Humans do not have a happiness buff. Just a +15% Espionage, +15% Research, and +1 Intelligence agent.
1st and 2nd are Quameno and Gizureans, without a doubt. Gizureans mainly because of their immortal rulers capable of training up some really huge bonuses, their insane growth rate, and their extremely high maintenance savings. 3rd, 4th, and 5th would probably be Ikkuro, Haakonish, and Ackdarian. Zenox is probably 6th or 7th, and only because of Technocracy being so OP. Considering the definition of 'mediocre', Humans being around 10th place means they fit that definition perfectly. They are neither great or crap, but rather somewhere in the middle.
As for 40% Research bonus, Ackdarians can get 35% Research and 20% maintenance savings and +20% Military ship size and a massive boost to colony construction. The thing is, Humans +15% Research and Espionage bonuses are pretty decent, but what makes humans crap is that they have absolutly no bonuses aside from that. Haakonish, Ackdarian, and Ikkuro all have a ton of secondary benefits. Humans just have Corporate Nationalism which is a giant pile of crap.
Best Race at start?
RE: Best Race at start?
I ate the batter of the bulge at Hans' Haus of Luftwaffles
RE: Best Race at start?
ORIGINAL: Nanaki
Humans do not have a happiness buff. Just a +15% Espionage, +15% Research, and +1 Intelligence agent.
1st and 2nd are Quameno and Gizureans, without a doubt. Gizureans mainly because of their immortal rulers capable of training up some really huge bonuses, their insane growth rate, and their extremely high maintenance savings. 3rd, 4th, and 5th would probably be Ikkuro, Haakonish, and Ackdarian. Zenox is probably 6th or 7th, and only because of Technocracy being so OP. Considering the definition of 'mediocre', Humans being around 10th place means they fit that definition perfectly. They are neither great or crap, but rather somewhere in the middle.
As for 40% Research bonus, Ackdarians can get 35% Research and 20% maintenance savings and +20% Military ship size and a massive boost to colony construction. The thing is, Humans +15% Research and Espionage bonuses are pretty decent, but what makes humans crap is that they have absolutly no bonuses aside from that. Haakonish, Ackdarian, and Ikkuro all have a ton of secondary benefits. Humans just have Corporate Nationalism which is a giant pile of crap.
So according to you they are neither great nor crap, but at the same time crap
Edit: on a more constructive note, I am interested in the possibilities of corporate nationalism...I think it can be made to work rather well. Probably only in a shadows start though. It would require some very unorthodox playing.
RE: Best Race at start?
EDIT: Just remembered what this thread is meant to be about. Sorry for derailing things...will start another thread.
RE: Best Race at start?
ORIGINAL: Spidey
They suffer from that -20% military ship size, though. As nice as it is to swim in money, that in itself won't matter unless you've got something worthwhile to spend it on, and Teekan ships are always going to be relatively weaker than the opposition.
I'm curious what they would do. Could massive wealth fuel vast swarming hordes of shield-bypassing fast attack ships that gut large ships like a wave of piranhas?
Someone mentioned a Q-ship strategy - arming some civilian ships enough to bear the burden of combat. Is this even possible now?
RE: Best Race at start?
ORIGINAL: Keston
Someone mentioned a Q-ship strategy - arming some civilian ships enough to bear the burden of combat. Is this even possible now?
Civilian ships can only have their tactics set to evade. They can also only carry a single weapon. So...probably not, unless you get quite creative.
Thankfully tractor beams are not considered weapons, so you can place multiples of those on civilian ships as protection.
RE: Best Race at start?
ORIGINAL: Tcby
So according to you they are neither great nor crap, but at the same time crap
Crap in comparison to the top 5 races.
Edit: on a more constructive note, I am interested in the possibilities of corporate nationalism...I think it can be made to work rather well. Probably only in a shadows start though. It would require some very unorthodox playing.
