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Xephos Demonslayer

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Oct 11, 2017
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I really can't see a reason why I, as an empire that spans half a galaxy, that already has one of both, more alloys than I know what to do with, and am clearly capable of construction of more Dyson Spheres and Matter Decompressors, am arbitrarily limited to only being able to construct one of each. It especially becomes more ludicrous when you consider the fact that you can construct multiple ringworlds, which involves the disassembly of every planetary body in an entire solar system, which is a task that objectively is far more complex than the assembly of a Dyson Sphere or Matter Decompressor. So, much in the vein of being able to disable the caravaneers, L-cluster, or xeonocapatability, can we get a game rule (that doesn't disable achievements) to uncap the amount of Matter Decompressors and Dyson Spheres that can be constructed?
 
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It's 50:50. Paradox sometimes gives options to disable partial content, but they usually just give toggles for features they can't be bothered to fix, like Xenocompatability.
 
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I would be in favor of a slider that just uncaps at the end for all one-of megastructures. Galaxy size and planet density have a significant impact on how valuable they each are and I would prefer to be able to customize that to make sure they're worthwhile but not outrageous.

Also a build-at-once slider ideally, impacting Master Builders too. They can become difficult to justify even bothering with when you're only going to be able to build 1-2 before the game effectively ends.
 
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I agree.

There's no reason we should not be able to customize this, or Colossus numbers (except "too many sliders").
 
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Unlimited decompressors = unlimited minerals
Unlimited minerals = unlimited alloys
Unlimited Dyson spheres = unlimited energy
Unlimited energy + unlimited alloys = unlimited ships
Unlimited ships = It will eventually take one month of real time to simulate one game day and oh by the way your gaming rig is on fire
 
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Unlimited decompressors = unlimited minerals
Unlimited minerals = unlimited alloys
Unlimited Dyson spheres = unlimited energy
Unlimited energy + unlimited alloys = unlimited ships
Unlimited ships = It will eventually take one month of real time to simulate one game day and oh by the way your gaming rig is on fire
Thank you for explaining why I need unlimited dysonspheres.
 
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I think that with the introduction of kilo structures they will need to address this issue at some point since things are getting more muddled regarding how many "space infrastructures" I can build or not. I mean, megastructures arrive way too late into the game to become anything resembling a viable economic strategy, being able to build two Ring worlds or multiple matter decompressors is not going to break the game balance (I hope).

I think that rather than a slider or toggle, perhaps it would be a better solution if some kind of "infrastructure capacity" were added to the game, allowing you to build as many kilo structures or megastructures as you wish as long as you invest in acquiring those capacities (say, get 10 infrastructure points, decide to whether build two ringworlds for 5 points each or 5 Arc Furnaces for 2 points each, for example).
 
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I think that with the introduction of kilo structures they will need to address this issue at some point since things are getting more muddled regarding how many "space infrastructures" I can build or not. I mean, megastructures arrive way too late into the game to become anything resembling a viable economic strategy, being able to build two Ring worlds or multiple matter decompressors is not going to break the game balance (I hope).

I think that rather than a slider or toggle, perhaps it would be a better solution if some kind of "infrastructure capacity" were added to the game, allowing you to build as many kilo structures or megastructures as you wish as long as you invest in acquiring those capacities (say, get 10 infrastructure points, decide to whether build two ringworlds for 5 points each or 5 Arc Furnaces for 2 points each, for example).
I agree that the hard limit feels a bit jarring. My proposal to this could be something like what Ikael mentioned, a 'Space Infrastructure' soft cap like with naval cap. And since we are on this topic, this can tie into a general thing which includes Starbases and Habitats (the latter being essentially infinitely spammable). This cap can be raised in the following ways;
  • Technology. Research techs which give flat bonuses to space infrastructure cap (the old starbase cap technology). Even repatables are fine since tech is so expensive now.
  • Empire Size. Owning more systems gives you starbase capacity. Perhaps this or tied to empire sprawl (like how naval cap ties to titan capacity) will passively increase a wide empire's infrastructure cap, though less good than simply teching.
  • Ascention Perks & Origins. Megastructure related ones can just be the sole sources of % increase to the capacity overall if empires want to focus on space infrastructure. The exisitng paralel building capacity is fine as is.
Going over this cap starts multiplying the upkeep cost of all space infrastructure you have which can become very expensive even if you have a dyson sphere. Maybe unity as well since that has been tied into building megas (your grant projects are left to deteriorate, draining the hearts of the people). The ideal would be that its just hard enough to aquire that you would often edge the cap and sometimes dip into those 10-20% penalties to get extra resources and such. It also poses a question whether you want to develop your economy or military since both now tie into the cap.

