemphasizes it and makes spamming research centers less important.
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
I agree. Though new tech is probably still my favorite thing. My last real game consisted of my doing nothing but powering a giant research machine. After...400 turns? I was generating 10 times the number of points of the second place player and was gaining new tech levels at the same rate (though I had 400 techs to their 90).
And I wasn't all that much more powerful either.
There's a two-fold problem in that tech is both not significantly more powerful enough, yet at the same time, too important.
I was throwing around 300,000 research points and it still took me 10-20 turns to get a new weapon. And the one I already have isn't that much more deadly than the computer's version (although I was a sheild beast, I made a baseship that could regenerate its entire sheilding in under 10 seconds--only thing that nearly killed it was a dual-collision between it and two of my other ships (damn pathing AI)).
The problem that exists currently is not that things need exponential gains, or anything like that, it's the fact that you are reasearching this subset of tech, and you have no reason to research another, so you throw more and more of your resources at technology generation to keep up with the ever-increasing costs. There needs to be a point at which you need to stop, even when it's so easy to go "four more turns and I'll have..." because you'll ALWAYS be four more turns away from something.
My main problem is I'm always 1 turn away from something that would go into a ship I'm currently designing: new engines, new sheilds, better weapons... and that I don't want to "do it now, because next turn my tech will be better." And a 1 turn delay in production is nothing against the AI (I waited 15+ turns for my baseship and then had to wait 6 more for a repair vehicle, and then I used it to wipe the universe clean, promptly followed by an end-turn freeze). 20 turns, and all the tech I made in that time was wasted on my purge.
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
I'm reminded of the spiraling disaster that can happen in Supreme Commander. Exponential rewards means the player who starts off best (random map generation) and who micromanages best will be unbeatable. The game would degenerate to "never attack, because the moment you distract yourself from expanding, you've lost". That is, you encourage players to turtle because the rewards for doing so become so great.
Now having said that, making population bonuses important is something I welcome. I shouldn't be able to build my fleet many times faster just because I put the same number of people across more colonies. Well actually, it makes some sense but I feel a colony ought to reach a certain threshold before it's actually useful - say 500M.
Technology on the other hand... actually what'd I'd like to see is certain weapon tech only being unlocked once you master a previous tech. E.g. currently you get High-Energy Discharge weapons when you get a new Physics level and it doesn't matter what weapon tech you've developed so far. What if High-Energy Discharge requires you to reach Lv 10 Energy Stream Weapons first? The individual levels between Anti-Proton Beams can be small but you still feel your research isn't wasted because you're heading towards the next tier of weapons.
---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Now that's an idea.
Also, we need a reason to research more than one path of weapons--i.e. both energy beam and energy pulse or both missiles and torpedos--along with a science tech.
Side note:
What's the usability difference between torpedos and missiles anyway? When would you use one over the other?
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Yep, the idea can easily be expanded: "this tech area only unlocks when you have both Beam and Pulse tech areas maxed out".