Garbage. The AI actually knows how to use corporate nationalism, in theory, just that it is really crap. I saw a human-race AI manage to kill itself, despite being 3rd place in overall power with Way of the Ancients government, by constantly switching back and forth between Way of the Ancients and Corporate Nationalism. All its colonies rebelled and it eventually lost all but 2 or 3 colonies.
I ate the batter of the bulge at Hans' Haus of Luftwaffles
RE: Best Race at start?
Your example doesn't match your claim that the AI knows how to use it...the AI killing itself via rebellion (and by switching away from way of the ancients!) shows that it doesn't know how to use the government type. It is obviously not appropriate once you have multiple colonies due to rebellion chance. In my own testing it is quite straightforward: it simply represents an opportunity to tax at 100% without the usual drawbacks, for a limited time. 2-3 years seems to be ideal.
It suits the 0% tax approach. Specifically, it is useful in the period where you briefly ramp up your tax rate in anticipation of large expenditure. The months prior to achieving hyperdrive capability (ie mass explorer purchase), wonder unlocking, or large scale military purchases are obvious examples. It also lets you quickly generate the funds for timely crash research. Early game.
Also a minor correction: the Humans do have a happiness bonus. It is in the form of the 'History of the Humans' event.
Your choice of wording is confusing me though. If something is crap because it doesn't result in a race equal to the best 5, then the humans are crap. The way we make (and phrase) value judgments differs,so I don't know whether discussions based on a value judgement are going to get us anywhere. I think there's a large divide between something being usable and it being crap.
If you want to discuss this further take it up with me in the thread I made. This isn't a thread about whether the humans are crap, it's about a good starting race. As for the question posed in this thread I already gave my answer long ago (it wasn't humans), so there's not much point me continuing this discussion here [:)]
It suits the 0% tax approach. Specifically, it is useful in the period where you briefly ramp up your tax rate in anticipation of large expenditure. The months prior to achieving hyperdrive capability (ie mass explorer purchase), wonder unlocking, or large scale military purchases are obvious examples. It also lets you quickly generate the funds for timely crash research. Early game.
Also a minor correction: the Humans do have a happiness bonus. It is in the form of the 'History of the Humans' event.
Your choice of wording is confusing me though. If something is crap because it doesn't result in a race equal to the best 5, then the humans are crap. The way we make (and phrase) value judgments differs,so I don't know whether discussions based on a value judgement are going to get us anywhere. I think there's a large divide between something being usable and it being crap.
If you want to discuss this further take it up with me in the thread I made. This isn't a thread about whether the humans are crap, it's about a good starting race. As for the question posed in this thread I already gave my answer long ago (it wasn't humans), so there's not much point me continuing this discussion here [:)]
RE: Best Race at start?
Crap in comparison. Yes, in the grand scheme of things humans are mediocre, but when we are talking about the best races in the game they are crap. It is relative.
As for the happiness bonus, you are by no means garunteed to get that event, infact, I have played humans twice (as a newbie) and I never got that event at all, and these were fairly long, multi-hundred year games. You cannot say that is a 'happiness' bonus because it is not.
As for the happiness bonus, you are by no means garunteed to get that event, infact, I have played humans twice (as a newbie) and I never got that event at all, and these were fairly long, multi-hundred year games. You cannot say that is a 'happiness' bonus because it is not.
I ate the batter of the bulge at Hans' Haus of Luftwaffles
RE: Best Race at start?
I'm still of the opinion that a good player can take just about any race and beat just about any other race.
RE: Best Race at start?
Well yeah, the AI is not exactly challenging, so that is a fairly useless statement to make. The whole point of this topic is to determine the best races.
I ate the batter of the bulge at Hans' Haus of Luftwaffles
RE: Best Race at start?
I've thought a bit about it and I'm ending up with this ranking of the races. Do note that it's assuming expensive research and a 15x15 galaxy with a pre-warp start.
