All resources too overpowered?

I've just noticed that the galactic resources are just very very overpowering. I realize that they are ment to be good enough to go to war over but getting a single one should be a game winner?

for example the influence reasource is able to totally overpower the influence of a much larger empire. In a recent huge map game i had 209 colonies to an empire that had 79- i checked their planets-most were very under developed and those that weren't had not much culture improvements- where mine had large numbers of both culture and stock markets- Plus i had nearly 3x his colonies. Yet he was pushing my influence back- even overwhenlming clusters of 5 worlds at a time- let alone solitary worlds.
I thought he was going for a culture win before i checked most of his worlds and found nothing- then i found his 1 influence resource--all that for just 1---and then i found 1 myself on the other side of the galaxy in a race i was killing and grabed it. Instantly my influence jumped and took over 75% of the entire galaxy. Its insane that a single resource should be that powerful. +59% to all your planets is a huge bonus- no wonder its so overwhelming...the bonus needs to be really toned down by a lot.


other resources are the same though not quite as game wrecking balance...moral resource I had let me crank my taxes way up-25% to all money your colonies make is also a huge resource bonus.

and plus 59% to all your economy from a single economy bonus resource?

haveing even a single bonus resource can make the game very easy.

but its the influence bonus above all that kills it-- anything that can let you take over the entire galaxy by itself is way too powerful and needs to be toned down by a lot.
6,363 views 5 replies
Reply #2 Top
It's true that the galactic resources are powerful, but remember that to use them effectively you need to devote alot of time and money to starbases, which are vunerable and expensive.
Reply #3 Top
they are hardy expensive- sure on a small map with only a couple of planets, its expensive to to build many constructors.

but as I said in my example, i had 209 colonies in my game- i could build 20-30 constructors a turn without breaking a sweat.

and having a single resource totally unbalance the game feels very over powered to me-- a single influence resource over riding a 150 colony advantage? plus my colonies were more culture enhanced than the AI.

the only other investment is tech, but that you get anyway- and its hardly a poor investment it if gives you those types of advantages
Reply #4 Top
If you're playing on a map in which you have 209 colonies, you're playing a very extreme variation of GalCiv. With 209 planets, of course anything that affects all your planets will be very powerful. If I played a gigantic map with rare stars and rare habitable planets, then trade routes would be overpowered. If I added abundant anomolies, then survey ships would be overpowered, too. On a tiny map with all 9 civs, military starbases and warfare in general are overpowered. If you want a balanced game, you have to use more balanced settings.
Reply #5 Top
that was an example- that map was gigantic- so yes anything that effects all planets at once is powerful but the point it it scales--its just as powerful on medium maps. I've played several and lost to AI that had an influence resource which overwhelmed the combided output of all my planets.

The original point wasn't that i had 209 planets- its that i had nearly 3x the amount as the AI and he was out influencing me- the same happens on medium galaxies with the same result.

the only plus is very early on resources aren't as powerful- but when you get to +7 and +10 bonuses- they rule.

there really needs to be atleast the option of removing them or at a minimum to tone the bonuses way down.

anything that can give one player the ability to over power 3x his number of colonies is overpowered on the face of it.
(I wouldn't mind so much if it allowed him to resist conversion but to dominate the galaxy in the face of overwhelming numbers, is a bit rediculous.)