The only issue I can see with something like this is quantifying the 'cap cost' of each space infrastructure. Basic stations should obviously be excluded by something like starbases could cost like 1 per level, kilostructures 2 per level and megas 5 per level. So an empire with 10 citadels, 5 killos and two megas fully upgraded would need over 100 of this cap (something like relays and gates can cost 1 or 2 a piece if at all). But these exact matters are for the number crunchers and graph conjurors.
 
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Unlimited decompressors = unlimited minerals
Unlimited minerals = unlimited alloys
Unlimited Dyson spheres = unlimited energy
Unlimited energy + unlimited alloys = unlimited ships
Unlimited ships = It will eventually take one month of real time to simulate one game day and oh by the way your gaming rig is on fire
Only if there is no significant maintenance cost.
This is precisely a big problem with Stellaris, everything is free or almost.
Megastructures are inexpensive in alloy, the maintenance cost is derisory.
Mining stations have “no” cost, so they are zero, no way to improve them if we want to prioritize spatial economic development...


So we end up with insipid megastructures that give no pride in having succeeded in building one.
A bit like the “Guardians”, these powerful beings... who can be easily defeated by even the smallest, moderately powerful empire.
The same goes for strategic resources, you can easily produce the basic one simply by spending mineral. For others, it is of little use and you can buy it on the market anyway.
No strategic interest in fighting for strategic resource deposits.


Either we reduce the maintenance cost, or we create logistical capacity by adding the job of logistician or by giving another use to the clerks.
 
I would love to see a system that allows more dyson spheres and matter decompresors, the bigger empire is. Like for X systems, empire can have 1 additional of those (not both, player decides which one). But every of those megas beyond first would have more upkeep. And if empire get another mega from other empire, and is beyond limit, then this structure should be disabled or have much, MUCH bigger upkeep.
 
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Unlimited decompressors = unlimited minerals
Unlimited minerals = unlimited alloys
Unlimited Dyson spheres = unlimited energy
Unlimited energy + unlimited alloys = unlimited ships
Unlimited ships = It will eventually take one month of real time to simulate one game day and oh by the way your gaming rig is on fire

I'd just wait until my gaming rig reaches the surface temperature of a star.

And then build a Dyson Sphere around it.
 
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I agree that the hard limit feels a bit jarring. My proposal to this could be something like what Ikael mentioned, a 'Space Infrastructure' soft cap like with naval cap. And since we are on this topic, this can tie into a general thing which includes Starbases and Habitats (the latter being essentially infinitely spammable). This cap can be raised in the following ways;
  • Technology. Research techs which give flat bonuses to space infrastructure cap (the old starbase cap technology). Even repatables are fine since tech is so expensive now.
  • Empire Size. Owning more systems gives you starbase capacity. Perhaps this or tied to empire sprawl (like how naval cap ties to titan capacity) will passively increase a wide empire's infrastructure cap, though less good than simply teching.
  • Ascention Perks & Origins. Megastructure related ones can just be the sole sources of % increase to the capacity overall if empires want to focus on space infrastructure. The exisitng paralel building capacity is fine as is.
Going over this cap starts multiplying the upkeep cost of all space infrastructure you have which can become very expensive even if you have a dyson sphere. Maybe unity as well since that has been tied into building megas (your grant projects are left to deteriorate, draining the hearts of the people). The ideal would be that its just hard enough to aquire that you would often edge the cap and sometimes dip into those 10-20% penalties to get extra resources and such. It also poses a question whether you want to develop your economy or military since both now tie into the cap.

The only issue I can see with something like this is quantifying the 'cap cost' of each space infrastructure. Basic stations should obviously be excluded by something like starbases could cost like 1 per level, kilostructures 2 per level and megas 5 per level. So an empire with 10 citadels, 5 killos and two megas fully upgraded would need over 100 of this cap (something like relays and gates can cost 1 or 2 a piece if at all). But these exact matters are for the number crunchers and graph conjurors.
Some kind of "space infrastructure" would be a cool idea, but that would require significantly more coding than just adding a slider. The main reason I asked for one was so that it could be squeezed into the next update.

