posted 03-04-99 05:42 AM ET        

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I mirror here an issue that was embedded in my 'Look First / First Base Bonus' analysis under 'The Game'.
When you build your first base, you can verify you faction's social growth & industry mods right away, counting the number of cells in each row in the nutrients & production display.
All factions get 10 as a standard rate in standard & bigger planets.
Spartan get -INDUSTRY, so they have to fill 11 cells with minerals to complete a production row.
Hive has +GROWTH & +INDUSTRY, so they start with 9N & 9M rows.

For SMALL & TINY planetsizes, all the factions have things made easier, as the game sets the *standard* rates respectively at 9-cells & 8-cells, both for N & M.
You'd expect to see Hive's row 1 cell shorter also in these cases, but NO, they just have the same rows length as other factions.

That means, in SMALL & TINY planets, Hive's +GROWTH & +INDURSTRY

DO NOT APPLY!!!

What's left then of their faction characteristcs advantages?

Didn't try (I come to think about it as I write this) to change Hive's bonuses, to see if it is a permanent intentional bias or just a calculation bug.