My anomaly experiences with 2.14 beta may be different than some others'. Playing a Genius level Gigantic Spiral vs 15 AI's with anomalies set to common and I see considerably less than in earlier versions. I also see AI survey ships taking them sometimes.
I have Precursor Relic Frequency set to abundant. Does this affect the frequency of those nice well defended spinning anomalies that give you credits and bonuses? I've taken 2 so far and there's a 3rd I've seen, but not close to my current war so it will have to wait.
Some observations and mostly positive as Crusade is improving now towards the great game we expect it will be.
1) The Lost Worlds colonization events are working and enhance and diversify this game!
2) Great to see multiple AI's at war with multiple AI's and it is only T99. Not all AI's are at war but quite a few are.
2a) Wanting a new hoped for victim I DOW'ed the Krynn several turns back noting that they were at war with several AI's and had the top score. From what I could see with scout ships, they were able to win battles vs others. I soon took 2 Krynn planets but am not really close to their home system yet. The Krynn fleet had a transport with it and all set to take Earth and Mars but they made peace and hopefully (for the sake of a good game) are coming after me or some of their other enemies.
3) The Malevolent traits to improve moral have been really nerfed. It costs 250 production for an Intimidation Center that now only provide 0.1 IP/turn and is only a 20% moral boost. This seems not worth it even on my homeworld. Eager used to give 1.0 moral per planet conquered. That may have been too much now, but the nerf to 0.1 is overdone, IMO. Death Furnaces used to provide 1 IP/turn but that has been nerfed to 0.3 and the building only adds +10% RP now.
3a) I'd undo some of the above as follows: 1) Intimidation C stays the same but cost is reduced to a still major early project level of 75 prod. 2) Eager should give 0.2 or 0.3 moral boost per planet conquered. 3) Death Furnaces should again provide 1.0 IP/t noting that you can only build one of them.
4) I haven't tried to do any fancy manipulation of trades with the AI's as some players have so I can't comment on whether that was fixed.
I was about to put this game on the back burner for a couple of months until it improved further, but 2.14 has improved it back to the fun and challenging level.
