NinjaFaz

Join Date 03/2014

Question on Overflow

i am loving the beta but i notice when building or researching an item that cost say 10 units and you are can make 15 units that overflow is lost. as far as i am aware it does not carry over and you do not get money for the overflow.

is there any plans to change this like adding it to the next item in the list or to give you a bonus for the next turn?, or is this how it is intended to be.

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Blaze of Glory

It is a PIA to juggle production of buildings/ships and/or the taxation wheel when you are close to finishing, then moving it back for new builds. All so you won't waste a bunch of production. This can really crimp multiplayer as each turn someone is messing with sliders on each planet to try to squeeze every advantage over the other player(s).

Nobody wants to play "Slider Wars".

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peregrine23

Join Date 02/2007

+79

My favored solution to this issue would be to apply excess production to the next project, potentially even allowing multiple ships/improvements to be built in a single turn.

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Perigrine nailed it. This would solve a lot of issues.

I am still not happy with how Approval is addressed.

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MarvinKosh

Join Date 08/2005

+87

Maybe it's just me but but I'd like overflow to be addressed in the game. Like for example, needing to research something to get to that point where you can complete more than one thing per turn. To players, it is 'lost' production because it doesn't carry over, but in the actual setting of GalCiv, it's production capability that could be theoretically utilised if the overseeers in the slave pits (for example) know what's coming next and can get the workforce to the next job really quickly.

So for example, you could have a technology (probably very early on) which allows full overflow on a planet when the next improvement is being built in an adjacent tile. You could have a technology for full overflow when the next ship being built at a shipyard is the same hull size as the one just completed.

It does mean that to start off with, overflow will be lost in ways that are understandable, and later on you won't lose any. So if you don't like micro-ing sliders, well, you won't have to.

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Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

Shipyards being able to build multiple ships at once was part of the plan. At least, it was when Frogboy made that post.

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 3

The idea is that a shipyard could pump out multiple ships per turn.

So you build a shipyard on the other side of the galaxy and have your palnets point to it and then it cranks out tons of stuff rather than having to send endless ships across the void.

The reason for this is that unlike GalCiv II, where the largest galaxy size was 22x22, we expect to go up to 64x64 (massively larger).

It also allows for vastly less micro management because you would, by definition, have fewer shipyards than you would have planets. I'd rather have 5 shipyards producing ships 5 times faster than 25 planets producing ships.

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I don't mind some minor loss of production going to the next ship/improvement because of having to retool, resupply, whatever minor loss. However, if I am in the deep poop and need ships asap, I would like to crank out multiple cheap defenders.

Perhaps one day a module for shipyards to get bonuses for production of small, medium or large ships? That way they would be specialized. So a shipyard building small vessels will be inefficient and the same in reverse for small shipyards. However, they would get full rollover for the next vessel of that size. That would make shipyards less cookie cutter.

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I would like to add my support for this as the current limit on overflow mechanic:

Promote micromanagement
Punish specialization

Have a planet with 1k pp? Sorry, your new basic factory is just 28 pp. The rest are wasted.
Move it to the shipyard? Sorry, your new ship is just 300pp. The rest are still wasted.
This also applies to science since since each player can only research 1 tech per turn.
Have 10 planets with 500 rp each? Sorry, this tech cost only 1500 rp. The rest are wasted.
It's better to be a jake of all trade in this current mechanic.

Serve as a rubber banding mechanic

Since each player can only research 1 tech per turn, it means that there will be no runaway leader tech wise.
And since there's a limit of 1 ship per shipyard, the numerical advantage in combat is also limited.
Hence, it was essentially a rubber banding mechanic by limiting any overwhelming forces (by tech and ships quantity) to exchange of blows of similar forces.
It does makes for a much more interesting game combat wise, but it in effect punishes strategy/long term planning and rewards tactical play. For a strategy game, it is not good an agreeable design.

It drag out the game

Right now, we can no longer build the latest improvement like we used to in GC2 (i.e. straight to Industrial Sector). We need to build Basic Factory -> Mega Factory ->Manufacturing Center -> Industrial Sector. So, a tile takes 4 turns to fully mature depending on the type of improvements. This 1 improvement per planet per turn is ok for non-mature planet, but it becomes a drag when a planet is mature and can output hundreds of pp per turn. This is especially acute when terraforming is available.
Lastly, the combination of 1 improvement per planet per turn, 1 tech per turn, and 1 ship per shipyard also means there's a limit on how fast you can go. Personally, I prefer that how fast can I go is dependent on how good I am rather that a combination of hidden mechanic.

So, I do hope that this limit on overflow could be reviewed.

For science, remove the limit. If anyone is running away, just let it be. The limit is pointless since we can still trade for tech after all (Unless this is removed from the diplomacy option).
For production, allow it to overflow to the next improvement. Any additional production after that goes into project. For balancing, the buildable improvement can be limited to 3 improvements per planet per turn.
For military, the cheese is really in somebody building a dozen of no weapon/no armor ships in a turn and dragging down the game. Then, I would suggest that the same limit be put on the shipyard (3 ships per shipyard per turn). Any additional production after that goes into project. For a more fitting lore, you may want to make it increase-able by tech (i.e. tech A increase buildable ship per shipyard to 2, tech B to 3, and so on.)

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Another problem is that right now, several of my planet groups have considerably more production than is needed to make a basic constructor, so I end up having to build multiple shipyards and micro which planet is assigned to where so I can get 1-turn constructors from each shipyard.

Overall, I agree that adding full overflow for both production and research (along with the possibility of completing multiple projects or techs in a single turn) should be a priority, It's been said that the devs want to remove tedious micromanagement, and honestly, there are more interesting things to focus on in this game than slider micro.

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I'm in favor of seeing overflow actually do something also. Even if they put a limit of 3 improvements or 3 ships as tai_cl suggested, could the excess not go to economy? I could see a limit being based on size of ship too...

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