1: Quameni
2: Gizureans
3: Ikkuro, Haakonish, Zenox, Ackdarians, Kiadian
4: Human, Wekkarus
5: Dhauyt, Naxxilian, Securan, Ugnari, Teekan, Boskara, Sluken
6: Ketarov
7: Mortalen
8: Shandar
9: Atuuk
Quameni and Gizureans are obvious. All that needs to be said about them has already been said in this topic.
Third tier is a fairly big group. The Ikkuro and the Haakonish both have maintenance reductions and they both start with some mean colony governors that provide quite the boost to early growth. The net effect is pretty immense. The Zenox have a maintenance reduction, technocracy for early 50% research buff, and a starting scientist, which is pretty neat and gives them a good position in the tech race. The Kiadians are about as techy, with a native 20% research bonus (+45% with demo / repub), a starting scientist, and a 5% per colony resource bonus to energy research. If they have a neighbor with a maintenance bonus then watch out galaxy. And last we have the Ackies with a solid maintenance reduction, a ship size buff, a massive build speed buff, and a 10% research bonus. What holds them back a bit is that they don't have growth bonuses and their predefined starting character is a fairly useless admiral.
Fourth tier gives us Human, with good research and espionage but held back by mediocre growth and no predefined badass character. Also fourth tier are the Wekkarus. They have good econ, a starting scientist, and a really nice racial weapon tech, but they're still likely to get out-researched by the Kiadians and Zenoz, and outgrown by the Ikkuro and Ackdarians. And so they're level with Human and behind the others.
Fifth tier is a mediocre group of races with some benefits but nothing that really makes them shine. Dhayut live and die by their racial warp drive, which is very, very good, but aside from that they've got absolutely nothing. Naxxils have arguably the best troops, solid growth, and they start with a rather strong intelligence agent, but they're also icers with no econ or research buff. Securans have amazing growth and happiness, making them early bloomers, but they don't really have lasting bonuses. Ugnari have a solid starting agent and a per colony resource bonus to high tech but also slow growth, and a pretty useless mining bonus. Sixth tier is almost too high. Teekan have tons of money but will need every penny of it to buy ships and invest in crash research. And then there's Sluken and Boskara, two solid warfare races with good growth rates. They're probably near the top of tier 5, with the Boskara well ahead of the Sluken, but at the end of the day they're still mediocre.
At tier six we've got the Ketarov. Maybe I'm being harsh on them, since they do have a really strong intelligence play, which can be used to some effect, but you don't get ahead in the tech race by stealing what other factions already have. And to make things worse, the Ketarov have fairly slow growth, a penalty to their scientist spawn chance, no econ buffs to buy crash research, and a special government that is more than a bit tricky to use constructively.
Tier seven sees the Mortalen. Top of the line troops but no tech bonus, no growth bonus, no happiness bonus, fairly slow growth, and their predefined starting character is of course a general, which isn't going to help them actually land their excellent troops on other planets.
Finally reaching the bottom, we've got the hippie lizards at tier 8 and the boneheaded teddy bears managing to score even lower. The Shandar have near-Securan happiness and much lower growth rate, making them a scaly light-version at best. The good thing is that they don't really have penalties for anything other than ocean and ice planet colonization tech, and their crap troops are only the sixth weakest in the game.
And at long last, we have the Atuuk at tier 9, a rank they deservingly capture by being a light-version of the Shandar. Why are they the worst of the worst? Because aside from good growth and happiness, they have absolutely nothing to boost them. And against them they have a -50% chance to spawn scientists, no econ bonus to pay for crash research, slower construction speed, their predefined starting leader is quite bad, and just to round things off completely, they have the second worst troops in the game.
And that's it. The definitive ranking that totally cannot be disputed by anyone who has played the game for more than a few minutes. [:)]
1: Quameni
2: Gizureans
3: Ikkuro, Haakonish, Zenox, Ackdarians, Kiadian
4: Human, Wekkarus
5: Dhauyt, Naxxilian, Securan, Ugnari, Teekan, Boskara, Sluken
6: Ketarov
7: Mortalen
8: Shandar
9: Atuuk
Quameni and Gizureans are obvious. All that needs to be said about them has already been said in this topic.
