I would like to suggest randomizing the cure tree more by randomizing the ‘upgrades’ (they don’t seem to be randomized). This is to prevent this part of the game from being memorize-able ‘hidden information’. If it were random there really is a purpose to experimenting finding out if high level cures are worth it in your particular game. This would be subject to some conditions. Let’s first divide machines into ‘tiers’ by the amount of research required to produce them, and the amount of money they cost, as well as their speed:
Tier 1: Dissolver, Evaporator (<1000 cost, speed 1)
Tier 2: Ionizer, Agglomerator (2000 cost, speed 1)
Tier 3: Mixer, Shaker (3000 cost, speed 2)
Tier 4: Condenser, Autoclave ( 6000 cost, speed 2)
Tier 5: Centrifuge (speed 3, 5000 cost)
Tier 6: Chromatograph, UV curer (15000 cost, speed 3)
Tier 7: Sequencer (25000 cost, speed 3)
Tier 8: Hadron Collider (50000 cost, speed 4)
Then, let’s impose some additional restrictions:
1,2) A measure of ‘specificity’. ‘SC’ & ‘SU’ – the width of a ‘cure’ concentration region, and the width of the upgrade concentration region. Decreases with level.
3) A measure of ‘Evolution elasticity’ ‘EE’ – how far away from the default concentration the upgrade concentration requirement can be.
4) Minimum and maximum catalyst rarity. (2-6)
These restrictions are to prevent rediculous things such as level 2 upgrades requiring hadron colliders:
5) At least one catalyst requirement exists in the cure tree for each catalyst type.
Level 1 base level:
Add randomized cure concentrations. SU of ~6
Then apply these to the levels. This is approximately in line with current amounts:
Level 2 upgrades
Building tier max. 2 (1-2, 50% of each)
Catalyst frequency 1/3
Catalyst rarity 2-3
SC of ~6, SU of ~5
EE 0-6
Level 3 upgrades
Building tier max. 4 (1 rare, 2-4 common)
Catalyst frequency 1/2
Catalyst rarity 3-4 (lower is less common)
SC of ~5, SU of ~4
EE 0-12
Level 4 upgrades
Building tier max. 6 (5-6 common, 3-4 uncommon, 1-2 rare)
Catalyst frequency 2/3
Catalyst rarity 4-5 (lower is less common)
SC of ~4, SU of ~3
EE any
Level 5 upgrades
Building tier max. 8 (7-8 common, 5-6 uncommon, 1-4 rare)
Catalyst frequency 1 (always)
Catalyst rarity 5-6 (lower is less common)
SC of ~4, SU of ~2
EE any
Level 6 upgrades* – anything goes?
Randomizing the cure tree more can be done in various other ways in complement with this idea:
One other interesting, fairly simple to implement way is thinking up names for disease up to level 6 for each of the branches in the cures tree (as opposed to how it is now, with 3 level 5’s, 5 level 4’s, 3 level 3’s, and a level 2 fixed). There’s plenty of famous illnesses not covered by the game, like alcoholism, smallpox or flu, that can be inserted in the cure tree. Then each branch would randomly be assigned a maximum level randomly. (Note: In scenarios requiring the producing of a specific drug, the level would always be at least the requirement for that drug). Default game would then get:
1/12 for level 2,
3/12 for level 3,
4/12 for level 4,
3/12 for level 5,
1/12 for level 6*
*I’m supposing there’s an additional level in the works, see also my comment in the patents thread where the research mentions level 6 drugs.
The levels could either be shuffled (in which case you could gain some knowledge by knowing the distribution) or randomized (in which case you know less, but might affect balance with a weird roll, such as getting few or many high level drugs compared to normal)
This particular suggestion also includes the shaker, mixer, and centrifuge as upgrade buildings for more variety. They exist and can easily be added to production chains in various ways. (A product can always mix with itself…).