That being said, some kind of soft cap for how many megastructure you could construct and maintain simultaneously would be a welcome change for me, if added in a latter update. I think it should be separate from starbase cap, but the ideas of repeatables to increase the amount of "galactic wonder" megastructures (Sphere, Decompressor, Ringworld) you could have at once, as well as a separate repeatable tech to increase your megastructure build cap (which should remain a hard cap), would be very nice. I think that a good way to penalize going over the cap for maintaining galactic wonders would be a significant increase to empire sprawl, which would model the massive bureaucratic and economic strain for keeping such massive projects in optimal condition. So if you have the economy to leverage it, you could probably safely go 1 or 2 over the cap, but going further would incur a massive tech cost penalty and an increase to the upkeep for unity ambition edicts.

As for the hard cap to build more simultaneous megastructures, as well as the soft cap for maintaining them, besides endgame repeatable techs, and ascension perks (master builders), origins, and probably the architectural renaissance ambition edict, I think that your economy should factor into increasing those caps, in a similar vein to how naval cap increases titan cap. I think for every thousand of each "basic" resource you produce (minerals, energy, food (waived for machine gestalts, possibly increased in cost for hiveminds), consumer goods (waived for machine gestalts and hiveminds), alloys (increased for machine gestalts to offset them being able to ignore CGs and Food)) combined, that both caps increase by 1. To specify, this isn't income, it's production. Even if you are making less than 1k a month, if you produce 5k, that models the size of your economy and its ability to not collapse under such colossal projects. And to elaborate on 1k, I mean if you make 1k food, 1k energy, 1k CGs, and 1k alloys, that cap goes up by 1. If you make 2k of each of those, that cap goes up by 2. If you make 3k of each of those, it goes up by 3. This way, while building a dyson sphere and matter decompressor helps you get towards being able to afford more of them, you still need to be able to advance the rest of your economy to actually do so. You'd need massive agri worlds to feed all the workers you'd need, and ecumenopoli or hive or machine worlds producing more adcanced resources to help fund and maintain those galactic wonders. For hiveminds, maybe increase the food production amount to increase the cap to 1.5k per single increase, for Lithoids, increase mineral costs to 1.5k (2k for lithoid hiveminds) and for machines, who can ignore 2 of the "basic" resources, increase the alloy cost to 2k per. Remember, it's not an increase to your overall income that provides an increase to the caps, but your production.

Basically, a measure like this limits your ability to make megastructures (you'd still have the vanilla caps of 1 each without any other modifiers), but since by the time you have galactic wonders online, you're already winning the game, the ability of these structures to massively boost your economy lets you snowball into building more and more of them, limited by how fast you can grow your economy, construct more galactic wonders, and research repeatable to keep up. Again, you're already winning by that point, so having more only makes you win more, but this still puts a somewhat realistic limit on how fast you can snowball with them.

At least, that's my suggestion. I'm welcome to feedback on tweaking it.
 
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It remains an arbitrary limit.
It is more interesting if we frame this by the cost of construction and maintenance and/or by a “logistics” cost.
In this way, we give the players and AI the choice, and also to adapt, if their empire is small and with little possibility of expansion, they can therefore be used to seek to invest in logistical capacity to develop their empire on the spatial side.

Also, if this involves logistical capacity, therefore jobs using pops and building locations, this also creates an additional limitation, because pops and construction locations are more limiting than a simple energy and alloy cost. .

I know, I quote myself too often.
The idea is that all spatial structures (we could also include planets and related things, but I'm not doing that here, but that could also be interesting) consume a logistic capacity.
This logistical capacity acts as a soft limit for spatial structures and is also a more impactful cost than energy which can be easily 'infinite'.

Logistic capacity is mainly produced by logisticians.
Logisticians are produced by capital buildings and warehouses.

The logistician jobs also increase empire size.
The systems no longer increase empire size.
*If planets consume logistic capacity, planets might still increase empire size or not, districts would not increase empire size, but would consume logistic capacity.