---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go to this Wiki if interested. No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
I realise this is an old thread, but I was glancing the forums and noticed this. Anyway, a mod I am making at the moment does all the things listed here, havent finished all the branching techs here, but here is the little bit of text that makes low pop planets a lot less productive and large pop planets more productive:
Copy and paste this over the relevant secion in settings.txt:
Number Of Population Modifiers := 101 Pop Modifier 1 Population Amount := 19 Pop Modifier 1 Production Modifier Percent := 5 Pop Modifier 1 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 5 Pop Modifier 2 Population Amount := 39 Pop Modifier 2 Production Modifier Percent := 7 Pop Modifier 2 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 7 Pop Modifier 3 Population Amount := 59 Pop Modifier 3 Production Modifier Percent := 10 Pop Modifier 3 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 10 Pop Modifier 4 Population Amount := 79 Pop Modifier 4 Production Modifier Percent := 13 Pop Modifier 4 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 13 Pop Modifier 5 Population Amount := 99 Pop Modifier 5 Production Modifier Percent := 15 Pop Modifier 5 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 15 Pop Modifier 6 Population Amount := 179 Pop Modifier 6 Production Modifier Percent := 17 Pop Modifier 6 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 17 Pop Modifier 7 Population Amount := 259 Pop Modifier 7 Production Modifier Percent := 20 Pop Modifier 7 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 20 Pop Modifier 8 Population Amount := 339 Pop Modifier 8 Production Modifier Percent := 23 Pop Modifier 8 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 23 Pop Modifier 9 Population Amount := 419 Pop Modifier 9 Production Modifier Percent := 25 Pop Modifier 9 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 25 Pop Modifier 10 Population Amount := 499 Pop Modifier 10 Production Modifier Percent := 27 Pop Modifier 10 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 27 Pop Modifier 11 Population Amount := 549 Pop Modifier 11 Production Modifier Percent := 30 Pop Modifier 11 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 30 Pop Modifier 12 Population Amount := 599 Pop Modifier 12 Production Modifier Percent := 33 Pop Modifier 12 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 33 Pop Modifier 13 Population Amount := 649 Pop Modifier 13 Production Modifier Percent := 35 Pop Modifier 13 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 35 Pop Modifier 14 Population Amount := 699 Pop Modifier 14 Production Modifier Percent := 37 Pop Modifier 14 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 37 Pop Modifier 15 Population Amount := 749 Pop Modifier 15 Production Modifier Percent := 40 Pop Modifier 15 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 40 Pop Modifier 16 Population Amount := 799 Pop Modifier 16 Production Modifier Percent := 43 Pop Modifier 16 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 43 Pop Modifier 17 Population Amount := 849 Pop Modifier 17 Production Modifier Percent := 45 Pop Modifier 17 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 45 Pop Modifier 18 Population Amount := 899 Pop Modifier 18 Production Modifier Percent := 47 Pop Modifier 18 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 47 Pop Modifier 19 Population Amount := 949 Pop Modifier 19 Production Modifier Percent := 50 Pop Modifier 19 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 50 Pop Modifier 20 Population Amount := 999 Pop Modifier 20 Production Modifier Percent := 53 Pop Modifier 20 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 53 Pop Modifier 21 Population Amount := 1099 Pop Modifier 21 Production Modifier Percent := 55 Pop Modifier 21 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 55 Pop Modifier 22 Population Amount := 1199 Pop Modifier 22 Production Modifier Percent := 57 Pop Modifier 22 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 57 Pop Modifier 23 Population Amount := 1299 Pop Modifier 23 Production Modifier Percent := 60 Pop Modifier 23 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 60 Pop Modifier 24 Population Amount := 1399 Pop Modifier 24 Production Modifier Percent := 63 Pop Modifier 24 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 63 Pop Modifier 25 Population Amount := 1499 Pop Modifier 25 Production Modifier Percent := 65 Pop Modifier 25 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 65 Pop Modifier 26 Population Amount := 1599 Pop Modifier 26 Production Modifier Percent := 67 Pop Modifier 26 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 67 Pop Modifier 27 Population Amount := 1699 Pop Modifier 27 Production Modifier Percent := 70 Pop Modifier 27 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 70 Pop Modifier 28 Population Amount := 1799 Pop Modifier 28 Production Modifier Percent := 73 Pop Modifier 28 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 73 Pop Modifier 29 Population Amount := 1899 Pop Modifier 29 Production Modifier Percent := 75 Pop Modifier 29 