Edit: Ron Lugge's response.
Not really. Since the three races are distinct from one another, rather than sharing an identical "tech tree" as in GC2, balance becomes exponentially harder with each addition to the system. Giving the players the ability to modify would be very nasty to balance.
Lets look at a small example for why by examining a weapons / armor situation...
I don't know how armor actually works in-game, but lets just assume that armor subtracts a flat number from an incoming enemy attack. If you need to increase the armor value for some reason, then to maintain the existing balance you could just increase the damage "across the board" by the same amount. Easy.
Except... armor isn't a constant, its a variable (due to upgrades). Which means that at lower levels, you're doing (percentage wise) a larger amount of damage. Which totally ignores the fact that smaller vessels just got a much larger (percentage) boost to their damage, which is really important because (I think) shields don't get that armor reduction.
Ok, so lets strengthen shields! But wait, no antimatter abilities that drain or restore shields have had their balance shifted... maybe tweak them... now we need to tweak this...
Now imagine if you let the player interfere with this rather delicate system. Ooooh, headaches ensue.
But I don't see 100 plus planets even on large...what gives?
That used to be available under "custom galaxy" options, temporarily disabled due to issues with the upcoming multiplayer beta.
Capital ships don't feel very powerful and the Marza and Kol seems pitiful especially given that they are the most powerful ones. There doesn't seem to be huge differences between the cap ships yet.
Um... capitol ships are massively powerful, compared to frigates and cruisers, and they grow more so at higher levels! Also, there
is a
huge difference between capitol ships. The Kol is a great front-liner, while the Soza (carrier) is very good at standing back (its embargo ability is
really nasty when you're in a nodal enemy system, cutting off their trade).
given the effort surely we could get rewards?
Sure -- just make sure they go after your enemies, and you get to watch your enemies forces dwindle and fall.
I can't seem to work out where a planet's is most strongly influenced by which is annoying when I invade several planet orbits and then I can't colonise with my Akkan!!! It would be good to have the strongest culture have a thicker line on the phase jump.
Its not a matter of who's culture is strongest, its just that you can't colonize if an enemy culture is so strong as to auto-flip. Just wait a little while and you can colonize, and you'll see that the planet is threatening to revolt to the other side -- you have to build broadcast centers fast to keep it.
Diplomacy seems a bit weak with 3 choices (pacts etc)...option to expand?
Dev's are working on it.
Could we get more variation in types?
Thats incoming in later versions.