Logistician :
- Upkeep : -1 Consumer Good, -1 Alloy (-2 Alloy for Machine, -1 Alloy and -2 food for Hive), +5 Empire Size
- Produces : +5 Logistics capacity

Reassembled Ship Shelter : +0 Logistician
Planetary Administration, Resort Administration, Governor's Palace : +1 Logistician
Planetary Capital, Resort Capital-Complex, Governor's Estates : +2 Logisticians
System Capital-Complex : +3 Logisticians
Imperial Palace : +4 Logisticians

Habitat Administration : +1 Logistician
Habitat Central Control : +2 Logisticians

Hive Core : +1 Logistician
Hive Nexus : +2 Logisticians
Imperial Complex : +3 Logisticians

Deployment Post : +1 Logistician
Administrative Array : +2 Logisticians
Planetary Processor : +3 Logisticians
Primary Nexus : +4 Logisticians
Imperial Center : +5 Logisticians

Small warehouse : +2 Logistician
Warehouse (-1 Rare Crystal) : +4 Logistician
Big warehouse (-2 Rare Crystal) : +6 Logistician

Hive Mind :
Hive empires might have a harder time producing logistics capacity, but they would also consume less logistics capacity.

Machine Intelligence
Machine empires might have an easier time producing logistics capacity, but they would also consume more logistics capacity.

Corporate or civic Merchant Guilds :
Logistician : -1 Logistic capacity, -1 Empire Size, +2 Trade Value
Merchant : +2 Logistics capacity


Stations :
Each station (mining, research and observation) would consume base 1 logistics capacity.

It is therefore not necessarily interesting to build, especially at the beginning, as many stations as possible.
Building a station becomes more of a choice than an automatism.
More stations = more logisticians needed, so more pops and buildings slots not available for other tasks.

However, the stations would be more useful and productive than now.
Each mining and research station could increase in size depending on the importance of deposits exploited.

For example, if the base mineral deposit is 3. The mining station can be enlarged 2 times.
The station therefore becomes more productive, but with a secondary cost.
Each level of expansion of the station increases its consumption of logistics by 10%, 20% or 25% (I don't know).
So the station consumes more logistics, but less than if we build a new mining station. It may therefore be more interesting to first build your stations on the larger deposits.

In addition each station can be leveled up. The level limit is mainly increased by technology.
Each additional level increases the station's productivity and increases its logistics consumption by 1.

Mining Station: +1 level max, Zero-G Refineries, Long-Range Mineral Scanners, Mineral Cutting Beams, Autonomous Mining Drones and Nanite Mineral Probes
Research station : +1 level max, Zero-G Laboratories, Miniature Containment Fields, Quantum Probes, Autonomous Station Protocols and Multi-Dimensional Analysis
So with these technologies, these stations can reach level 6 and consume 6 logistics capacity, more if these stations have been enlarged.
The stations can therefore be a very interesting source of resources and research, but more logistics capacity must be devoted to them.

Civic Mining Guilds :
- -20% logistics capacity cost for station
- +1 Minerals from Miners

Civic Private Prospectors:
-33% logistics capacity cost for station


Starbase :
Starbases have no fixed limits.
They consume instead of the logistics capacity according to its level:
- Outpost : 1
- Starport : 5
- Starhold : 25
- Star Fortress : 50
- Citadel : 100

Before you panic over the numbers, there are several ways to reduce these costs!
- Adopting the Unyielding tradition tree : -33% logistic cost for starbase in a colonized system
- Fortress Doctrine from Unyielding tradition tree : -5% logistical cost for starbase per weapon modules
- Stellar Expansion technology : -10% logistic cost for starbase
- Manifest Destiny technology : -10% logistic cost for starbase
- Fortify the Border edict : the starbase adjacent to a rival empire or considering us a rival does not count towards the starbase number logistics penalty
- Trading Posts civic : -5% logistical cost for starbase per Trade Hub modules
- Grasp the Void ascension perk : -20% logistics cost for the number of starbases
- Covenant: End of the Cycle : I do not know.
- Interstellar Expansion repeatable technology : -5% logistics cost for the number of starbases (25% max)
- Strategic Coordination Center : -10% logistics cost for starbases per level (30% max)

However, in addition to the logistics cost for each starbase according to its level, there is also a logistics cost depending on the number of starbases, the more starbases there are, the more complex the network becomes, the more the logistics cost increases.
It can therefore be interesting to improve your starbases instead of building new ones.

Cost for number starbase = (number starbase-3)*number starbase^0.5
Minimum 0
The first three starbases do not generate a penalty, but each additional starbase increases the penalty which increases faster and faster.
Obviously, for the formula, it's the general idea, it could be different.
For example, one could add either via the number of systems possessed (like now) or via another means of the "free" starbases which does not count the number of starbases, thus increasing the -3 value.


