| CA Balance |
Wed, 10 December 2003 12:55  |
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 boneandrew |
 | Crewman 1st Class |
Messages: 35
Registered: June 2003
Location: Detroit | |
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With the common knowledge that the CA trait is rather powerful compared to others, I had this idea that may balance it without changing race creation points in the RD wizard: CAs have claim adjusters that terraform for free; force them to build these things instead of just having the automatic terraform interent to the race. Take away automatic terraform.
They will still be able to terraform quickly, especially after they get a decent fleet of terraformers with good engines built, but that'll slow down the initial expansion advantage they get from the completely free terraforming.
Any thoughts?
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| Re: CA Balance |
Mon, 05 January 2004 11:37  |
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| Steve1 |
 | Officer Cadet 2nd Year |
Messages: 240
Registered: January 2003
Location: Australia | |
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I'm not so sure that announcing a CA's HW at the start would be such a big deal. Any close neighbours should be able to discover the HW by standard scouting anyhow (unless you by default play the hostile neighbour routine and shoot down all scouts that enter your territory).
As for NRSE; lots of people choose that in conjunction with IFE so that's no drama. You could ban a CA from choosing IFE as an added measure, but unless you penalise them in some other way on top of that, they might still be tough to beat.
[Updated on: Mon, 05 January 2004 11:38] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: CA Balance |
Mon, 05 January 2004 22:28 |
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| mlaub |
 | Lieutenant |
Messages: 744
Registered: November 2003
Location: MN, USA | |
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| Quote: |
I wonder if anyone can create a monster CA with the following handicaps:
Can take no IFE or ISB
Must take MA and NRSE AND set Propulsion to Expensive.
That should take away the early expansion advantages of a CA. 
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Except for the MA, I won a game <easily> using a CA TT w/IFE and expensive prop. In retrospect, I think I could have had better results without IFE and w/NRSE. (the first and last time I played a CA, just see if they were actually as powerful as I have always claimed. Game ended 2499, I had 313K/3600 cap ships/at war from Y20+/it was a advanced player game/I took 1 ally, and regretted it, as I could have killed him and had his planets also.).
I just looked up the race design I used vs a redesign based on your thoughts, and I could easily make it work (hmmm...). I could change my original 1 in 12 starting hab to a 1 in 6 at best, <if> I spent the bonus bucks all in hab... Meaning, I'd have <alot> more initially green planets within a specified radius, therefore reducing the need to have IFE. I think this would work quite well. As to the MA, I'd just drop the mine eff I had, down by 1 notch, something I was going to do anyway. 
-Matt
Tip - Cheap Con + running to lvl 8 immediately, allows for 3 things. LG freighters, SFX's, and frigate boosters. Used correctly, you can boot strap your way to glory, albeit with work.
Global Warming - A climatic change eagerly awaited by most Minnesotans.
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| Re: CA Balance |
Tue, 06 January 2004 02:01 |
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| Sotek |
 | Chief Warrant Officer 2 |
Messages: 167
Registered: November 2002 | |
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Most of the force multipliers, unfortunately, are just as accessible to the CA.
The SD has advantages, but a slow steady attack will stop him well enough; his exploding minefields are nasty, but if you sweep them before letting anything important (like chaff) get in them, they're relatively harmless.
IT, well, he can group. But if your initial fleet is larger than his entire fleet+next two years of building, he's rather screwed.
JoAT? No. JoAT is pure econ.
IS? No. You can slow, but your advantages are largely econ, again.
SS? Okay, but if the CA throws enough scanning frigates etcetra out there, you're still going to get found, and SS's other difficulties have been gone over more than enough times.
AR? Please don't make me laugh.
HE? HE has problems.
WM? Well, you have a slight gain to make up for your disadvantages, and dreadnaughts are nasty, but that's still not a huge multiplier.
PP? Has flaws, ALA SS's, plus you'll run out of minerals too quickly to dent his economy severely, since packets are horribly ineffective at killing, and your terraforming advantages don't exist against him.
And then you come to good designs, chaff, and so on and so on.
All of which, of course, the CA can replicate.
CA is *not* balanced.
CA versus a single non-CA, with two players of equal skill, the CA will win, and will win handily.
In real games, it's somewhat messier, because of differing skill levels, and the fact that CA tends to provoke a very severe "Dogpile the monster" mentality.
Beating a CA whose player is not as good as you is doable, although far harder than beating them were they using a non-CA PRT would be.
But CA is easily the most powerful PRT, by and large.
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| Re: CA Balance |
Tue, 06 January 2004 17:39 |
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Of course...just like in a regular game, No one is impressed when you tell them you won a duel with CA.
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. as far as making CA's take those expensive LRTs, UR can be quite usefull, remember that. Instead of UR have em take NRSE, this MAY give em points but its real trouble, limited to low warps early on and no scoops it can cause fuel problems.
Re: CA Balance
Re: CA Balance