Combat mechanics

[Nexii]

I found though that PSI weapon would vastly outclass native once available, as you can put on 2 abilities and a faster chassis.  And arguably stronger defense as well with standard armor.  But I do agree that +move for native might not make as much sense, but you could say the same of standard troops too.  An Elite Needlejet isn't going to have more fuel or go any faster, for example.  Actually I think generally higher morale bonuses per level (and a bit higher again for native) might work out better than +move at Elite for anything.  Starting morale at 0% (Very Green) and something like 15%/level on standard and 20%/level on native might be better - a thought anyways.  Unintuitively +IND has more impact for war than +MORALE.

Singularity cruisers at 14 is pretty fast, yea.  By then Needlejets/Gravship/Copter can move 16 though.  Over sea there's no roads or monopoles, and fungus slows things a lot usually, and the routes usually aren't as direct as by air.  I think it'd be pretty fair.  But I think it's more keeping it relative to air (a bit slower, but fast enough to have some chance).  I was also thinking the sea speeds would have to go up if land raising was more difficult.

And for tanks yea 7 move is also pretty fast, but I think by that point in technology a tank really would be about that much faster than infantry, if not more.  Probably even with today's technology a tank division can move 7x or more faster than soldiers on foot (on flatter terrain)

For infantry, not too sure on reactors.  Perhaps something else like increased heal rate (+10% HP/turn/(reactor-1)) or nothing at all.  I agree that logically infantry wouldn't really use a reactor, it's not a vehicle.  That's if you take the viewpoint of reactors being there to power the chassis and not the weapon/armor systems. 

[Yitzi]

I found though that PSI weapon would vastly outclass native once available, as you can put on 2 abilities and a faster chassis.  And arguably stronger defense as well with standard armor.

Plus, of course, that it's a lot easier to boost morale.

On the flip side, I think PSI weapon units are generally more expensive than the corresponding native life units.

But I do agree that +move for native might not make as much sense, but you could say the same of standard troops too.  An Elite Needlejet isn't going to have more fuel or go any faster, for example.  Actually I think generally higher morale bonuses per level (and a bit higher again for native) might work out better than +move at Elite for anything.  Starting morale at 0% (Very Green) and something like 15%/level on standard and 20%/level on native might be better - a thought anyways.  Unintuitively +IND has more impact for war than +MORALE.

Hmm...making the effect per morale level different from Disciplined should definitely be doable, as would flags to enable/disable bonus movement for elite (probably treating land, sea, air, and native each independently).

Singularity cruisers at 14 is pretty fast, yea.  By then Needlejets/Gravship/Copter can move 16 though.  Over sea there's no roads or monopoles, and fungus slows things a lot usually, and the routes usually aren't as direct as by air.  I think it'd be pretty fair.  But I think it's more keeping it relative to air (a bit slower, but fast enough to have some chance).  I was also thinking the sea speeds would have to go up if land raising was more difficult.

I think a rough goal of air=2Xsea, sea=2Xmobile land is a good way to go...and that's served fairly decently with air=8+2*reactor, sea=4 or 6+reactor, mobile land=2 or 3+reactor/2.

And for tanks yea 7 move is also pretty fast, but I think by that point in technology a tank really would be about that much faster than infantry, if not more.  Probably even with today's technology a tank division can move 7x or more faster than soldiers on foot (on flatter terrain)

By that logic, air should be far faster than that...and that'd break the game.  I think even having 7-move tanks would be fairly game-breaking, as it'd weaken the advantage of air over land by too much.

However, I plan to make it moddable anyway, so I figure we can experiment and see what works.

For infantry, not too sure on reactors.  Perhaps something else like increased heal rate (+10% HP/turn/(reactor-1)) or nothing at all.  I agree that logically infantry wouldn't really use a reactor, it's not a vehicle.  That's if you take the viewpoint of reactors being there to power the chassis and not the weapon/armor systems.

Sort of difficult to say it's the weapon/armor systems, as most armors and some weapons don't need that sort of power.  (I refuse to believe that your typical scout patrol is going out there with a nuclear-powered gun.)

Increased heal rate is an idea, but I don't think it would be good for the game.

[Nexii]

Late game there's Nano Factory for full heal every turn, and I wouldn't say that one's an imbalancing SP.  I don't think heal is a huge bonus but it's probably also not thematic for infantry.  At least not with the default power-based type reactors.  If they had bioreactor types (that would help to survive the anoxic environment and medical regen) it'd maybe make a little more sense.  So I'd lean more to reactors doing nothing for infantry.  Infantry scale well enough also due to cost factor being less on cheaper units (since its a % mod).  As noted monopole, drop, amphibious all negate a decent portion of their mobility problems too.

7 or so move for tanks might not be so overpowering.  Similar to choppers they would lose a lot of their move speed after their first battle.  They still get countered pretty hard by cheap ECM infantry.  While checking this I also noted nanocells don't work as they should for movement (its 2 flat for air, 0 sea, 1 land, says it should be 2*reactor for air).  Which would be pretty powerful, if it was.