Third tier is a fairly big group. The Ikkuro and the Haakonish both have maintenance reductions and they both start with some mean colony governors that provide quite the boost to early growth. The net effect is pretty immense. The Zenox have a maintenance reduction, technocracy for early 50% research buff, and a starting scientist, which is pretty neat and gives them a good position in the tech race. The Kiadians are about as techy, with a native 20% research bonus (+45% with demo / repub), a starting scientist, and a 5% per colony resource bonus to energy research. If they have a neighbor with a maintenance bonus then watch out galaxy. And last we have the Ackies with a solid maintenance reduction, a ship size buff, a massive build speed buff, and a 10% research bonus. What holds them back a bit is that they don't have growth bonuses and their predefined starting character is a fairly useless admiral.
Fourth tier gives us Human, with good research and espionage but held back by mediocre growth and no predefined badass character. Also fourth tier are the Wekkarus. They have good econ, a starting scientist, and a really nice racial weapon tech, but they're still likely to get out-researched by the Kiadians and Zenoz, and outgrown by the Ikkuro and Ackdarians. And so they're level with Human and behind the others.
Fifth tier is a mediocre group of races with some benefits but nothing that really makes them shine. Dhayut live and die by their racial warp drive, which is very, very good, but aside from that they've got absolutely nothing. Naxxils have arguably the best troops, solid growth, and they start with a rather strong intelligence agent, but they're also icers with no econ or research buff. Securans have amazing growth and happiness, making them early bloomers, but they don't really have lasting bonuses. Ugnari have a solid starting agent and a per colony resource bonus to high tech but also slow growth, and a pretty useless mining bonus. Sixth tier is almost too high. Teekan have tons of money but will need every penny of it to buy ships and invest in crash research. And then there's Sluken and Boskara, two solid warfare races with good growth rates. They're probably near the top of tier 5, with the Boskara well ahead of the Sluken, but at the end of the day they're still mediocre.
At tier six we've got the Ketarov. Maybe I'm being harsh on them, since they do have a really strong intelligence play, which can be used to some effect, but you don't get ahead in the tech race by stealing what other factions already have. And to make things worse, the Ketarov have fairly slow growth, a penalty to their scientist spawn chance, no econ buffs to buy crash research, and a special government that is more than a bit tricky to use constructively.
Tier seven sees the Mortalen. Top of the line troops but no tech bonus, no growth bonus, no happiness bonus, fairly slow growth, and their predefined starting character is of course a general, which isn't going to help them actually land their excellent troops on other planets.
Finally reaching the bottom, we've got the hippie lizards at tier 8 and the boneheaded teddy bears managing to score even lower. The Shandar have near-Securan happiness and much lower growth rate, making them a scaly light-version at best. The good thing is that they don't really have penalties for anything other than ocean and ice planet colonization tech, and their crap troops are only the sixth weakest in the game.
And at long last, we have the Atuuk at tier 9, a rank they deservingly capture by being a light-version of the Shandar. Why are they the worst of the worst? Because aside from good growth and happiness, they have absolutely nothing to boost them. And against them they have a -50% chance to spawn scientists, no econ bonus to pay for crash research, slower construction speed, their predefined starting leader is quite bad, and just to round things off completely, they have the second worst troops in the game.
And that's it. The definitive ranking that totally cannot be disputed by anyone who has played the game for more than a few minutes. [:)]
RE: Best Race at start?
That ranking is fairly good... but I would split up 3. You have an upper Tier 3 of Ikkuro, Haakonish, Ackdarian, and a lower Tier 3 of Zenox and Kiadian. Both races run into the problem in that they are tech-focused races that are simply out-done by the Quameno. Simply put, if you want tech, you go Quameno, wheras Haakonish is probably one of the best Econ/Mil races around and Ikkuro are also very well rounded.
