Attack/Defense starting bonuses worthless?

from Stardock Forums
Is anyone getting a lot of use out of these? The problem is that GC rounds everything down, so even the 30% bonus isn't useful until you get a ship with at 4 points in the given stat. Admittedly, once you add shields on and everything, you'll eventually see an effect, but the 10% bonus (1 point for every 10 natural?) seems bloody worthless.

I really do hate having percentage bonuses given such small stat numbers. If stats were all on the scale of 1-150, say, so that your survey ship started out with a 20 defense instead of 2, the bonuses might seem reasonably effective. As it is, it's basically tossing your starting points away for many turns.

~SDC~
153 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
True, but you'll find them quite useful later in the game, especially when added to the bonuses you'll pick up in-game. :)

- Ash

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I dunno if I'd say "quite useful". The +10% attack bonus adds 1 point to a dreadnaught. It doesn't add (or contribute) a point to -anything- until the dreadnaught. I realize the +10% attack bonus isn't terribly expensive, but the +20% and +30% ones doesn't kick in until battlecruiser, at which time they also add 1 point. The possible exception to this is if the "half of defense" bonus is added in previous to the percentage calculation, at which point a battleaxe will see the +20/+30% bonuses if attacked.

Now, compare the effects of these to a planet quality bonus or a morale bonus. I'd say they're pretty darned underpowered. The fact is that the smaller the range of a stat, the more you're screwed by the GalCiv integers round-down philosophy, and ATT/DEF are very small stats indeed.

~SDC~
Offworld Trading Company