Make cost of Information Warfare proportional to population (and more expensive)?

It is a bit of a game-breaker in the late game

from GalCiv3 Forums

Information Warfare is a late-game game-breaker, because it is very effective and has a constant cost. That cost is very high during the early and middle game, but late-game it is trivial. It might be worth nerfing the effects or raising the cost, but neither will completely solve the late-game problem.

Another option would be to make the cost proportional to the population of the planet. That would adjust the cost automatically, since many colonies in the late game will have large populations (even newer colonies grow pretty fast in the later game). It also seems more realistic: even with the efficiency of mass media in today's society, reaching more people means spending more money.

A third alternative, related to the both, would be to allow a sliding expenditure. That might be more difficult to implement in the current system, but I gather invasions may be redone anyway. The cost would depend on the percentage of the population you want to reach and the total population of the world (more people, more money to reach the same percentage). You could have an inverse geometric relationship, where more money adds a progressively smaller percentage of additional population reached (as you have to pursue more and more exclusive niche markets for advertisement). 

36,694 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I think the entire invasion mechanic will be changed with the launch of Crusade in Spring. Ideally Costs of all invasions would be both population and defense/resistance dependent.  

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Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 1

I think the entire invasion mechanic will be changed with the launch of Crusade in Spring. Ideally Costs of all invasions would be both population and defense/resistance dependent.  

That would be great, I hope that happens! Given the improvements in the game recently, I feel optimistic that invasions will be substantially improved. I look forward to modding some new invasion tactics... that was my first mod in GC2. Hopefully any changes they make will provide room to add in some more (reasonably balanced) tactics.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I agree that the Information Warfare is a bit OP, especially when you have the race perk that makes all invasions free.  

A side note:

This would stray away from how the game handles invasions now but it would be nice if invasions took several turns.  Some could be fast and messy, fast and clean, but very expensive, slow, clean, and cost nothing, etc.  On top of that it would be cool if there were three types of transports, Infantry, Cavalry, Aircraft which could then be more or less effective depending on planet type, and planet defenses.  All this would complicate invasions quite a bit but with balancing would be a great addition.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Volken2050, reply 3

This would stray away from how the game handles invasions now but it would be nice if invasions took several turns.  Some could be fast and messy, fast and clean, but very expensive, slow, clean, and cost nothing, etc

Agreed... In a future version I would like to see invasions take multiple turns, allowing you to reinforce your side, have insurgencies, etc. I'd also like to see ships be able to attack planets directly, but that is too close to Frogboy's Ultimate No-No, planetary bombardment.