Game Balance Suggestions
Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 7:08 am
I have a few ideas for era themes, which would be interesting, but would require a lot of work..
So maybe I'll start with a few more basic ideas, that would make Q more balanced, but wouldnt need as much coding to implement.
Reduce power of USS
Important change would be making USSs less powerful.
I understand they need to give enough of a bonus to be an enticing prospect for potential customers, and I accept that players who don't pay will be at a disadvantage, but this should not be a pay-to-win game, which it is this era
Turns / Income & Gould Race Bonus
Currently we get 1080 turns per day (600 from MT and 480 natural growth)
Our income is worth approx 100 turns /day (a decent income currently is 500m = 24b per day. Farms are averaging above 3b, so would need 80 ATs to get the same naq from farming, I rounded up to 100 to make it easier)
This has been a slow change over the years, from income being one of the most important things, to almost insignificant for most people. This is a negative side effect of a different change (Inactives growth being based on TOP UP, as well as autotraining miners, which keep the inactives more juicy, and more viable, as the era progresses.)
I cant see a simple solution to making individual income more important (although I can see a more complicated solution - see below) because I would not like to reduce the growth or the income on inactive accounts, as that is the lifeblood of our income.
But another problem caused by income being less significant, is that the gould race have lost their competitive edge. If we use my figures from above, where we generate 1080 turns per day, and income is only worth 100 turns, gould are gaining an extra 20 turns per day. Which is a bit crap.
I would suggest changing their race bonus from +20% income, to +10% turn generation.
So a Gould would get 1,128 turns per day (600 + 528) which is 48 more than everyone else, and would be just over doubling their current effective bonus.
This would make them more of an option when trying to decide which race would be the best to choose if you were trying to win the era. Perhaps it would become less dominated by Replicators, although, Repli may still have the edge, even with a change like this.
Unit Production Link
Another change, that would improve things (imo) would be to completely remove the link between top UP and the cost of UP.
I know you have just fixed it, and made it actually work how it should, so taking it out would probably make you sad xP But I think it is unnecessary for the game as it is now. It was originally introduced as a way of limiting the power of feeding, or at least slightly leveling the field for everyone else.
But it currently promotes passive play. Waiting for others to push up the Top UP, so you can benefit from the discount. This is a particular advantage to those with big banks (like me). But I would still like to see it removed.
Mercs
I think mercenarys should just be removed. They dont serve any real purpose, except at the end of the era, when one person buys all of them and gains a small advantage when it comes to their attack and defense cost.
Thats it (for now) of the simple changes ^^
but have 1 more compicated idea to go with it
Refine Income
Naquadah can be "refined" to create more of it. But it is a very new process, and can only be done when the naquadah is freshly mined. Once the naq has been banked, or mixed with naq stolen from other players the refinement becomes completely ineffectual.
Mechanically, there would have to be a button (maybe on the banking page or base page?) that when pressed multiplies the players current naq by the refinement multiplier
The refinement multiplier could be a set value (I like x5) or it could be a a variable (say a new tech) that can be upgraded.
As far as coding goes, the "refinement button" would need to keep track of when the player attacks, and banks. So that it only refines if all the naq on hand is player generated income. Could do this by say toggling to "NO" when;
the player attacks
uses the bank
sells weapons
uses the market
buys a supporter function
presses the refinement button
(any other way that can affect the naq on hand?).
The "refine button" would only toggle back to "YES" when the players naq on hand is 0.
That way when the player comes to press the "refinement button" it would do nothing if set to "NO". And would only be functional when the naq held by the player is entirely their own income.
Like I said, more complex code wise, but not impossible =)
This would make income much more valuable, but would not increase, or decrease the value of the inactive farms. It would also make farming active players have a more profound effect (you dont get more naq, but they effectively lose 5x of what you take).
Right, thats enough for now, but I'm sure I can think of more things if you dont like these ^^
So maybe I'll start with a few more basic ideas, that would make Q more balanced, but wouldnt need as much coding to implement.
Reduce power of USS
Important change would be making USSs less powerful.
I understand they need to give enough of a bonus to be an enticing prospect for potential customers, and I accept that players who don't pay will be at a disadvantage, but this should not be a pay-to-win game, which it is this era
Turns / Income & Gould Race Bonus
Currently we get 1080 turns per day (600 from MT and 480 natural growth)
Our income is worth approx 100 turns /day (a decent income currently is 500m = 24b per day. Farms are averaging above 3b, so would need 80 ATs to get the same naq from farming, I rounded up to 100 to make it easier)
This has been a slow change over the years, from income being one of the most important things, to almost insignificant for most people. This is a negative side effect of a different change (Inactives growth being based on TOP UP, as well as autotraining miners, which keep the inactives more juicy, and more viable, as the era progresses.)
I cant see a simple solution to making individual income more important (although I can see a more complicated solution - see below) because I would not like to reduce the growth or the income on inactive accounts, as that is the lifeblood of our income.
But another problem caused by income being less significant, is that the gould race have lost their competitive edge. If we use my figures from above, where we generate 1080 turns per day, and income is only worth 100 turns, gould are gaining an extra 20 turns per day. Which is a bit crap.
I would suggest changing their race bonus from +20% income, to +10% turn generation.
So a Gould would get 1,128 turns per day (600 + 528) which is 48 more than everyone else, and would be just over doubling their current effective bonus.
This would make them more of an option when trying to decide which race would be the best to choose if you were trying to win the era. Perhaps it would become less dominated by Replicators, although, Repli may still have the edge, even with a change like this.
Unit Production Link
Another change, that would improve things (imo) would be to completely remove the link between top UP and the cost of UP.
I know you have just fixed it, and made it actually work how it should, so taking it out would probably make you sad xP But I think it is unnecessary for the game as it is now. It was originally introduced as a way of limiting the power of feeding, or at least slightly leveling the field for everyone else.
But it currently promotes passive play. Waiting for others to push up the Top UP, so you can benefit from the discount. This is a particular advantage to those with big banks (like me). But I would still like to see it removed.
Mercs
I think mercenarys should just be removed. They dont serve any real purpose, except at the end of the era, when one person buys all of them and gains a small advantage when it comes to their attack and defense cost.
Thats it (for now) of the simple changes ^^
but have 1 more compicated idea to go with it
Refine Income
Naquadah can be "refined" to create more of it. But it is a very new process, and can only be done when the naquadah is freshly mined. Once the naq has been banked, or mixed with naq stolen from other players the refinement becomes completely ineffectual.
Mechanically, there would have to be a button (maybe on the banking page or base page?) that when pressed multiplies the players current naq by the refinement multiplier
The refinement multiplier could be a set value (I like x5) or it could be a a variable (say a new tech) that can be upgraded.
As far as coding goes, the "refinement button" would need to keep track of when the player attacks, and banks. So that it only refines if all the naq on hand is player generated income. Could do this by say toggling to "NO" when;
the player attacks
uses the bank
sells weapons
uses the market
buys a supporter function
presses the refinement button
(any other way that can affect the naq on hand?).
The "refine button" would only toggle back to "YES" when the players naq on hand is 0.
That way when the player comes to press the "refinement button" it would do nothing if set to "NO". And would only be functional when the naq held by the player is entirely their own income.
Like I said, more complex code wise, but not impossible =)
This would make income much more valuable, but would not increase, or decrease the value of the inactive farms. It would also make farming active players have a more profound effect (you dont get more naq, but they effectively lose 5x of what you take).
Right, thats enough for now, but I'm sure I can think of more things if you dont like these ^^