The changes to Interest and Creativity in the last major beta as well as the introduction of War Profiteering (not so much Protected Trade Routes) as an ability has gotten me thinking about the other, lesser used Abilities (courage, trade routes) as well as what gaps there are in the Abilities in the game.
These are the ideas that came up with for changing the Abilities in the game to make racial picks more interesting:
1. Now that Interest is a viable ability, it would be kind of nice if it was a Race pick.
2. War Profiteering is an awesome new ability. However, it would nice if there was more granularity in its effect. 5% War Profiteering gave a good chunk of income (~400bc per turn) in my last game. If the same income you can get now from 5% is gotten from 25% or even 30% instead, I think the ability would be fine. It could also make a nice Racial Pick at 5% for 2 points (I kinda want to give all Races at least 1% War Profiteering too, though).
At the least, changing the granularity of the War Profiteering ability would make it more useful for modding.
3. I know Influence affects tourism income, but it would be nice if there was a Tourism ability that directly increased the income you got from tourism (ie: if you get 100bc tourism from your Influence and you have 25% Tourism, you would get 125bc total).
It would also create a nice parallel of synergy between Trade/Trade Routes, Economics/Morale(and Max Pop/Pop Growth), and Tourism/Influence in that one ability increases the actual money you get from a source of income, while the other(s) determine(s) the capacity for getting that type of income. In a way, this parallel also exists between War Profiteering/Diplomacy (getting other races to go to war so you can profit from it) too, I guess.
4. A Tarrifs ability that steals income from Trade Routes going through your Sphere of Influence (kinda like the one ability Evil alignment currently gets) would be nifty too.
5. Espionage (if it already doesn't) should be changed to be "free" bc when spending money on training agents. ie: if you have a Espionage budget of 100bc and 25% Espionage, that 100bc you spend each week on Espionage would actually count as 125bc.
6. I love the effect the Luck ability has on attack rolls in combat, but I really think it needs to be weakened. If it was changed to have half as much effect on attack rolls as it does now, I think it would be fine.
7. Courage could act as Soldiering score only on Planetary Defense, and maybe 1/2 or 1/4 as effective as Soldiering on Planetary Invasions. It could also increase the minimum roll possible on a Defense roll in ship battles (like Luck does with attack rolls, but only half or even less as much).
8. If the number of Trade Routes was uncapped, I think I would seriously consider putting points in the Trade Routes ability for the Korx or other Super Trader races. Trade Routes could also influence the number of times a freighter can be destroyed before the route collapses (which could make it nice for non-Korx races or at least for games where the Korx (which are the only source for the new Protected Trade Routes ability, besides that UP event, I guess) aren't present).
9. The UP Event that protects trade routes should probably be changed to give the Protected Trade Routes ability to all Civs in the UP instead of (I'm guessing) the old effect of not being able to attack the Freighters to be consistent with the loss of the Galactic Privateer.
10. Open Tourism and Open Trade Agreements. These would work like the Economic and Research Treaties in that they are one way, can each Civ only has one to give away, etc.
The Open Tourism Agreement would increase the Tourism income the Civ it is given to based on a percentage of your own Tourism income.
The Open Trade Agreement would increase the Trade income the Civ it is given to gets from routes to your worlds by 25% or so.
If Tarrifs ability is implemented, there could also be an treaty that could be given to a race that makes them immune to your Tarrifs ability.
Heck, there could be an Open Espionage Agreement that gives the race it is given to free money towards the training of Agents too.
Well, that's all I can think of. Comments? Other ideas?