PSI weapon can be modded more expensive.  Default costing models had Locusts at about double the cost of PSI Copters, Gravship, Needlejet (100 vs 60).  In my costing I put Locusts down to 40 minerals, Gravship to 50 (any weapon including PSI).  It was more that Locusts always get stuck at move: 6 while other Air units just get faster and faster.  Same goes for all native life really. 
Native life could also get a movement bonus at certain techs, would that be more thematic than at a lifecycle rank?  Or possible?

[Yitzi]

Late game there's Nano Factory for full heal every turn, and I wouldn't say that one's an imbalancing SP.

True; I'd be more concerned about a 40% heal rate making the Nano Factory underpowered than imbalancing the game by itself.

But making the Nano Factory underpowered is still not good for the game...

I don't think heal is a huge bonus but it's probably also not thematic for infantry.  At least not with the default power-based type reactors.  If they had bioreactor types (that would help to survive the anoxic environment and medical regen) it'd maybe make a little more sense.  So I'd lean more to reactors doing nothing for infantry.  Infantry scale well enough also due to cost factor being less on cheaper units (since its a % mod).  As noted monopole, drop, amphibious all negate a decent portion of their mobility problems too.

True.  So I think perhaps it's best with this to make reactor irrelevant to combat (except for missiles) and to price, and have the effect be purely on speed, with no effect on infantry.  Which will nerf fusion to a strong but not super-strong tech, quantum power to medium-strength, and singularity mechanics to a somewhat weak tech (except for the progenitors, of course.)

7 or so move for tanks might not be so overpowering.  Similar to choppers they would lose a lot of their move speed after their first battle.  They still get countered pretty hard by cheap ECM infantry.

They'd still be really strong when going after soft targets (formers and so on).  More to the point, they'd make air units (with all the weaknesses associated with them) far less useful.  It could be balanced, I think, but only by changing a lot of things.

While checking this I also noted nanocells don't work as they should for movement (its 2 flat for air, 0 sea, 1 land, says it should be 2*reactor for air).  Which would be pretty powerful, if it was.

Yeah, though by default it's for land units only anyway.

PSI weapon can be modded more expensive.  Default costing models had Locusts at about double the cost of PSI Copters, Gravship, Needlejet (100 vs 60).  In my costing I put Locusts down to 40 minerals, Gravship to 50 (any weapon including PSI).  It was more that Locusts always get stuck at move: 6 while other Air units just get faster and faster.  Same goes for all native life really. 
Native life could also get a movement bonus at certain techs, would that be more thematic than at a lifecycle rank?  Or possible?

It should be possible; there are 9 tech flags, and while it's possible to set something up with room for exactly 9 flags, it's a real hassle and not something a normal compiler would do; instead, it presumably has room for 7 more flags, so I can assign those to other stuff; "increases terraforming speed by 50%" and "increases native life movement" (using the same rate as the corresponding reactor) both seem good choices.

[Nexii]

Yea, though fusion and quantum will get more important (for the Lab facility) with a tech cost curve revisement.  Fusion also is a pre-req for Fusion weapon and Super formers, both of which are really good.  Singularity has the quantum converter SP which is really powerful.  But yea, some of this isn't really true right now because late techs/SPs have very few turns to be effective.  I'm sure it would be more work but you could have separate variables for +move from fusion, quantum, singularity (if say you wanted singularity to be more move than previous reactors).

Air still has a lot of advantages over fast land (applies ZOC and ignores ZOC, protecting all units under unless the attacking unit has SAM).  Air also has further move, and can combat sea unlike rover/hover.  I did find when Air got to about 3x the cost of infantry, it wasn't as worth it.  For same continent war, rover/hovertanks should probably dominate over air as the primary unit.  Air's more for support in sea war, air is also good vs native life and for emergency defense.  Air can also usually avoid collateral damage more easily.

[Yitzi]

Singularity has the quantum converter SP which is really powerful.

You're thinking of Controlled Singularity; I'm referring to Singularity Mechanics, which just gives the reactor, the subspace generator, and is a prerequisite for Controlled Singularity.

I'm sure it would be more work but you could have separate variables for +move from fusion, quantum, singularity (if say you wanted singularity to be more move than previous reactors).

That'd be a lot of extra space for not much benefit; it'd be a better approach to just allow reactor strengths to be modded, and then singularity could have more than 4 strength.

Air still has a lot of advantages over fast land (applies ZOC and ignores ZOC, protecting all units under unless the attacking unit has SAM).

Firstly, that last point is needlejets only...and applying ZOC isn't as impressive for non-needlejets because they can be attacked anyway.  And by the point this is a concern, SAM will likely be common enough that it's not such a big advantage anyway even for needlejets.

Air also has further move

Not by that much; a 7-move hovertank would move farther on roads (never mind magtubes) than air.

and can combat sea unlike rover/hover.

True, but that is also somewhat limited.

For same continent war, rover/hovertanks should probably dominate over air as the primary unit.

I'm concerned that under your proposal, air wouldn't even get a notable support role except when there's a substantial amount of naval action.