National Profile - thoughts and opinions?

[mroyer]

National profiles come in three groups of three (as most of us well know).

In your opinion, is it
(a) better to balance the three elements within each profile group, or
(b) drive one element as high as possible to the detriment of the other two elements of the group?

Why?

-Mark R.

[springel]

You get no bonuses from a neutral stance, there is no penalty for a low profile, and there is profit in a high profile.

Except from some extremist leaders, but also in an equilibrium you will be hurt just as much by decisions that penalize differences, not absolute values.

So a dominant profile is better.

[Maerchen]

I always go for 80+ in mind.

Breakthrough now! is a 5 PP national strat card that discovers one unknown tech, delivered by any faction with a high relation. You can get multiple in one round from different, sufficient happy factions.

[eddieballgame]

I push in the profiles I choose, initially.
Then I will sometimes push in the direction my a**hole council members prefer.
All depends on how badly I am loosing to the opposition...or my council. [:)]

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: mroyer

National profiles come in three groups of three (as most of us well know).

In your opinion, is it
(a) better to balance the three elements within each profile group, or
(b) drive one element as high as possible to the detriment of the other two elements of the group?

Why?

-Mark R.

a) Nope.
Notice the Arrows - those are how one profile supresses the other. If any pair of them is over 100, they both get reduced until they are at 100. With the supressed profile (arrow target) loosing a lot more and quicker.
So nothing better then a 30/30/40 is possible - and getting that is hard work with little payoff.

b) There is no way to get things of value unless you focus on one profile in each profile group.
Geneally I try to decide wich profiles I will be going for before gamestart, when setting up my Empires History (and thus changes to the profiles).
But I may have to adapt this plan to my factions. I can keep one faction reasonably happy if they like a profile supressed by my chosen - any increasse will be eaten by my primary profile.

[newageofpower]

ORIGINAL: zgrssd
a) Nope.
Notice the Arrows - those are how one profile supresses the other. If any pair of them is over 100, they both get reduced until they are at 100. With the supressed profile (arrow target) loosing a lot more and quicker.
So nothing better then a 30/30/40 is possible - and getting that is hard work with little payoff.

Technically, 4X/4X/5Y (where X+Y=10, i.e. 45 Fist 55 Mind 45 Heart) is a possible stable configuration, yielding 7 regime feats compared to the 6 of a single line, but in reality it's absurdly hard to do.

Then there's the absurdity of trying to switch dominant regime profiles while maintaining the existing regime scores high enough to avoid losing the depressed feats.

Finally, the higher tier regime feats are stronger than lower tier feats, so 6 from a focusing single line usually offers significantly more muscle than 7 spread out evenly.