Resource collection :
An important, very important change is that resources from a station or planet are only collected if they are within range of a starbase.
A planet can only use resources if it is within range of a starbase (to see, if we add a planetary stock to the planet, so that isolated planets could be autonomous, during colonization, the planet would start to have a reserve of resource, taken during the construction of the ship).

The gestalt empires would have the equivalent of the Trade Hub.

Naval capacity :
The Anchorages modules of Starbase would be the primary means of increasing naval capacity.
The Anchorages are used to "deliver" logistics to military fleets.
There is therefore no "military or civilian logistics".
Each Anchorage consumes 2 logistics capacity.

The soldiers would have a different role that deviates from the core of this idea of logistics, but they have to be given another role to keep them useful.
Instead of increasing naval capacity, soldiers generate manpower for use by land armies and ships, much like manpower/sailors in EU4.
Obviously, this could be more developed, but within the scope of this topic, I keep the system simple.
It therefore becomes as important to have Anchorages (therefore logisticians) to support a large fleet as to have soldiers to generate manpower to replace the dead in armies and ships.

Civic Citizen Service : +15% Naval capacity ---> +15% Manpower from Soldier


Megastructure :
A central use of logistics capacity would be the maintenance of megastructures.
Logistics would be the “limit system” to megastructure numbers. So there would be no fixed limit to megastructures, if you want to build 100 dyson spheres, you could theoretically... If you can produce enough logistic capacity...
But some bonuses of megastructures would not be additive, for example, 2 Mega Shipyard will give as bonus for the empire +100% Empire Ship Build Speed and not +200%.

Reduced the cost of logistics capacity of megastructures :
- Master Builders : -10%
- Architectural Renaissance (Ambition) : -10%
- Shattered Ring (Origin) : -10% [Unrestored Capital Segment and Ruined Sections cost no Logistics Capacity]

Habitat :
A habitat would consume 50 (level 2 : 75; level 3 : 100) logistic capacities.
Voidborne : -20% logistic cost for habitat
Void Dwellers (Origin) : -20% logistic cost for habitat, the Arcane Replicator will generate a logistic capacity to support the 3 starting habitats.

The habitats would therefore be more expensive, but they could receive some bonuses.
For example, level 2 and 3 would unlock new building slots.
Maybe also increase the number of districts.
Habitats built on a resource deposit (including research) could receive a percentage resource production bonus depending on the size of the deposit. For example 5% per 1 base mineral of the mineral deposit.

The goal would be to have slightly more powerful and potentially fewer habitats.
A habitat can perfectly produce more logistic capacity than they consume, but this takes up slots and pops.

For the Trades districts, a clerk job could be replaced by a logistician job.
And/or habitats have a “Logistics Center” designation that adds one or two logistician jobs to Housing districts with -2 or -4 housing.

Gateways :
The Gateways would have an upkeep cost of 100 logistic capacity (and I'm hesitant even maybe 125 or 150).
Yes, the cost is high, but this structure is also very useful, so it is an important investment for construction, but also in the long term.

Hyper Relays :
The Hyper Relays would have a logistics capacity cost of 25.
I think it's high enough that it's a significant cost when built in large numbers, but low enough that in the mid-game and late game it's viable to create some routes on the important runs.

Orbital Rings :
Logistics capacity cost :
- T1 : 20
- T2 : 40
- T3 : 80

Ring World :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 200
- Stage 2 : 400
- Stage 3 : 600
- Stage 4 : 800
- Stage 5 : 1000

Dyson Sphere :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 200
- Stage 2 : 400
- Stage 3 : 600
- Stage 4 : 800
- Stage 5 : 1000

Science Nexus :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 300
- Stage 2 : 600
- Stage 3 : 900

Sentry Array
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 200
- Stage 2 : 400
- Stage 3 : 600
- Stage 4 : 800

Matter Decompressor :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 250
- Stage 2 : 500
- Stage 3 : 750
- Stage 4 : 1000

Mega Art Installation :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 300
- Stage 2 : 600
- Stage 3 : 900
- Stage 4 : 900

Strategic Coordination Center :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 300
- Stage 2 : 600
- Stage 3 : 900

Interstellar Assembly :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 200
- Stage 2 : 400
- Stage 3 : 600
- Stage 4 : 800

Mega Shipyard :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 200
- Stage 2 : 400
- Stage 3 : 600

Quantum Catapult :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Site : 100
- Stage 1 : 200
- Stage 2 : 400
- Stage 3 : 600

Aetherophasic Engine :
Logistics capacity cost :
- Stage 1 : 100
- Stage 2 : 275
- Stage 3 : 475
- Stage 4 : 775
- Stage 5 : 0 ;)


Obviously, the bonuses of the megastructures and their cost in logistics could be adjusted as needed.
This is to give a general idea.
Megastructures are powerful, but are "expensive" to build, but also and above all to maintain (not just energy which is very easily produced).