Also, I would split up 8. Shandar are bad but nowhere near as bad as Atuuk, as the Shandar at least have volcanic habitat, a decent wonder, and +20% spaceport armor which could be really great for pirates (IF IT WORKED, WHICH IT DOES NOT, FIX PLZ). Atuuk have absolutly nothing, crap troops, construction speed penalty, native is continental, they only have the high growth rates and a happiness bonus just above that of Zenox.
Also, I would split up 8. Shandar are bad but nowhere near as bad as Atuuk, as the Shandar at least have volcanic habitat, a decent wonder, and +20% spaceport armor which could be really great for pirates (IF IT WORKED, WHICH IT DOES NOT, FIX PLZ). Atuuk have absolutly nothing, crap troops, construction speed penalty, native is continental, they only have the high growth rates and a happiness bonus just above that of Zenox.
I ate the batter of the bulge at Hans' Haus of Luftwaffles
RE: Best Race at start?
The reason I'm not too keen to split up tier 3 is because it's really hard to weigh tech against econ / maintenance / growth.
The Ikkuro get a solid early growth rate boost from their governor, very early repair bots, great troops, a maintenance bonus, an econ bonus, cheaper colonization tech, and a construction speed boost. That's a very wide spread that adds up to a powerhouse of a faction but notice that they don't get any kind of tech bonus at all. The Gizureans, stupid bugs that they are, will likely tech faster than the Ikkuro. The Securans too, probably.
The Ackdarians get a solid maintenance bonus and a 10% research bonus as well as some construction size and speed buffs, but they don't get any growth bonus at all. Early democracy will help a bit but that cancels out the maintenance bonus. The alternative is to go crazy with the colonization, which will then give you an empire that isn't very easy to defend.
The Haakonish get a nice maintenance reduction, a bonus to spies, bigger ships, and some very lovely early growth from their starting governor, but they don't have more research speed than the Ikkuro. At best they're at a 25% bonus from repub or democracy. That's not "bad" at all, but it does mean that the three million research points needed for Gerax drives might take a little while to accumulate.
Contrast with the Zenox and the Kiadian, who are at 50% and 45% bonus to research respectively, and both always start with a scientist, which means both will break the warp barrier relatively soon. Okay, not as soon as the Quameno, but almost certainly faster than the Ackdarians and probably also faster than the Haakonish and the Ikkuro despite the growth disadvantage. They also both have the same maintenance bonus as the Ikkuro. And the Kiadians get 5% energy research bonus per colony while the Zenox have +20% happiness, meaning slightly better growth and easier taxation once you get that far.
The short version is that I just don't see a noteworthy quality gap between any of the tier 3 races. They all have some rather significant strengths and some relative weaknesses that can slow them down a bit. Or to put it differently, all five of those tier three races are closer to each other in terms of "general power" than they are to the races below them in the hierarchy.
But I do admittedly place a rather high value on research bonuses, and it's certainly possible that I'm overrating that quality. I should probably experiment a bit and see what sort of population numbers and research output I have at various intervals during the first ten years with these races. That should provide a more definitive answer as to how valuable a research bonus really is relative to the other bonuses.
Oh, and regarding tier 8, I absolutely agree that Atuuk technically deserve to drop all the way down to tier 9. It just felt so redundant to have a tier very crap and a tier very, very crap. [:)]
The Ikkuro get a solid early growth rate boost from their governor, very early repair bots, great troops, a maintenance bonus, an econ bonus, cheaper colonization tech, and a construction speed boost. That's a very wide spread that adds up to a powerhouse of a faction but notice that they don't get any kind of tech bonus at all. The Gizureans, stupid bugs that they are, will likely tech faster than the Ikkuro. The Securans too, probably.
The Ackdarians get a solid maintenance bonus and a 10% research bonus as well as some construction size and speed buffs, but they don't get any growth bonus at all. Early democracy will help a bit but that cancels out the maintenance bonus. The alternative is to go crazy with the colonization, which will then give you an empire that isn't very easy to defend.