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 75 Pop Modifier 30 Population Amount := 1999 Pop Modifier 30 Production Modifier Percent := 77 Pop Modifier 30 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 77 Pop Modifier 31 Population Amount := 2099 Pop Modifier 31 Production Modifier Percent := 80 Pop Modifier 31 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 80 Pop Modifier 32 Population Amount := 2199 Pop Modifier 32 Production Modifier Percent := 83 Pop Modifier 32 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 83 Pop Modifier 33 Population Amount := 2299 Pop Modifier 33 Production Modifier Percent := 85 Pop Modifier 33 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 85 Pop Modifier 34 Population Amount := 2399 Pop Modifier 34 Production Modifier Percent := 87 Pop Modifier 34 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 87 Pop Modifier 35 Population Amount := 2499 Pop Modifier 35 Production Modifier Percent := 90 Pop Modifier 35 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 90 Pop Modifier 36 Population Amount := 2599 Pop Modifier 36 Production Modifier Percent := 93 Pop Modifier 36 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 93 Pop Modifier 37 Population Amount := 2699 Pop Modifier 37 Production Modifier Percent := 96 Pop Modifier 37 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 96 Pop Modifier 38 Population Amount := 2799 Pop Modifier 38 Production Modifier Percent := 100 Pop Modifier 38 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 100 Pop Modifier 39 Population Amount := 2899 Pop Modifier 39 Production Modifier Percent := 105 Pop Modifier 39 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 105 Pop Modifier 40 Population Amount := 2999 Pop Modifier 40 Production Modifier Percent := 110 Pop Modifier 40 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 110 Pop Modifier 41 Population Amount := 3099 Pop Modifier 41 Production Modifier Percent := 115 Pop Modifier 41 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 115 Pop Modifier 42 Population Amount := 3199 Pop Modifier 42 Production Modifier Percent := 120 Pop Modifier 42 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 120 Pop Modifier 43 Population Amount := 3299 Pop Modifier 43 Production Modifier Percent := 125 Pop Modifier 43 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 125 Pop Modifier 44 Population Amount := 3399 Pop Modifier 44 Production Modifier Percent := 130 Pop Modifier 44 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 130 Pop Modifier 45 Population Amount := 3499 Pop Modifier 45 Production Modifier Percent := 135 Pop Modifier 45 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 135 Pop Modifier 46 Population Amount := 3599 Pop Modifier 46 Production Modifier Percent := 140 Pop Modifier 46 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 140 Pop Modifier 47 Population Amount := 3699 Pop Modifier 47 Production Modifier Percent := 145 Pop Modifier 47 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 145 Pop Modifier 48 Population Amount := 3799 Pop Modifier 48 Production Modifier Percent := 150 Pop Modifier 48 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 150 Pop Modifier 49 Population Amount := 3899 Pop Modifier 49 Production Modifier Percent := 155 Pop Modifier 49 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 155 Pop Modifier 50 Population Amount := 3999 Pop Modifier 50 Production Modifier Percent := 160 Pop Modifier 50 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 160 Pop Modifier 51 Population Amount := 4099 Pop Modifier 51 Production Modifier Percent := 165 Pop Modifier 51 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 165 Pop Modifier 52 Population Amount := 4199 Pop Modifier 52 Production Modifier Percent := 170 Pop Modifier 52 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 170 Pop Modifier 53 Population Amount := 4299 Pop Modifier 53 Production Modifier Percent := 175 Pop Modifier 53 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 175 Pop Modifier 54 Population Amount := 4399 Pop Modifier 54 Production Modifier Percent := 180 Pop Modifier 54 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 180 Pop Modifier 55 Population Amount := 4499 Pop Modifier 55 Production Modifier Percent := 185 Pop Modifier 55 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 185 Pop Modifier 56 Population Amount := 4599 Pop Modifier 56 Production Modifier Percent := 190 Pop Modifier 56 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 190 Pop Modifier 57 Population Amount := 4699 Pop Modifier 57 Production Modifier Percent := 195 Pop Modifier 57 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 195 Pop Modifier 58 Population Amount := 4799 Pop Modifier 58 Production Modifier Percent := 200 Pop Modifier 58 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 200 Pop Modifier 59 Population Amount := 4899 Pop Modifier 59 Production Modifier Percent := 205 Pop Modifier 59 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 205 Pop Modifier 60 Population Amount := 4999 Pop Modifier 60 Production Modifier Percent := 210 Pop Modifier 60 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 210 Pop Modifier 61 Population Amount := 5099 Pop Modifier 