DESCRIPTION
The purpose of this mod is to balance buildings to increase player choice. Your results may vary.
Housing suffers from a lot of issues. It's often better to build more domes and use the living complex than use apartments, and Smart Apartments are neglected by most users, as they are too resource intensive to be worth the slight benefit, which becomes negligible in the end-game.
- Smart Home electronics maintenance reduced from 0.2 to 0.1
- Reduced Apartment electric consumption from 12 to 10
- Smart Apartment capacity is now equal to Apartment (24 occupants)
- Smart Complex capacity is now equal to Living Complex (14 occupants)
- Reduced Smart Complex electronics maintenance from 0.5 to 0.2
- Reduced Smart Apartment electronics maintenance from 1 to 0.5
- Retirement home metal cost (8) has been eliminated
- Retirement home electric consumption decreased from 6 to 5
- Retirement home electronics maintenance reduced from 1 to 0.2
Hawking Institute is unfortunately poorly balanced and is slightly inferior than three Research Labs.
- Increased Hawking Institute productivity by 15%.
Spacebar is poorly balanced, and does not compare well to other 3-hex service buildings. The Small Spacebar was modified to fill that role, while the Spacebar was modified to serve tourists and greater number of colonists.
- Increased Small Spacebar visitors from 4 to 10
- Increased Small Spacebar electric consumption from 1 to 2
- Decreased Small Spacebar comfort from 60 to 50
- Increased Spacebar visitors from 10 to 15
- Increased Spacebar electric consumption from 2 to 5
- Spacebar now adds 2 to tourist satisfaction
Food lacks competitive choices, as many advanced players research the farm as soon as possible, and bypass Hydroponic farm entirely because it's the best food option until end-game.* That's no longer the case. The hydroponic farm now has better food upgrades, with lower manpower and water requirements, ensuring it retains a niche. The fungal farm now competes with the farm in raw output until the mid-game, ensuring a trade-off exists between each design.
*Ignoring ranches, which are not reviewed in this mod
The above changes mean that multiple hydroponic gardens can now compete with the farm in the beginning of the game. The farm is still better. However, I believe these changes will open new strategies manging oxygen with high difficulties, space in new colonies, and create a smoother gradient in food production.
- Fungal farms no longer require electronics to construct
- Fungal farm raw food output increased by 50%.
- Fungal farm electric consumption reduced from 10 to 5.
- Hydroponic farm maximum workers reduced from 3 to 2. (If used in existing game with Automation, the user must toggle off/on to gain new manpower setting)
- Hydroponic electric consumption reduced from 5 to 4.
- Hydroponic maintenance reduced from 1 to 0.5 metal.
- Hydroponic base crops effectiveness enhanced about 33%.
- Hydroponic [Gene Adaption] plants effectiveness enhanced about 100%.
- Hydroponic Super crops effectiveness enhanced about 60%.
- Hydroponic Utility Crops effectiveness enhanced about 75%.
CHANGELOG
v4 - Released 2023-02-05
Did a balancing pass toward Hydroponic Gardens, which despite the reduced maintenance, still greatly underperformed farms, which I've used as a balancing benchmark. Therefore, Hydroponic base plants were rebalanced to be roughly 33-100% more effective, depending on the technology.
v3 - Released 2022-10-10
Further refined spacebars, rebalanced seed crops (which by default, supply a paltry amount), and balanced the retirement home to the other smart homes.
v2 - Released 2022-10-05
Returned fungal farm metal maintenance to default values. Reduced the fungal farm's electric consumption to be more equitable to the farm's cost of ownership.
REQUIREMENTS
Surviving Mars
Full game
FORUM LINKS