Yeah I'm aware of the reload solution for invisible ships, but wanted to post on it one more time in light of the fact that we are getting close to final and I would rather not see this swept under the rug-it's been around for a LONG time. Further, reloading does not always take care of the problem.
As for the economic problem, the Terrans do experience it but it can be overcome. Moreover, they have multiple ways of getting out of the crash given their tech and economic bonuses. I myself have defended the current econommic system and listed the myriad of strategies that work for the Terrans in other threads. The Arceans have none of those advantages and the economic problem affects them (and other races I suspect) to a greater degree. Once the death spiral starts and one enters into the red on the balance sheet, population growth shuts down and unhappiness follows until one's empire falls apart. Generally, one can grow out of the economic problem by limiting building on planets and just letting the population build up, but if you enter the red then population growth stops and often goes in reverse in my experience which eliminates that possibility. If they (the Arceans) don't have a good startiong position or some luck (position is likely a function of luck), then it is virtually impossible to avoid going into the economic death spiral without limiting initial expansion to just a small group of planets. That strategy virtually gurantees defeat around midgame when other races with far more numerous star systems start declaring war (I'm playing painful and above). Some of the "luck" I'm referring to includes (a) a really good starting position/planet with a research resource; (
having one's survey ship find treasure; (c) having an AI surrender to you (may or may not solve the problem); (d) having an AI enter into an economic treaty; and (e) having an economic resource (although that has been shown in my games to be insufficient by itself). The Arceans don't get the Recruitment center in their tech tree so they don't have that little gem that might enable them to at least mitigate the economic crash (unless an AI will trade it, which doesn't always happen.)
I've played the Arceans on maps of all sizes and see these problems to a degree regardless. While they manifest themselves on smaller maps to a lesser degree because overexpansion is not usually possible (I play uncommon planets and rare habitable planets), it is still there. Unless they can make it to the trade tech before they run out of cash, they are toast. Making that happen requires a resource square for tech and/or having your survey ship finding treasure hordes to keep you going/. Rarely will the AI trade that tech. In any event, each race should be more or less playable on any size map without the need for divine intervention to avoid the economic crash. All that being said, the problem might be with the Arceans. Even as an AI I've noticed they rarely do well. Perhaps some rebalancing is in order.
I've got a game right now in which I'm playing the Arceans in an immense galaxy and things are going well. The planets aligned for me and I've avoided even going into debt. That is a rare event. In my opinion, it should not be that way.
