Farming planetary tech installations is an exploit?

[rustyj]

At the moment, it is quite easy to farm planetary tech installations to dramatically boost research by conquering the planet a faction has based its tech installations on, then waiting for the faction to rebuild these installations on another planet and conquering that planet and so on... I know it's a bit hit and miss as to what installations survive the invasion, but over time these add up. If you are doing the same to other factions, research can pile up quickly. I regularly have 100,000+ research. When you start applying this to infinite research, your fleets very quickly become invulnerable.

While I enjoy the idea of my fleets beating up everyone in the galaxy, it does seem like a bit of an exploit. I can see that in some cases the mechanic serves a purpose, but maybe there should be some limits set?

[fruitgnome]

It's a single player game then don't use this exploit.

[Jorgen_CAB]

It's a single player game then don't use this exploit.

Sure, i would not exploit it either... but I think the game should not allow this. When you conquer a planet with a building you already possess that you only can have one of the building should automatically get destroyed. I think that would be the healthiest way for the game to make sure game balance is consistent.

[MaximKI]

Do you mind uploading a save(s) showing this exploit in action + steps to reproduce from said saves?

[rustyj]

Do you mind uploading a save(s) showing this exploit in action + steps to reproduce from said saves?

Here is link to save: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dv4usA ... drive_link

Just go round conquering planets with installations.

In the save I provided, I have 3-4 of same installations, without deliberately chasing them. It is fairly early in the conquest phase. The point is you can accumulate these installations in the normal course of conquest of a large faction. I have in the past got as many as 10+ of each installation from conquering multiple large factions. Mid to late game, the factions can quickly rebuild them.

Mind you, it may not be an issue that leads to imbalance. I already had an insurmountable lead in research at 65+, prior to the first lot of captured installations, so relatively speaking the new installations did not give me an unfair advantage. I only begin conquest of a large faction when my fleets are relatively invincible and this usually infers very high research especially infinite research.

I haven't tried a scenario where captured installations shift the balance to my advantage, but I think it is an interesting challenge and one that should possibly remain in the game.

[iancmtaylor]

I think that the best solution is to make it so when you acquire a 'one per empire' facility, by any means, the game checks to make sure there isn't another. Currently the only check is to stop you from building another one.

It should be that if you acquire another, this check is made, and the new one is destroyed.