Economy Balancing: The exponential curve

Not trying to assume too much, but I am sure they are just trying to make the game as standard an RTS balance as possible. Now, don't get me wrong, t3 got really lame and breaks balance in SupCom games, and no tiers was very balance in ZeroK but it isn't very standard for RTS games.

Honestly, most RTS games have some tiering, it makes sense to have at least 2, and most RTS games have standard boosts to t2 but expensive dangerous risk to obtain. In PTE, the payoff for t2 is quite long and building up t2 to stablize economy while producing it is a pretty hungry process. Really, it makes t1 very strong, and it makes t2 reasonable to be a little stronger. Technically, it is stronger, but not cost effective so even late game you use t1. If anything, yes, you use t1 units late game with t2 economy, but the ecoboost isn't the biggest and the cost to establish it leaves a 2 minute period where it cost more to build than it gives PER t2 mex. So even using vanilla t1 is often better than using t1 with t2 eco.

It really isn't a terrible design, unless you concede TA, FA, and C&C were terrible RTS.

Basically, why make the game crazy extreme with the tiers, or crazy extreme against tiers? Why not make it standard, it being a vanilla RTS game? Mods aren't meant to be necesary to replace or fix the game, but they really are the way to go with "extreme variants" of the game such as superunits and highly-divided tiers and factions and no-tiers and such.

I personally am willing to go with the way they design the game, it does not insult me as long as they don't insult me with bogus unplayable unit strength numbers. Currently the grenadier for example lol. Which isn't insulting, their process of balance is underpower, then overpower, then gauge the middle. Right now the grenadier is in step 2, overpower. Next build they will take him somewhere.

The economy balance was an interesting choice, saw not one problem in 1 planet battles(Planet size medium to small) since everything is too fast paced to even consider t2 so the change is not entirely noticed.

Most games finish fairly quickly 10-20 minutes average, but when it comes to multi-planets and bigger planets... it takes hours to even get anywhere once the player takes off into orbital while you focus attention on surrounding battles, becoming an endless chase and building spree which really takes away from the immersion since you have to wait for such prolonged periods of time upgrading your battle scarred base and collecting the scraps of your army and fabricators to then ever so slowly reach into the t2 phase which then PA becomes a Toy-War themed SimCity simulator.

I don't mind a long game if it the pressure is on and always has you on the edge of your seat, but really, the economy as much as it promotes people getting out there into the fights and asserting territory, it just did not feel right for me when it comes to battles of a bigger scale, it is simply just too boring to continue a game at that point.

The economy in my opinion could still use a slight tweaking for T2 requirements to keep the flow and continuity of the game steady in whatever situation.

holy hell did i notice that... i've lost every game i try to go t2 on because no matter what i seem to have as soon as my t2 factory starts building, or i try to get my t2 eco, everything just goes to hell, very very fast. like -300+ metal and such. like there is a GIANT gap in between t1 and t2 now. i gotta get used to i all over again

Honestly now it seems like t1 is the option now cuz t2 is to devastating to you're eco unless you already have A LOT. or maybe i just need to figure everything out again o.o

Yep - I think the gap is too huge. I go from a + eco to a huge - in no time flat...

Not fun to lose ALL the time. Might have to give it a rest for a while...

lolwut? I see no means of making such a conclusion without some world-class telepathy involved.

I just pointed out, that obviously Godde was confused about what "exponential" is. You would understand it, if you read what I wrote with any attention.

As about your example, y(t) = k * y(t-1), it is rather correct.

To be precise, eco growth would be exponential, say, if metal points would be infinite, engineers would be able to cap new spots at some fixed guaranteed amount of time (which is not the case as they might be unavailable), and if eco buildings would not take up any space.

As I remember, the closest to this was what we had in SupCom vanilla, where I could easily do +1000 mass in 30 minutes with SCU RAS.

I don't get how PA is any more exponential than any other RTS, if you're constantly expanding. You have more resources, you make more factories, you take more land and get more resources. There's always an upper limit (which is unimaginably high in PA, granted) on income in any RTS because map limitations are a thing and occasionally resources are finite. I don't understand discussions like this where a single topic is ripped out from all the context surrounding it and picked apart as though it can stand on its own. For instance, just because someone knows how to get their economy going doesn't mean they know how to effectively make use of it. Just because they know what units to build doesn't mean they know how to use them properly.

What exactly is being discussed here? The only thing I can see that would actually alter the way things work is to make mexes finite. Let it be noted, I really dislike that idea.

To be clear, I don't see how changing income rates will do anything but prolong the inevitable climb, and if that's the only purpose, why?