Faction specific technologies

[huckleberry]

I have been enjoying the recent updates and can’t wait until we can mix and match syndicates and houses, but I have to admit I am a little confused by some of the faction specific technologies and upgrades. I would love to hear other’s opinions about them.

1) Political events: when you run these are they effective for all faction relations, or only the relations of the specific faction that has that technology? Based on the festivals and what not I would believe it would be across all factions, but if so some seem overpowered. The one I am curious about is rychert’s ability to end spy wars. We now have an event available to everyone that also does this, but costs more, has a lower success chance and requires significantly more research. I have wanted to test it, but so far haven’t had an opportunity where I have a spy war between the other two syndicates and the technology.

2) New structures balance: The De Valtos trade hall in particular seems like a useless building and is very expensive spice den, (5 ent,1RP). Are there hidden bonuses with palace type buildings that would justify the extra cost? (I seem to have less spy wars once I build palaces, but always assumed that was from the extra EP). The Thulun one also seems to add 7 defense at the loss of other palace bonuses. When I first looked at these I assumed they were enhancements of the current palace, but they seem to be standalone buildings.  

Over all I love the faction techs allowing for more specialization and some unique structures at certain colonies. Also having some factions research tree better than other makes sense to providing some balance to the starting bonuses. But having expensive versions of common buildings in De valtos and Thulun in particular make me put those trees as low reasearch priorities.

[Cory Trese]

1) Faction sponsored political events (Treaties) can impact any Faction in the game. Rychart can negotiate the end of a Spy War between Cadar and Thulun, for example. Likewise, Steel Song can end an Assassin's Duel between Song and Cadar, or De Valtos and Jatat.

2) They are standalone buildings. I will work on the balance, but the intention is that they provide additional unique features (for example, boosting festivals and political events) in addition to providing more core upgrade options.

Thanks for the feedback, I will do some more research. Several people have e-mailed praising the value of the Thulun tree, so I'll try to figure out where the disconnect is and look at better sharing how the Trade Hall works.

[huckleberry]

thanks Cory,

Yes maybe I mispoke when I discounted the whole tech tree because of the buildings, since the other benefits are good. What really caught my eye was the De Valtos building having the exact same benefits of a spice den1 at a much higher cost and upkeep. I think most of the faction techs are probably better than regular tree for the RP needed, but that tends to be balanced by the location limitations.  And I  maybe misreading things, sometimes it is hard to keep track or calculate what each building adds after being completed.

[warhog]

my vote goes to high cost/low maintenance/0 quality
so it would be an expansion to the faction palace, and with the higher cost would be a way to squeeze a little more from your maxed colonies in middle game

edit: oh if they give an additional benefit we don't see yet then add 1 quality ofc

[Deleted]

I think the cadar core upgrades are too weak. For $40/turn, de valtos gives 5TP, leading to a nice profit, plus 5 entertainment and 1RP. Rychard doesn't give any profit, but gives THREE RP and EP. Cadar only gives ONE population and ONE research for the same $40/turn price. Prehaps it would be more balanced to give cadar +2/+2, or +3/+2, or +2/+3 in terms of population and research. Or give larger defense bonuses to both.

[vylox]

Nov 17, 2014 14:34:50 GMT -5 @starfixer said:

I think the cadar core upgrades are too weak. For $40/turn, de valtos gives 5TP, leading to a nice profit, plus 5 entertainment and 1RP. Rychard doesn't give any profit, but gives THREE RP and EP. Cadar only gives ONE population and ONE research for the same $40/turn price. Prehaps it would be more balanced to give cadar +2/+2, or +3/+2, or +2/+3 in terms of population and research. Or give larger defense bonuses to both.

The second Military Academy provides 2 population, 2 research, 7defense and 3 espionage... 
They are actually well balanced against each other for ehat they provide. +1 population space in and of itself is a powerful upgrade all by itself, especially if you consider the research it takes to reach better upgrades. Also note. The Devaltos +TP bonus can actually be reduced to a 0 income due to politics, and the espionage bonus from Rychart is only useful if you are pushing through a lot of treaties(meaning that if you have no treaties in progress itbecomes wasted, and if you only have 1 treaty in progress at any given time, you will waste those EP every single time a treaty is finished.)

While it maintains an appearance of being a weak upgrade, it is actually pretty nice to have, especially for a faction that generates a lot of idle CP, which is guaranteed income that can not be affected by the political situation(s) that can and often arise.