The Haakonish get a nice maintenance reduction, a bonus to spies, bigger ships, and some very lovely early growth from their starting governor, but they don't have more research speed than the Ikkuro. At best they're at a 25% bonus from repub or democracy. That's not "bad" at all, but it does mean that the three million research points needed for Gerax drives might take a little while to accumulate.
Contrast with the Zenox and the Kiadian, who are at 50% and 45% bonus to research respectively, and both always start with a scientist, which means both will break the warp barrier relatively soon. Okay, not as soon as the Quameno, but almost certainly faster than the Ackdarians and probably also faster than the Haakonish and the Ikkuro despite the growth disadvantage. They also both have the same maintenance bonus as the Ikkuro. And the Kiadians get 5% energy research bonus per colony while the Zenox have +20% happiness, meaning slightly better growth and easier taxation once you get that far.
The short version is that I just don't see a noteworthy quality gap between any of the tier 3 races. They all have some rather significant strengths and some relative weaknesses that can slow them down a bit. Or to put it differently, all five of those tier three races are closer to each other in terms of "general power" than they are to the races below them in the hierarchy.
But I do admittedly place a rather high value on research bonuses, and it's certainly possible that I'm overrating that quality. I should probably experiment a bit and see what sort of population numbers and research output I have at various intervals during the first ten years with these races. That should provide a more definitive answer as to how valuable a research bonus really is relative to the other bonuses.
Oh, and regarding tier 8, I absolutely agree that Atuuk technically deserve to drop all the way down to tier 9. It just felt so redundant to have a tier very crap and a tier very, very crap. [:)]
RE: Best Race at start?
The problem I see with Kaidan and Zenox is that they are pretty much watered down Quameno. If you want a tech-focused race, why bother with them at all? On the other hand, The other Tier 3 races actually represent different and interesting playstyles.
I ate the batter of the bulge at Hans' Haus of Luftwaffles
RE: Best Race at start?
I agree that the Zenox largely play like watered down Quameno (though slightly less geeky), whereas the Kiadian are watered down Quameno with a twist. But even if they're quite similar to the Quameno, they're still pretty strong. And the question I based the rankings on was essentially "how easy is it to dominate a 15x15 sector galaxy with pre-warp start and 240k research cost, using this race?". In my experience, under those settings, it really is a fairly signigicant advantage to get into the warp age as soon as possible.
RE: Best Race at start?
Yes, they are still pretty strong, but you have not answered my question: Why would you ever play Zenox or Kaidian over Quameno? For all their faults, Ackdarians, Ikkuro, and Haakonish actually provide something different.
When I was testing my balance mod, I noticed that Gizureans are going to be extremely difficult to balance. The issue is that, mechanically, the combination of high pop growth, immortal leader, and extremely powerful ship maintenance bonus all come together in a really nasty way. I then read over the Gizurean's dossier and I noticed that it mentions nothing about ruler immortality, infact, it specifically mentions the Gizureans having serious internal divisions. Curious.
Previously, my balance mod was just doing number tweaks, but I am considering bigger changes.
When I was testing my balance mod, I noticed that Gizureans are going to be extremely difficult to balance. The issue is that, mechanically, the combination of high pop growth, immortal leader, and extremely powerful ship maintenance bonus all come together in a really nasty way. I then read over the Gizurean's dossier and I noticed that it mentions nothing about ruler immortality, infact, it specifically mentions the Gizureans having serious internal divisions. Curious.
Previously, my balance mod was just doing number tweaks, but I am considering bigger changes.
I ate the batter of the bulge at Hans' Haus of Luftwaffles
RE: Best Race at start?
Easy access to Megatron Z4s or Shadowghost ECM? Spidey scored based on ability, not on uniqueness.Why would you ever play Zenox or Kaidian over Quameno?
