Focus is Goofy

from GalCiv2 Forums
The way planetary focus works is very odd, and can lead to very strange build strategies. Take, for instance, a situation where your overall spending is 100% social. A factory planet, focused on research, will generate far for research than a research planet, focused on research. Somehow the factory workers, without labs or training, are way better researchers than those people with all their fancy computers and giant installations built specifically for research.

A change of the economic sliders to 100% research reverses the situation. Suddenly those guys in the factories don't have a clue how to build anything, but ask those eggheads in the labs to build a starship and they'll do it in no time.

People can abuse this mechanic by basically neglecting to build research infrastructure and relying on their machinists to unlock the secrets of black-hole physics. The really odd thing is you don't lose all that much by using focus in this way.

Here's an alternative proposal: when a planet focuses in an area, the other two areas are treated as if they had half their current slider values. The area of focus gets an increase in it's slider value of 2/3 of the 'liberated' slider points.

So, say your slider settings are 20% military, 40% social, 30% research.

Focusing on military for a planet would make the effective settings: 43% military, 20% social, 15% research. Focusing on research would make it: 10% military, 20% social, 50% research.

The 2/3 factor is there to penalize using individual focus instead of using the overall sliders. You could make it 3/4 or even 4/5 depending on what seems an appropriate penalty.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
People can abuse this mechanic by basically neglecting to build research infrastructure and relying on their machinists to unlock the secrets of black-hole physics. The really odd thing is you don't lose all that much by using focus in this way.


Is it bad that strategies like these are possible? They are powerful, but I don't use them because they're very inflexible; you'll never be able to research quickly if you only have factories.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The whole economy is goofy.
How can a PQ 31 planet full of Industrial manufacturing and no populutiuon produce 100%.
Last game;
I invaded the Dread Lords home (DA dread lord event) with a spore ship, result PQ 18 planet full of industrial manufacturing, no population maximum output.

If I have a planet with a poulation of say of 12b 3 research buildings and 3 manufacturing buildings with a global income of +3500bc. Why can't I have my research running at 100% and my manufacturing running at 100%.

It just doesn't make sense.

P.S. Invading with spore ships enable you to continue to build whatever 'they' were building prior to invasion.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
These quirks of the economy which you all mentioned don't bother me. I remember in Galciv1 the manufacturing was a function of population and planet quality, and it sure made for some useless planets that took an awful long time to develop.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Is it bad that strategies like these
are possible? They are powerful, but I don't use them because they're
very inflexible; you'll never be able to research quickly if you only
have factories.


In a sense, minimizing research infrastructure in increasing flexibility, because you don't have a big infrastructure commitment that's useless when you are also trying to build up your worlds or produce ships.

However, I don't think it's a drawback that it allows alternative strategies. Mostly, what bugs me is how counter-intuitive it is. Focusing on research on a research planet isn't that useful but focusing a manufacturing planet on research is very useful. I don't think it's part of the GalCiv economic philosophy that focus has to work this way, so why not make it work in a more intuitive way?

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well the first flaw here is that population has nothing directly to do with production. All population does is pay taxes. Which in turn you use to generate production. I know that may not be *realistic* but it is how the game is designed.

All the factory/lab on a planet does is convert BC into MP/SP/RP. So by setting an econ slider to say 100% research but then setting a planet to focus on military production results in lesser research and not as much military as if you had them at 50/50. It is a viable strategy though. I use this sort of thing a lot. I'll set military spending to zero but then have a few planets focus on military production. I do this when I don't really need ships to be produced but still want a few constructors every ten turns or so.

The way the system works does make sense if you keep in your mind that BC -> MP/SP/RP. Setting your overall spending to 100% means that you want to utilize 100% of your production capabilities. The three sub sliders then determine how much of that overall spending you want to then spend in each sub category. It is easier to get a handle on what is happening if you watch the numbers on the right side of the econ window as you adjust those sliders.

Also keep in mind that the shields and such shown at the top of the planetary screens take into account all sorts of bonuses. So in order to get a direct correlation between what you see on the econ screen and what you see on the planetary screen you've got to do the math.

And if all that makes your head hurt just remember this vastly simple rule: More shields = faster production.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So by
setting an econ slider to say 100% research but then setting a planet
to focus on military production results in lesser research and not as
much military as if you had them at 50/50.


This is not always true. If I have a planet with lots of research infrastructure but no factories, then setting research to 100% and focusing on military production *can* generate more military production than if I had gone 100% military. It's almost certain to be more military production than if I had gone 50/50 and just as much research production as the 50/50 case.

The same is true the other way. If a planet has no labs but lots of factories, then the way to maximize research production is to go 100% social and focus on research.

The alternative mechanism I proposed is trying to get away from that effect.


Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Don't forget the initial colony site produces MP/SP/RP as well. My example also doesn't take into account any bonuses that planet may have or your race as a whole has. These play a factor in how much you produce. As with a lot of things in this game you can find instances where general rules do not apply. One of the nice things about the design is that you can get by never figuring out all the under the hood stuff but if you want to dig you'll start to find all sorts of interesting ways to manipulate the system.

Also keep in mind that the case where you have no factories but set focus to military may be a bug . Because from my understanding of the system if you had no factories then the planet should not produce any more MP/SP then what the initial colony does plus any bonuses regardless of what you focus on.