posted 03-12-99 07:51 PM ET        

1. Echelon Mirrors are cumulative, subject to the 8-resource maximum.

2. Trees will eventually "grow into" a square with a Mirror or Condenser; however, forests cannot be "planted" there. While it makes for some sophisticated terraforming, finessing trees into all those mirrors and condensers, I'm not sure this decision was intentional.
Did you mean to disallow trees on condensers and mirrors, did you mean to fully allow them, or did you mean to give "early, slow" terraforming an advantage over "late, fast" terraforming, which is mostly what the "trees will grow but you can't plant them" feature does?

I certainly enjoy having forests among my condensers and mirrors, particularly since mirrors are cumulative, but I would like it even better if I could plant them instead of having to wait for them to grow!

3. A condenser in a forest increases nutrient production by 1. There isn't really a precedent; some production types don't apply in forest, like "rolling" terrain, while others do, like "Jungle" or "Ridge". A condenser improves a forest; a mirror does not. That seems fair to me, but I'm just asking: Was this intentional?

4. Warning should be given for terraforms which destroy irreplacable specials ("raising" a Jungle or ocean Nutrient Resources square).

5. Random events which penalize should be offset by "exceeded maximums", so that, for instance, a square capable of producing 9 energy units would be cut down to 8 by the Random Event rather than being cut down to 8 by the resource limit, then to 7 by the Random Event.
Particularly important, when the early-game "2-unit restrictions" are in effect, production potential in excess of 2 should count against a Random Event. Getting cut from 2 to 1 is devastating. At least allow the possibility of compensating for it.