Many things to cover
+1BC back to 12 (from 11). Hurts the money races a bit
Since aqua is 8 in order not to allow aqua, demo, +1BC, +100 pop race combo +1 BC had to be increased.
Generally I assign picks value on the basis of the races you can construct out of the picks. This way I allow or disallow possible races.
Farming -1/2 to -6 from -5. I dont think I would ever pick this if you made it -11, so whatever.
-Food is playable, but previously, when charismatic was only -1 it was very attractive to consruct non-repulsive race based on this particular pick (a single moral or food leader compensated your -food negative and further you got only new bonuses). However after increasing cost of charismatic, -food + charismatic combo doesn't show powerful anymore. Btw, you overestimate negative effect of - food.
Attack+75 is 8 instead of 9?
Just to keep previous combo with cash +1 BC.
Right now, its kindof annoying if the negative picks you want to take add up to -12 instead of -11, causing you to take a littler one that actually isnt what you want.
For example, lets say I wanted to take -1 Science (-9) and -Defense (-3), just theoretically. I couldnt do this. If I take -1 science I must combo it with -Ground combat. Or maybe I want to take -Def, -Att, and -Spy. I cant. If I take -Attack i basically have to take -Ground to end up at -11.
Hmm. Generally ground combat negative has much less impact on your performance than -ship defence or -spy or moreover -attack. But if you want to avoid taking -gc when taking -attack, then you could take repulsive.
So what can we do about this?
Make the total negative picks allowed -12 instead.Total positive starting points is 30 instead of 31, so that when you add 12 its the same
And repulsive -6? This will hurt a bit one of the possible non-repulsive set, namely: -def, -gc, -spy, poor hw, but generally it is possible, yes. If you are concerned about - research only, then it is possible to make it -8. Then the effect would be the same as making max negative =-12. Alternatively -research could be max negative straight without need of taking extra negatives. I price - research less than -prod or -cash for one only reason that in x-ways telepathic race gets hurt much less by taking - research than -prod or cash. For duels - research is heavy negative.
I will think about this proposition, but to tell the truth I don't find it urgent.
As for making lucky -1, I disagree. Lucky positively has an appreciable effect, I don't think it should become a prerogative pick for any case. And it does do something even when the events are turned off. For example it has non-zero probability of 'scientific stumble', which gives you not one tech from the tech field you were researching, but the whole tech field.
Thoughts? I think this would allow more flexibility in negative picks. Its main use is that if you take -Attack, you arent shoehorned into also taking -Ground. Maybe you are going for a teleporters strategy and want a different negative.
Hum, I believe when your strategy is teleporters take-over you wouldn't take -attack in the first place. But generally you have the opportunity to mutate and alter your -gc negative to +20 ground combat positive. Since you are already -attack, you don't care about initiative...