"Colony Management"

[abidibladiduda]

I do not feel like I manage anything. I just buy all upgrades whenever I have the money and that is it. I do not have to think what to buy on which planet at all. They turn profitable immidiatly anyways.

Also there is no strategy behind colonizing planets. I just colonize all of them from the get go. (see above reason)

I hope you will add features that add actual colony management to the game.

For an early access title the game is okay but I hope it does not stay the way it is.

[Maximilian]

The problem is there is usually very little reasons to specialise worlds. So you just colonise and build everything up on it in time.

They are trying to stay away from arbitary sliders and I do agree with that. Even the most despotic empire can't just have the High Lord wake up in the morning and go "20 million farmers are scientists today". Also it makes game micro-intensive for its own sake only. As you maximise the optimal output for each slider on each world. Yeah... good gameplay....

Some 4X have started to move away from 'slider scale' logic, a colony/city is specialised by what you construct on it with trade-offs and choices made for most build decisions. You want a science world, upgrade science buildings, industry heavy worlds... likewise.

However, you are right, there is a problem with the current balance in the game. You always go for max pop, building new colonies to have more worlds that will be max pop, and when these worlds become max pop, having everything maxed out on it is the way to go. Once your economy is big enough, you can max things out on a whim.

So yeah, you need to choose when and where to colonise.. always... not just in the early game. Max pop worlds should be nice, but not the end all of success of a world, and reasons to specialise each worlds with trade-offs when you pick one over the other (jack of all trades, is a form of specialisation, but it has to come as a choice with trade-offs for doing it). Choosing what and when to build something on a colony should always be a choice you consider and have consequences for it.

Obviously, you don;t want to bog the system with micromanagement, but it needs to involve tough calls. I think FE:LH did a good job with the sliderless built what you need form of specialisation, maybe getting ideas from there for Horizon. Heck it could be something as simple as a limited number of upgrade spaces (though I would be careful, you don't want to make largre planets become the end all of everything and fall back into having the same problem we have now on those planets).

[abidibladiduda]

You do not need any sliders but having no choice at all is just boring. Why even have planets and colonies if you do not have any choice to make? It just feels like the whole aspect is forced and does not actually have any thought put into the features. Maybe there will be changes, maybe they will add something but as is the system is just boring which is the absolute no go for any game.

Maybe add a real terraforming mechanic (reasearch terraforming and then drop onto planets is just sad because it wastes a lot of potential) to planets so that there is at least something I have to think about.

[Maximilian]

Oh I agree (just wanted to make sure this wasn't about 'adding sliders'). As I said, I do agree, the economy is still 'rough' (understatement), and colony management all leads down the same path. It's generic and you end up doing everything on every world. Just upgrade buildings when you have the money and it's developed enough. Not very interesting.

Limiting 'space' or having buildings that lock out other buildings. Go heavy industry and mining, then you can't build but the most basic farms (or the maintenance on farms go way up). Only have one top tier building on a colony. Go research heavy, be unable to do something else. Some worlds will be able to do a lot of things, but they will be rare and precious (your homeworld being the one you get for free). Stuff like that, so that every choice has a consequences, thus actually making you choose something at each stage of development and each world.

[abidibladiduda]

Postat inițial de Gilleous:

Limiting 'space' or having buildings that lock out other buildings.

I really liek that idea. Also it would feel plausible if you have an industry heavy world that will lead to tourists not going there and food growing there really bad because of the pollution. The jack of all trade planets really need to go or be insanely rare.

Maybe they should swap out the 5 basic buildings so that you build the colony and then build the core building for industry, commerce, research or food and then have different upgrades for that one building while the rest stays on a very basic level.

[Raf]

You are splitting your workforce if you build everything which is fine for a generalist (main) colonies but not very efficient for secondary or specialized colonies. Definitely more work to be done here to both balance and make specializing important. We are not done yet but we have the base systems working so this stuff will get sorted.

[abidibladiduda]

Postat inițial de raf:

You are splitting your workforce if you build everything which is fine for a generalist (main) colonies but not very efficient for secondary or specialized colonies. Definitely more work to be done here to both balance and make specializing important. We are not done yet but we have the base systems working so this stuff will get sorted.

The problem is the upgrades increase the multiplier (at least I read the tooltip like that) therefore it is stupid to not upgrade everything to max because you might get more research by not upgrading your industry but in total you win almost 100% research by losing 30(?) times your base industry. The other way around it is okay because you only lose like 1/2 or 2/3 of your research value but gain almost 100% more industry. The current system does not offer any advantages if you do not upgrade your buildings.
Another example is food. If you upgrade your food building you will have less workers in food production because it gets more productive.

tl,dr
The upgrade multipliers make it most efficient to upgrade everything in every colony no matter if it is the main or any other colony. Almost 100% more research for losing 30 times your base industry value ...