I do agree that the specialties need to be balanced as well as possibly reworking the ship balance. One thing i see these prices affecting is the pace of the game. As we are only days or so into server life its hard to tell the long term effect. One example ill use actually happened today. It actually involved jetjaguar, no hard feelings buddy! So I was bored today and took a fresh group of destroyers out for a stroll. We are on ningal i belive, only a few days old. Very few of well anything yet. I started taking a few of jets outposts and came across his fresh colony. Im talking 7mu people fresh. I hadnt seenthat it was a colony and just auto attacked it and lost, but just by a hair by my figures. Well i spent the rest oft he night racing trying to get a fresh fleet built and across the sector to claim this colony before it outgrew my attack ability and fleet size. In the end I did not manage to take the colony! Oh but what an afternoon, nailbiting race to the line. If these new costs were put in I do not see any ability to catch up with colony growth before it becomes too big and part of the end game. I like the slowed growth of colonies as they sit now but these changes will effect that portion of the game.