Serious issues with Resource points. Do they work?
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I've noticed in many of my games that developing morale and econ resource points don't seem to have any effect on my worlds. So, using the cheat codes, I decided to test them.
test setup
one world - Sol, full tech researched other than final frontier using shift control S.
1. Research resourcce points
baseline - 60% empire bonus
(base research bonus with full tech tree developed is 60 percent.)
earth population 2728 produces 6+2 research.
with added 68% resource bonus - total 128% empire bonus, same population produces 12+12 research points. Notice resource bonus points are added directly to each world and you have to pay for some of them. I didn't expect that result as I assumed the empire wide modifier was applied after all the research for your empire was totaled. ie, the empire bonus was free research which it obviously isn't. It IS mostly free, but something to watch out for if your budget is tight.
2. Morale resource points
base morale bonus is 90 %. Earth population 2884, morale 74
I added 1 constructor to develop the morale resource point (+5 % morale). next turn, earth population 3043 morale 72.
Added all additional modules to max out the resource point bonus at 68% totale 158% empire bonus. Next turn, Earth population 3208 morale 66.
This one is pretty clear. It's broken and doesn't do anything for you. Waste of time other than denying the resource to the AI's who don't need it anyway since they can afford to develop all morale boosters and do so whether they need them or not.
3. Economic resource Points
Base econ is 10%. Taxes received with population 4152 on Earth is 18bc.
With Econ 78%, same population produces 22bc.
While this works, it only works as long as your taxes recieved is lower than the PQx4 cap. Once you hit the cap, you get ZERO benefit from the econ resource. Case in point, in a well developed game, I had 116% econ (2 partially developed econ resources) with a tax income of 2542. Adding an additional 42% econ resulted in a tax increase to 2574 next turn, which was probably the result of popualtion growth rather than the development of the resource point. Since most economic social projects have 0 or at most 1bc maintenance cost, this one essentially is a waste except for the few worlds you will have in the early stages of development.
4. Military resource points
Base attack/defense/hps was 120%/60%. Battleship created with Ctrl B had attack value of 19, defense of 6.
Developing the military resource point gave a 188%/128% overall empire bonus. This resulted in the same battleship having an attack value of 26 and a defense of 9. This one works very well
5. Influence resource points
I didn't test this one. Mostly because my overall impression is it's working and I would want to use a more developed world than was convienient for the test.
In conclusion, the only truly broken resource point seems to be the morale one, but I'd like to see the econ resource points fixed as well so that they are more useful to the human player in the mid and late game. Note that because the AI gets tremendous econ limits at maso level (on the order of 10x PQ), they get a MUCH bigger benefit from having econ resource points than the human player. I must admit that the 10xPQ AI limit kinda annoys me. People ask if the AI cheats. 10 x PQ. Yes, it cheats
It's allowed to cheat, but it cheats because it breaks the 4xPQ rule we are held to.
Research resource points should be used carefully. You can end up paying more for research than you plan to and less on military/social. By extension, the techs that add research bonus should also be researched carefully as that bonus will not be completely 'free' either. Not saying that you shouldn't add research ability, you should, but slider adjustment to account for the added cost should be taken into account.
test setup
one world - Sol, full tech researched other than final frontier using shift control S.
1. Research resourcce points
baseline - 60% empire bonus
(base research bonus with full tech tree developed is 60 percent.)
earth population 2728 produces 6+2 research.
with added 68% resource bonus - total 128% empire bonus, same population produces 12+12 research points. Notice resource bonus points are added directly to each world and you have to pay for some of them. I didn't expect that result as I assumed the empire wide modifier was applied after all the research for your empire was totaled. ie, the empire bonus was free research which it obviously isn't. It IS mostly free, but something to watch out for if your budget is tight.
2. Morale resource points
base morale bonus is 90 %. Earth population 2884, morale 74
I added 1 constructor to develop the morale resource point (+5 % morale). next turn, earth population 3043 morale 72.
Added all additional modules to max out the resource point bonus at 68% totale 158% empire bonus. Next turn, Earth population 3208 morale 66.
This one is pretty clear. It's broken and doesn't do anything for you. Waste of time other than denying the resource to the AI's who don't need it anyway since they can afford to develop all morale boosters and do so whether they need them or not.
3. Economic resource Points
Base econ is 10%. Taxes received with population 4152 on Earth is 18bc.
With Econ 78%, same population produces 22bc.
While this works, it only works as long as your taxes recieved is lower than the PQx4 cap. Once you hit the cap, you get ZERO benefit from the econ resource. Case in point, in a well developed game, I had 116% econ (2 partially developed econ resources) with a tax income of 2542. Adding an additional 42% econ resulted in a tax increase to 2574 next turn, which was probably the result of popualtion growth rather than the development of the resource point. Since most economic social projects have 0 or at most 1bc maintenance cost, this one essentially is a waste except for the few worlds you will have in the early stages of development.
4. Military resource points
Base attack/defense/hps was 120%/60%. Battleship created with Ctrl B had attack value of 19, defense of 6.
Developing the military resource point gave a 188%/128% overall empire bonus. This resulted in the same battleship having an attack value of 26 and a defense of 9. This one works very well
5. Influence resource points
I didn't test this one. Mostly because my overall impression is it's working and I would want to use a more developed world than was convienient for the test.
In conclusion, the only truly broken resource point seems to be the morale one, but I'd like to see the econ resource points fixed as well so that they are more useful to the human player in the mid and late game. Note that because the AI gets tremendous econ limits at maso level (on the order of 10x PQ), they get a MUCH bigger benefit from having econ resource points than the human player. I must admit that the 10xPQ AI limit kinda annoys me. People ask if the AI cheats. 10 x PQ. Yes, it cheats
It's allowed to cheat, but it cheats because it breaks the 4xPQ rule we are held to. Research resource points should be used carefully. You can end up paying more for research than you plan to and less on military/social. By extension, the techs that add research bonus should also be researched carefully as that bonus will not be completely 'free' either. Not saying that you shouldn't add research ability, you should, but slider adjustment to account for the added cost should be taken into account.