Besides, just because the Quameno are better at the research game than either the Kiadians or the Zenox does not mean that the Kiadians and Zenox should lose score in comparison to all the species you can play. If we were to create a score table that rated each species in each of several categories and then rate them by the average score over all categories in the table, the Quameno scoring higher in the same categories as the Kiadians and Zenox have their high scores in does not push the average score of the Kiadian or Zenox species down. That the Quameno scored higher in those specific categories may make you more likely to play Quameno than either Zenox or Kiadian, if that's what you're looking for, but it doesn't make the Zenox and Kiadians weaker when compared against all the species in the game. Beyond that, the Kiadian special technology is entirely superior to the regular version that everyone has; the same cannot be said for the Quameno's special reactors, which will eventually fall behind the HyperFusion Reactor in every respect aside from fuel efficiency and total research investment. I can't recall at the moment which way the Zenox shields go, in the end, though as with the Quameno reactors they represent a significant improvement over the equivalent components in the early stages of the game, once you can get to them.
RE: Best Race at start?
The "ratings" are useful and very interesting, though I'm much more interested in how they play and comparative strengths and weaknesses that create opportunities and risks than overall odds to win.
On balance - well, in many games, and history, some factions/nations may be there just to serve as color, bystanders, foils, or roadkill. Balancing efforts by tinkering with faction attributes often degrade or ruin games and tax player patience.
Balance in tournament and other competitive play is important, but I find explicit handicapping (e.g., DW victory conditions) much more acceptable for such balancing than fudging historical intentions and capabilities (whether in a universe of fact or of fiction).
On balance - well, in many games, and history, some factions/nations may be there just to serve as color, bystanders, foils, or roadkill. Balancing efforts by tinkering with faction attributes often degrade or ruin games and tax player patience.
Balance in tournament and other competitive play is important, but I find explicit handicapping (e.g., DW victory conditions) much more acceptable for such balancing than fudging historical intentions and capabilities (whether in a universe of fact or of fiction).
RE: Best Race at start?
You make an excellent point, but generally that is the dividing line between perfect balance and good enough balance. I think a number of tweaks could be made to improve balance without reducing the uniqueness of the various races. If anything, I feel that the uniqueness of races could be improved by such tweaks, as my primary complaint with, say, Quameno, Zenox, and Kaidian is that the latter two races really do not have enough differences to stand out compared to the former, and thus appear, rightly so, as watered down Quameno.
One of my ideas, for example, was to give Atuuk a 70% troop cost reduction. It probably will not do a whole lot to make them 'not crap', but at the very least when you acquire an Atuuk planet you no longer go 'Crap, useless Atuuk' but instead 'Cheap cannon fodder at least', basically tweaks that fit the racial description.
Which are not particularly hard to acquire. You would be amazed at what you could accomplish with some manual intelligence work.
Also, the fuel efficiency in Quameno reactors is quite useful even in endgame, as it essentially allows your ships to travel further and fight longer without having to go home to refuel.
One of my ideas, for example, was to give Atuuk a 70% troop cost reduction. It probably will not do a whole lot to make them 'not crap', but at the very least when you acquire an Atuuk planet you no longer go 'Crap, useless Atuuk' but instead 'Cheap cannon fodder at least', basically tweaks that fit the racial description.
Easy access to Megatron Z4s or Shadowghost ECM?
Which are not particularly hard to acquire. You would be amazed at what you could accomplish with some manual intelligence work.
Also, the fuel efficiency in Quameno reactors is quite useful even in endgame, as it essentially allows your ships to travel further and fight longer without having to go home to refuel.
I ate the batter of the bulge at Hans' Haus of Luftwaffles
RE: Best Race at start?
Looking at the Atuuk, they seem like rather lemming-like luddites who might have to rely on large numbers. I suppose their economic bonuses can translate into larger forces, but a focused discount for raising troops of their own species seems appropriate, and maybe less weight counting against transport capacity.
Does troop recruitment affect planetary population at all?.
Does troop recruitment affect planetary population at all?.