61 Production Modifier Percent := 215 Pop Modifier 61 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 215 Pop Modifier 62 Population Amount := 5199 Pop Modifier 62 Production Modifier Percent := 220 Pop Modifier 62 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 220 Pop Modifier 63 Population Amount := 5299 Pop Modifier 63 Production Modifier Percent := 225 Pop Modifier 63 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 225 Pop Modifier 64 Population Amount := 5399 Pop Modifier 64 Production Modifier Percent := 230 Pop Modifier 64 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 230 Pop Modifier 65 Population Amount := 5499 Pop Modifier 65 Production Modifier Percent := 235 Pop Modifier 65 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 235 Pop Modifier 66 Population Amount := 5599 Pop Modifier 66 Production Modifier Percent := 240 Pop Modifier 66 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 240 Pop Modifier 67 Population Amount := 5699 Pop Modifier 67 Production Modifier Percent := 245 Pop Modifier 67 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 245 Pop Modifier 68 Population Amount := 5799 Pop Modifier 68 Production Modifier Percent := 250 Pop Modifier 68 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 250 Pop Modifier 69 Population Amount := 5899 Pop Modifier 69 Production Modifier Percent := 255 Pop Modifier 69 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 255 Pop Modifier 70 Population Amount := 5999 Pop Modifier 70 Production Modifier Percent := 260 Pop Modifier 70 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 260 Pop Modifier 71 Population Amount := 6099 Pop Modifier 71 Production Modifier Percent := 265 Pop Modifier 71 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 265 Pop Modifier 72 Population Amount := 6199 Pop Modifier 72 Production Modifier Percent := 270 Pop Modifier 72 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 270 Pop Modifier 73 Population Amount := 6299 Pop Modifier 73 Production Modifier Percent := 275 Pop Modifier 73 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 275 Pop Modifier 74 Population Amount := 6399 Pop Modifier 74 Production Modifier Percent := 280 Pop Modifier 74 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 280 Pop Modifier 75 Population Amount := 6499 Pop Modifier 75 Production Modifier Percent := 285 Pop Modifier 75 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 285 Pop Modifier 76 Population Amount := 6599 Pop Modifier 76 Production Modifier Percent := 290 Pop Modifier 76 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 290 Pop Modifier 77 Population Amount := 6699 Pop Modifier 77 Production Modifier Percent := 295 Pop Modifier 77 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 295 Pop Modifier 78 Population Amount := 6799 Pop Modifier 78 Production Modifier Percent := 300 Pop Modifier 78 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 300 Pop Modifier 79 Population Amount := 6899 Pop Modifier 79 Production Modifier Percent := 305 Pop Modifier 79 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 305 Pop Modifier 80 Population Amount := 6999 Pop Modifier 80 Production Modifier Percent := 310 Pop Modifier 80 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 310 Pop Modifier 81 Population Amount := 7099 Pop Modifier 81 Production Modifier Percent := 315 Pop Modifier 81 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 315 Pop Modifier 82 Population Amount := 7199 Pop Modifier 82 Production Modifier Percent := 320 Pop Modifier 82 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 320 Pop Modifier 83 Population Amount := 7299 Pop Modifier 83 Production Modifier Percent := 323 Pop Modifier 83 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 323 Pop Modifier 84 Population Amount := 7399 Pop Modifier 84 Production Modifier Percent := 326 Pop Modifier 84 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 326 Pop Modifier 85 Population Amount := 7499 Pop Modifier 85 Production Modifier Percent := 330 Pop Modifier 85 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 330 Pop Modifier 86 Population Amount := 7599 Pop Modifier 86 Production Modifier Percent := 333 Pop Modifier 86 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 333 Pop Modifier 87 Population Amount := 7699 Pop Modifier 87 Production Modifier Percent := 336 Pop Modifier 87 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 336 Pop Modifier 88 Population Amount := 7799 Pop Modifier 88 Production Modifier Percent := 340 Pop Modifier 88 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 340 Pop Modifier 89 Population Amount := 7899 Pop Modifier 89 Production Modifier Percent := 343 Pop Modifier 89 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 343 Pop Modifier 90 Population Amount := 7999 Pop Modifier 90 Production Modifier Percent := 346 Pop Modifier 90 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 346 Pop Modifier 91 Population Amount := 8199 Pop Modifier 91 Production Modifier Percent := 350 Pop Modifier 91 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 350 Pop Modifier 92 Population Amount := 8399 Pop Modifier 92 Production Modifier Percent := 352 Pop Modifier 92 