Pragmatic Ideology, Vigilant IV (Cautious) too powerful?

from GalCiv3 Forums

So I've been playing a game as the Kryll, for about 8-10 hours when I unlocked the 4th pragmatic ideology in the Vigilant line. The description of the ideology is "All planets receive 3 free defending ships." I think this ideology is too powerful.

Granted I probably had the most planets out of all 6 civilizations, and I was playing on the largest map type, but my military skyrocketed from about 200k or so power to over 600k. The three factions that had declared war on me but that I had barely seen, were suddenly eager to agree to peace treaties with me, giving me all their technologies, credits and giving me probably more credits per turn than they earned. It did have some downsides though, because my income went from way past +100 per turn to -120 per turn.

This ideology is way too powerful, it made me the biggest power in the game, from being the second smallest in terms of military power, gave me peace with everyone and would bankrupt me if I didn't have a lot of credits stored. It barely has any downsides too it, as the delivered ships are all up to date with my latest tech and not outdated.

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Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The peace offers bit is a known issue due to the AI's diplomacy not being modeled at all yet; I wouldn't pay too much heed to it. That said it might be a bit too powerful, perhaps a cap of X ships spawned maximum is in order?

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

In a current game I have been avoiding that choice. In another game I got the three ships per planet when I had 25-30 colonies and the upkeep was a major problem. I had to change my economy drastically to accommodate all those ships. Usually my surveyors find nearly enough lost ships to garrison my colonies, so I don't really need them.

The ships you get will certainly raise your power rating but they have little value beyond protecting your planet from invasion. I would have sold most of them to the AI but they are always too broke to buy anything for cash. :) When your income goes from +100 to -120 it is a major downside imo. The ships pretty much insure you from invasion but they are not the kind of ships that I would fleet up to win a major war. I am not sure what the upgrade potential for that class of ship would be but when the upgrade bug is fixed, it will be too costly. I may go ahead and pick V-4 in my current game, (50+ colonies), just to see how it impacts the game. I know that dealing with all the idle ships will be a big bother. :) 

Bottom line, at this point in the beta game, it seems you are right. It is too powerful in a negative way. If you get it early, it is not a big deal, but if you take it late in a big map game it can be a huge pain in several ways.  One ship per colony would be better.

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