0022342: Too much early AIP reduction causes balance problems. Alleviate with Data center rework, "Protected data center" - Arcen Idea Tracker (Bugs and Features)

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0022342	AI War 2	Suggestion		Dec 9, 2019 10:18 am	Dec 13, 2019 1:38 am

Reporter	Peter Ebbesen	Assigned To
Severity	minor
Status	new	Resolution	open
Product Version	1.013 Menacing Messages From The Machine

Summary	0022342: Too much early AIP reduction causes balance problems. Alleviate with Data center rework, "Protected data center"
Description	The amount of AIP reduction in AI war 2 is huge; that's fine, but it is possible given favourable map conditions or excellent play to get most of it at mark one, extending mark one play far beyond what's intended. One source of this is problem MDCs if the map is really nice: see my suggestion on this issue elsewhere. The other is the ordinary data center. 6 of them, and with a bit of luck and/or skill on an open map the player will get 5-6 of them at mark one. So how about this: It requires data centets to have two states (in practice probably implemented by replacing one with the other as needed): Data center and Protected data center. 1. Data center (default)- destruction yields -20 AIP 2. Protected data center - destruction yields -5 AIP "The AI is rerouting processing power to local defenses" (gets a large shield and provides +100% attack boost to local AI force) 3. On world generation the world is seeded with default data centers 4. When the player destroys any default data center, the AI makes the closest of the remaining default data centers to the player protected, if any exist 5. Whenever the player reaches a new AI mark, the Protected data center furthest from the player is made active, if any protected exist (if the developers think there's too much AIP reduction in general, rule 0000005 could be left out, leaving them in a permanent state of protection until destroyed) This guarantees that with default seeding of 6 data centers: 1. The player can at most gain -75 AIP from data centers at mark one rather than -120 AIP 2. The player is rewarded in the long run for not destroying more than 3 at mark one for -60 AIP, giving him an interesting trade off between short term benefit and long term greed 3. To destroy data centers after the first for the full -20 AIP the player will have to go further afield as the AI protects those closest to the player for preference 4. Except for players who are dedicated to winning at mark one, you will have 45 less free AIP to work with than they do currently, the AIP reduction from data centers will now for most players be spread over play at marks 1-4.
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zoutzakje Dec 9, 2019 11:45 am reporter ~0054897	I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to keep the threshold below mk II and III for as long as possible. While i do agree that AIP reduction can potentially be easy to obtain, wouldn't it be easier to just reduce the slider for data centers in the lobby? Make less of them seed in the first place. In my next game I'll probably play with 3 or 4 only.

kasnavada Dec 13, 2019 1:38 am reporter ~0054976	This isn't really a new subject, but I don't like this idea at all. IMO, the real subject here is that balance is always going to be wrecked by the very idea of AIP reduction. To be honest, ever since I started playing the game, all discussions about the "low AIP route" and "API reduction" have always ignored this point. I do not believe that there is a way to make the game balanced as long as AIP reduction exists, and for me it failed since I follow the game. My suggestion would be to get rid of AIP reduction completely - and rebalance the game from there.

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Dec 9, 2019 10:18 am	Peter Ebbesen	New Issue
Dec 9, 2019 10:27 am	Peter Ebbesen	Description Updated
Dec 9, 2019 11:45 am	zoutzakje	Note Added: 0054897
Dec 13, 2019 1:38 am	kasnavada	Note Added: 0054976