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 352 Pop Modifier 93 Population Amount := 8599 Pop Modifier 93 Production Modifier Percent := 354 Pop Modifier 93 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 354 Pop Modifier 94 Population Amount := 8799 Pop Modifier 94 Production Modifier Percent := 356 Pop Modifier 94 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 356 Pop Modifier 95 Population Amount := 8999 Pop Modifier 95 Production Modifier Percent := 358 Pop Modifier 95 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 358 Pop Modifier 96 Population Amount := 9199 Pop Modifier 96 Production Modifier Percent := 360 Pop Modifier 96 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 360 Pop Modifier 97 Population Amount := 9399 Pop Modifier 97 Production Modifier Percent := 362 Pop Modifier 97 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 362 Pop Modifier 98 Population Amount := 9599 Pop Modifier 98 Production Modifier Percent := 364 Pop Modifier 98 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 364 Pop Modifier 99 Population Amount := 9799 Pop Modifier 99 Production Modifier Percent := 365 Pop Modifier 99 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 365 Pop Modifier 100 Population Amount := 9999 Pop Modifier 100 Production Modifier Percent := 366 Pop Modifier 100 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 366 Pop Modifier 101 Population Amount := 2000000 Pop Modifier 101 Production Modifier Percent := 500 Pop Modifier 101 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 500
Dan.
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Exponential rewards might work well in games with abbreviated tech tables like Balance Mod. 
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
I like the idea too,
but more with an finite approach to the reward.
exponential reward sounds good, at least in the beginning of a tech tree .. to the near end.
But I like a kind of endless game, with endless or near endless research posibilitis
with a more hyperbolic funtion curve which looks more like this in the end.
[url=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Tanh.png]
so you get great rewards for a quite a while which then get smaller over time ..
( this spread out over 100 or more tls like in stock with a static rising research cost )
Remember : Pillage! then burn.
- Cpt. Kaff Tagon
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Thats a good idea there Juju, but can SE5 handle such a complex equation in the components.txt ? I dont think it can use Sin and Cosine?
In my mod I added a few ((Level * Level) /2) for various things which is essentially an exponential equation, but, towards the end, things get crazy. A simple If condition could do the same thing, if it can be placed into the components text. EG, it could say something like :
BonusAmount : 5 + ((Level * Level) /2) / %A
IF [%LEVEL] => 80
%A = 100 * [(%LEVEL] - 79)
ELSE %A = 1
Or something like that Would it be possible to add something like that into the components.txt?
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Oh god, whats next? Calculus? TOO MUCH MATH IN THIS GAME!!!Q
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
its just GCSE trigonometry
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
my trigonmnometry consists of pytahgorean theorem and the types of triangles
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
that hyperbolic curve is something to do with trigonometry, but I cant really remember, school was years ago. But, if we could implement an equation like that into research, it would allow to have increasing benefits up to a point, then the research benefits would begin to fall off at the highest levels, preventing high tech weapons from being way too overpowering.
It would also allow you to have tech levels up into the 500s or more, if you felt that way inclined
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Your not playing the game right if it lasts long enough for someone to go to level 500 in anything. If you're in a game with me and are reaching level 50 then I probably quit without telling you. 
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
hmm? i like long games, ive had over 1000 tech levels starting out with nothing.
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Same here, the more techs the better I think
Vince, I have never played multiplayer, only single player
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Other players will tend to get bored after a while and start attacking at random. I call those the dumb players since they resemble the AI.
Re: Mod Idea: Exponential Rewards
Hi, I thought about diminishing returns. I thought of using it to equal out large empires with smaller ones. I thought about using the event script to do it. Basing it on the number of planets to increase the maintance cost and stating it in the log. This could also be used for research too. A government building on the planet would decrease the maintance value.
I think the REWARDS system would cause the game to become a high power weapon game only and hard to balance, but I could be wrong.
He ponders the dangers inherent in the advantages, and advantages inherent in the dangers. - Ts'ao Ts'ao
Crimson