Some help with a faction set

[Sigma]

Here is the basics for the final faction in this set, the Genome Syndicate:

(click to show/hide)

Every human being spends seventy two hours as a single celled organism,
scarecly different from the first paramecia that fought tooth and nail against
nature's cruelty for every evolutionary edge they could find. It is amazing to
think how far we have come since then, and humbling to think how far we have yet
to go.

 -- Director Jaqueline Navarro,
 "The Terminal Cure"

LEADER: {Jaqueline Navarro}
BACKGROUND: {Western American Republic, Unity Medical Officer}
AGENDA: {Human biological improvement}
TECH: {Biogenetics}

-2 GROWTH:   {Exacting population control}
+2 MORALE:   {Elite field operatives}
1 additional talent for every 4 citizens {Gene enhanced workers}
Free Biology Lab at every base with discovery of Centauri Empathy
{May not choose Fundamentalist Politics}

How's it look?

EDIT: What do we think about the name "Genearch" or "Genarch" for the Faction noun? It's a portmanteau of Gene and the suffix Arch, signifying rulership. Only problem is that I like the sound of "GENE-arch" better but the spelling makes it look like it would rhyme with Research of with "monarch".

[Geo]

Why not Geneart (gene-art)?
After all basic functions are tailored, it's pretty genes that are in demand. 

[ete]

hm, from a balance perspective.. I'd say that faction is likely to be a bit weak. -2 Growth is a fairly notable penalty, making pop booms impossible without a Golden Age (though GAs are easier with the bonus talents), and slowing earlygame expansion a whole lot. Bonus talent and free bio labs are nice, but not a big deal, and while +2 Morale will help a lot against worms and give a solid army, it's not a strong enough pull to make me think I'd want to use this faction over, say, the Spartans who have bonuses which mesh well with Morale. I don't think they need a large boost to be on the same level, another minor bonus would do it imo, perhaps +1 Effic? And maybe adding a bonus colony pod in to help their otherwise stunted early growth?

[Sigma]

hm, from a balance perspective.. I'd say that faction is likely to be a bit weak. -2 Growth is a fairly notable penalty, making pop booms impossible without a Golden Age (though GAs are easier with the bonus talents), and slowing earlygame expansion a whole lot. Bonus talent and free bio labs are nice, but not a big deal, and while +2 Morale will help a lot against worms and give a solid army, it's not a strong enough pull to make me think I'd want to use this faction over, say, the Spartans who have bonuses which mesh well with Morale. I don't think they need a large boost to be on the same level, another minor bonus would do it imo, perhaps +1 Effic? And maybe adding a bonus colony pod in to help their otherwise stunted early growth?

How about I drop Growth to -1 and give them free Recycling Tanks as well as the Bio Lab?

Alternately I could give them a Techcost bonus, which makes thee Genarchs the mirror images of the Technocrats (which makes sense thematically); however would that make them too similar, as both of them have research bonus but penalties to their growth (Technocrats have a tightened Hab Complex bottleneck)? I don't want to give them an Efficiency bonus because the Techies already have that covered and as I said before I want to avoid duplicating bonuses and penalties.

EDIT: Realistically the Genarchs and Technocrats should hate each other because they have antithetical views on human evolution, but the social engineering isn't really granular enough to make that work until you get to Future Society.

[ete]

Dropping the Growth bonus to -1 on its own would be at least enough of a boost, maybe making them just a little a bit too strong with that as the only disadvantage imo. Giving free rec tanks and leaving -2 Growth would work fairly well probably, getting their bases up and running faster/cheaper, but still growing significantly slower than others. Which is fair because they have nice Morale for a strong army and later on have good research.

[Sigma]

Dropping the Growth bonus to -1 on its own would be at least enough of a boost, maybe making them just a little a bit too strong with that as the only disadvantage imo. Giving free rec tanks and leaving -2 Growth would work fairly well probably, getting their bases up and running faster/cheaper, but still growing significantly slower than others. Which is fair because they have nice Morale for a strong army and later on have good research.

Then I'll go with +2 Morale, -2 Growth, 1/4 Talents, Free Recycling Tanks and Free Bio Labs.

EDIT: This means the only benefit I didn't use is +Economy, which I think is pretty fair given how powerful it can be. I think I pulled it off pretty well!

[ete]

Excellent , I look forward to having them all as part of the faction archive and playing with them. I'll include them in games and give more feedback from actual playtesting when I have it.

[Sigma]

You've been a big help and I'll definitely credit you (as well as everyone else) who contributed to this in the txt files.

[Buster's Uncle]

.pcx too.  Always in the .pcx.

[Sigma]

Well that goes without saying.

[Buster's Uncle]

[Sigma]

I just realized that none of my factions have a negative Planet rating.

Proposal: what about if I change the Colonial Authority's penalty from -2 Research to -2 Planet, with the justification being that they are unconcerned with preserving planet's ecosystem? Alternately I could split the difference and go -1 Research and -1 Planet. This means that the Authority won't have their tech growth completely retarded, which is a bit of a concern.

[ete]

If you dropped their Research penalty, none would have negative research, no? -1 each could work.

[Sigma]

If you dropped their Research penalty, none would have negative research, no? -1 each could work.

I don't mind not having every single base covered like that, and it feels to me that -Planet is more manageable than -Research for a faction like the Authority. Having that penalty works for Miriam because she is built to blitzkrieg the other factions, but I feel like the Authority's should play a slightly slower Yang-like game (though I have no idea if this actually would play like this until I start playing), so penalizing their research is more crippling.

[ete]

hm, I agree that Research is a bigger penalty than Planet, but it also seems more fitting. I think -2s need a pretty strong justification, and Colonial Authority don't seem to have a strong enough one for that. Also, having -1 each makes capturing worms possible before lategame, makes FM slightly less crippling, which brings nice variety. Bear in mind Yang has poor research due to the -1 energy per base from -2 econ, that's bigger than the 10% slow from -1 Research until the average base is producing 10 energy.