December 15, 2008, 10:00 am
Beta 6 introduces an optional system of stock markets which, while usually being beneficial as they increase revenues, also happen to create a small risk of economic depression. A planet’s stock market normally affects only the output of industrial factories - however, some laws allow the planet’s base income to be indexed on its value (of course, this is a “use at your own risk” situation :))
Continue reading ‘Stock markets (1/2)’ »
March 26, 2008, 8:11 am
While Beta 5 only featured three different types of buildings, we stated in an earlier post that Beta 6 will feature dozens. But that isn’t the only building-related change Beta 6 will introduce, far from it.
One of the worst defects in Beta 5 was the “optimal factories” computation - it relied on nothing but arbitrary values and had one big flaw: it was supposed to prevent older players from being too powerful compared to newer players by having a decreasing derivative (yes, as in maths). This had a completely reverse consequence - people would just “whore” the planets and go away, having high population wouldn’t give you enough of an advantage in the long run.
Beta 6’s buildings will be managed in a completely different way. Instead of using arbitrary formulas, the new system will rely on a more realistic computation based on the size of the workforce available on a planet, the amount of jobs the buildings provide and what we call “secondary jobs” - construction, maintenance, police…
Continue reading ‘Employment’ »