So it's not enough to produce tons of alloys to build megastructures. You have to be able to provide the logistical capacity.
But it is still possible to produce enough logistic capacity, as long as you have pops and building slots to dedicate to warehouses.
For example, for a Ring World, without bonuses with basic logisticians which produces 5 logistic capacities. It would take 33.3 large warehouses (less counting the logisticians of the capital buildings) spread over the 4 sections of the Ring World for it to be self-sufficient in logistics capacity. Yeah, that's a lot, but precisely the districts of the Ring Worlds are very powerful.

Obviously, for example, a Dyson Sphere cannot be self-sufficient, so you have to build the warehouses on planets/habitats/ring world.
But it produces a lot of energy without using pops, districts/buildings and strategic resources, apart from the need for logistics.


Insufficient logistics capacity :
If the need for logistics exceeds the production of logistics. The structures depending on it will work less efficiently, if the shortage becomes too great, these structures will be deactivated.

Habitats will lose stability and habitability.
Restored Ring segments will slowly gain devastation (or other modifier) after 10 years (or 20 years?) the segments will become Shattered Ring World.
Structures can be deactivated and reactivated manually for a cost in unity depending on the importance of the structure.
Megastructures that have been inactive for too long (10 years or 20 years?) will become ruined megastructures, except Ring Worlds which will become Shattered Ring Worlds, which will have to be restored if we want to use them again.

The habitats in critical situations will have a special decision to evacuate pops at a unity cost based on the number of pops (regardless of empire law) and trauma for the pops.

This could enable many interesting things.

The starbases would be more strategic.
They would be obligatory for the planets to be connected to the “economic networks” of the empire.
They would be essential to have and maintain a large fleet.
Improving or not a starbase would be more of a choice, currently, unless you are limited in alloy, it is almost always better to improve them and put anchorages, it has practically no maintenance cost.

Putting a cost in logistics for the districts could open up very interesting possibilities for planetary development.
Ideally, population growth should also be revised so that it is in relation to population size and etc. And not that it's just more interesting to have to colonize more planets/habitats to have greater population growth.
The idea would be that like space stations, we could develop planets: in the ground and in the air.
With “Weather Control Systems” technology, we could, through a planetary decision, unlock access to underground districts and building slots.
This would cost energy and volatile motes.
Underground districts and buildings would have higher maintenance costs and districts would consume more logistics capacity. Pops working underground would also have a greater need for amenities.
It would be necessary to unlock numerous blockers with a cost in energy and volatile motes to fully access the basement.

With “Anti-Gravity Engineering” technology, we could unlock access “to the sky”.
By a planetary decision with a cost in alloy and rare crystals, we would have access to districts and locations of aerial buildings.
Air districts would have an alloy and rare crystals cost, as well as a rare crystals maintenance cost and would consume more logistics capacity.

We could therefore develop “megaplanets”, but for the same number of districts, it would be more costly in terms of logistical capacity and resources to have a mega planet than several “basic planets”.


Also it would be interesting to return to the old habitats with the research, commercial and leisure districts.
Moreover, since habitats are unique per system, we should integrate them into starbases.
Habitats, if the tech is unlocked, would be a special expansion of the starbase.
No need for mining and energy districts when you can develop mining stations for that.
 
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I’d go the opposite direction, personally.

Dyson spheres are so mind bogglingly large that you should never really “finish” one. In gameplay terms, that means they should be continuously upgradeable, possibly with a scaling cost for each additional upgrade.

That being said, I still agree that the megastructure cap is aging badly and that it + the other random caps should be re-examined.
 
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One detail I forgot, if habitats become a special extension of starbases, the orbital rings could also have a habitat extension, if the technology is unlocked.
This would be a third level of planetary extension: underground, aerial and spatial.
I so loved being able to put commercial and leisure districts into orbit.

Each planetary level could also have its own habitability value, it would be lower for the underground and aerial part, the spatial part would use that of the habitats.

Obviously, a species with an underground preference would have a better habitability in the underground part.

