09-18-2018, 08:53 AM
I've thought about this some more overnight. I have a simple idea which might help keep the best of both systems, while finding a use for Mass Media. Not sure yet.
What a new player finds obnoxious about the current system is the loyalty wall - a simple expanse of time which locks him out of the most fun game features, which he can do nothing to accelerate. So let's eliminate that, as you suggest: if you find a resource, you can use it.
What a middle-game or late-game player likes about the system is that your empire's experience and know-how can improve the quality of resources you find in the field, and they've been waiting a long time for this reward. It lets a large empire cut down on the logistical bloat, and it lets a middling empire run a potent manufacturing sector just off their home system and neighbours. My suggestion:
Eliminate operational Q except for one building: Mass Media. Mass Media is renamed "Quality Control" (I would have called it "Refinery" but that's taken). If Quality Control is built in a city, it averages up that city's resource output, the way buildings do now. If it's lower, it does nothing. So no more wall, but benefits kept. It also adds an incentive to build cities rather than morale-defying independent buildings - currently, there is no incentive.
You could reduce the volume of resource output, I suppose, if it's affected by this building (you could add controls to exempt certain resources). Otherwise it's slightly odd that Q254 and Q255 have absolutely no functional difference. But I don't insist on this.
The Quality Control can be bettered in an active way: maybe by throwing money at it, the way we did with old TL. An empire that does the core 4X stuff will have money to burn: and nowadays, if you can afford to spend $1 billion every ten seconds, you could just throw a million workers at the research and finish it in a few hours. Or, it could be module based: a QC module which, like spaceships, inherits the quality of its parts. It could use mid-tier resources like electronic parts. Obtain one from some future quest system, or from a friendly empire, or by feeding in salvaged tech from enemy ships, and you're set to make more. The details could be worked out later. Existing empires would simply keep the current Q of their Mass Media, which will soon be at max.
Any good?
What a new player finds obnoxious about the current system is the loyalty wall - a simple expanse of time which locks him out of the most fun game features, which he can do nothing to accelerate. So let's eliminate that, as you suggest: if you find a resource, you can use it.
What a middle-game or late-game player likes about the system is that your empire's experience and know-how can improve the quality of resources you find in the field, and they've been waiting a long time for this reward. It lets a large empire cut down on the logistical bloat, and it lets a middling empire run a potent manufacturing sector just off their home system and neighbours. My suggestion:
Eliminate operational Q except for one building: Mass Media. Mass Media is renamed "Quality Control" (I would have called it "Refinery" but that's taken). If Quality Control is built in a city, it averages up that city's resource output, the way buildings do now. If it's lower, it does nothing. So no more wall, but benefits kept. It also adds an incentive to build cities rather than morale-defying independent buildings - currently, there is no incentive.
You could reduce the volume of resource output, I suppose, if it's affected by this building (you could add controls to exempt certain resources). Otherwise it's slightly odd that Q254 and Q255 have absolutely no functional difference. But I don't insist on this.
The Quality Control can be bettered in an active way: maybe by throwing money at it, the way we did with old TL. An empire that does the core 4X stuff will have money to burn: and nowadays, if you can afford to spend $1 billion every ten seconds, you could just throw a million workers at the research and finish it in a few hours. Or, it could be module based: a QC module which, like spaceships, inherits the quality of its parts. It could use mid-tier resources like electronic parts. Obtain one from some future quest system, or from a friendly empire, or by feeding in salvaged tech from enemy ships, and you're set to make more. The details could be worked out later. Existing empires would simply keep the current Q of their Mass Media, which will soon be at max.
Any good?