New Hull Bonus suggestion

Cost.

It would be useful to be able to globally tweak costs for a given race since balance in fleets is all about cost. You could make a race where everything costs 15% more, but then give them some race-specific modules that are much cheaper to encourage the use of those.

So you could have a very powerful race with other bonuses, but they have powerful ships because everything for their ships costs a little more (the Tribe, for example).

An increased module cost might be useful, but I’ve always considered it a good idea that racial modules be superior (or at least cheaper in some way) than the universal modules.

That depends on what you mean by “superior.” Race modules should play to the appropriate race’s strengths, and, if at some point the universal module list gets a bit shorter as has been suggested in a number of posts, you might even have some race modules that are strictly worse than you might expect, all because that race doesn’tfocus on that particular technology. And some race modules might be superior in one fashion but inferior in others (e.g., a beam weapon with a greater range but reduced damage).

Cost is also a universally effective way to penalize a choice that a given race does not make while, for example, shieldbonus = -0.50 does not.

If the tribe “bonus” was a cost increase on everything—to reflect their penchant for overbuilding everything—then they’d field fewer ships in any given battle. Note that the Tribe-specific modules could then be priced VERY low so that even with the “bonus” they’d be cheap.

I could see the “rebels” paying more for everything as well, whereas the feds can just print more money :slight_smile:

Seems like an easy way to introduce “numbers” balance. Note also that because it is hull-based, some designs might be mass-produced and immune to the cost overrides. Some sides might get a cost reduction as well, allowing them to field MORE ships. I could imagine a race that was lower tech, but good at manufacturing, for example. You give all their ships a speed, armor, and integrity negatives, but make everything cheap for them with a cost reduction for each hull. They then field many ships that are less capable.