Playing Rogue Servitor, I would like the idea of transforming the planets into Machine Worlds and putting the bio-trophies into orbit.
Well, I know, the Rogue Servitors have access to Ecumenopolis.
 
Wow, lots of interesting ideas here! Some thoughts:

- It is curious how most of us feel that megastructure cap ought to be reworked, perhaps by introducing some kind of "unified" soft cap system
- Drawar logistician suggestion is very interesting, but it is more of a complete economic rework that makes space-based economies viable by relying more on stations and megastructures. That would be great, but it also has a quite bigger scope
- Archangel has also noted that perhaps there ought to be some type of system that grants more structure capacity the bigger your empire is, starbase-style. That also makes lots of sense.

Having those things in mind, I would propose something along these lines:

Excess infrastructure bonuses: Increased station, starbase, kilostructure & megastructure building speed
Infrastructure deficit maluses: Greatly increased orbital station, starbase, kilostructure & megastructure maintenance costs & HP reduction

Infrastructure consumption:

Hyper Relays: 1
Habitats: 1
Planetary rings: 1
Starbases: 2
Kilostructures (Dyson swarms, arc furnaces): 3
Megastructures: 5
Ruined megastructure: 0

Sources of infrastructure:

Base: 5 +1 per 10 owned systems ---> Note how this replicates how the current starbase capacity works

Pacifist / fanatic pacifist ethoi: +5 / +15
Habitat tech: +3
Hyper-relay tech: +3
Star fortress tech: +5
Gateway construction tech: +5
Megaengineering tech: +10
Fortess doctrine tradition (Unyielding): +3
Material analysis tradition (Versatility): +3
Master builders AP: +15
Void hive civic: +10
Urbanist officer destiny trait: +3
Planetary capital building (tier 3): +1
System capital complex building (tier 4): +2
Grasp the void AP: +3 infrastructure, +1 infrastructure per 5 owned systems instead of 10

First citadel (unique Sovereign Guardianship council position): +1 per leader LV in addition to his other effects
Gestalt Growth nodes: +1 infrastructure per node LV in addition to its other effects ---> This intends to compensate absence of ethoi bonuses for gestalts

Other infrastructure modifiers:

Inwards perfection civic: +50% infrastructure points
Void dweller origin: Habitats do not consume infrastructure points at all
Arc welders Origin: Kilostructures consume only 1 infrastructure point each instead of 3
Architectural ambition: +10 when active

I think that might be a good blueprint, I think.
 
we are in a transition for stellaris , on one side they wanted pops to be the economy of an empire , but that destroyed performance . now we are in an hybrid state where there are pops that give economy but there are alot of ways to produce resources without pops or increase pops efficiency exponentially.

under all aspect , a megastructure production is often less than a couple of specialized planets ; but it doesn't use pops , just time and resources .

the problem is that a non-pops based economy is just an infinite cicle , more resources > more megastructures > more resources . they would need to add different meccanics that would decrease the efficency of resources to slow down snowballing , for example some sort of inflation.


you could see the limit on basic-resources megastructures as a form of galatic controll over inflation .
 
I would love to see a system that allows more dyson spheres and matter decompresors, the bigger empire is. Like for X systems, empire can have 1 additional of those (not both, player decides which one). But every of those megas beyond first would have more upkeep. And if empire get another mega from other empire, and is beyond limit, then this structure should be disabled or have much, MUCH bigger upkeep.

Yep, some sort of megastructure operating capacity would be the way to go. (You could even scale it based on pops, to counter the danger of "megastructures make pops obsolete" and being able to dodge sprawl from pops by simply getting rid of the pops.) The way the current cap is set up is weird: you can only *start* one yourself, but you can repair and operate an unlimited number of them.

I think the devs put in the "only build 1" rule as something of an anti-snowball mechanic, but it could just as well have the opposite effect, being a big incentive to steal megastructures that other empires have built. In principle, the current rules should lead to blobs being able to acquire large numbers of Science Nexuses, Mega Art Installations and so on (maybe not Dyson Spheres, since the AP becomes available quite late and not everyone will pick it), while a less expansionist empire is really constrained by the "only build 1" rule. The only reason this doesn't happen in single player is the weakness of AI economy/tech, meaning the AI rarely gets to this stage of the game (and even if it did, I'm not sure it's set up to invest in something like a Science Nexus). But I don't think balancing the game around the AI's incapacity is a good design.
 
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