Character balance?

[Leedot]

Jet - I wasn't trying to say that we're giving up on making costs reasonable. In the previous sheet the high end ships are dramatically cheaper then they currently are in the game. When I was working through those numbers I was more focused on the high end and keeping the costs proportional which left the low end winding up higher than it was previously. I've since pulled everything down proportionately so it's closer to the games current numbers on the low end since you're definitely right in saying that making the early game units cost more would slow the game down.

I think where we differ is I think the Trader's near monopoly on RO is an issue that needs to be resolved separately (even if it's integrated into the game at the same time) so I'm more focused on having the RO costs be in balance with the full RO output of a planet than the 0-27% output non traders tend to have access to.

Yoda - That's a good thought, if nothing else I think shifting away from Trader's having vastly superior access to RO is the way to go. It's something that needs a bit more internal discussion but I think it should be doable.

[Royce]

I think where we differ is I think the Trader's near monopoly on RO is an issue that needs to be resolved separately (even if it's integrated into the game at the same time) so I'm more focused on having the RO costs be in balance with the full RO output of a planet than the 0-27% output non traders tend to have access to.

I don't know why you would focus on putting costs in balance with RO wealth available to 1/3 of players. If you mean you want to focus on balancing costs for maximum possible wealth, okay (though focusing on average would make more sense to me), but you'd better fix the RO imbalance before increasing RO costs. An even bigger issue than the 27% vs 100% difference IMO is the 0% that non-traders start with, and the snail's pace at which it increases. Charging RO for cruisers will prevent non-traders from having access to any useful ships for quite a while from the start of the game, and I believe will prevent non-traders from being able to get a foothold in the universe at all.

[Leedot]

I don't know why you would focus on putting costs in balance with RO wealth available to 1/3 of players.

That's my focus because I'd like to see -all- the players have access to that kind of RO wealth one way or the other.