Agreed, great updates, thanks to you and Spock for all the work and... thanks a lot for the permalink to Paia Groject 🥰

@ariallito I'm in :)

Episode 2 is up - you don't want to miss the final (and best) part of our rankings, do you?

https://paiagroject.podbean.com/e/episode-2-faction-rankings-part-two/

Hey, this just to inform you all that me and a friend (Molfo on BGS) have started a podcast about GP - where we cite BGS quite a lot, tbh.

You can find the first episode here: https://paiagroject.podbean.com/

Have fun, and tell us what you think!

Matteo / El Temblo

@teodorhfb The current total, you mean? Showing them is part of the rules...

@pedroskivich Just set a karma limit, so they can't join your games

Hi, happy to see the new feature implemented; it is a bit unclear to me if it affects all games or just the one for which it is implemented?

@Babbuc49 said in Improvement to the auction ?:

There are many ways you can tweak the auction system but the game will never be objectively better than with the good ol' rotation, just longer. It may meet your tastes better, I won't argue with that, but most of the time you'll just be playing a small gambling game before the actual game, and that's perfectly fine, I'm just not intersted in it anymore. Just mind that no auction system will improve your chances of winning a game.

THIS, a bazillion times THIS.

Out of my experience and mistakes, I now realize I could plan carefully for an auction in order to maximize my chances of winning, even with, let's say, Lantids if the mains are "planet types" and "Gaia".

I just don't want to do that (and it's fine if other people want to do auctions, ofc).
I'm definitely with Babbuc here.

@testrun said in Improvement to the auction ?:

What do you think of the idea of the last player setting values, instead of/in addition to rotating sectors? It would cut out the multiple days of "bid+1"ing you mention...

Well, it could work; but, again, it's in the hands of a single player, so... why don't we just play GP as it was intended, maybe adding just the sector rotation? :D

Quick replies: for Lantids, I think ALL of them, and no, it wouldn't make them op. Regarding Gleens, sorry, but "Gleens can already be quite strong" is just light years from my experience. Anyway, since nothing of this will take place, we're talking about nothing ;).

Ok but I frankly can't see how

• give Lantids a normal power system
• make Gleens use qics, ffs
• remove the dang extra ore from Itars

could unbalance tha factions, honestly.

Regarding rules confusion: there already are two rulesets for GP, with or without auctions.

Personally, I think I'm done with auctions; I have enough of people throwing in Lantids just to have other players pick them out of boredom after three days of bidding. It's just a dumb way of spending my time.
If you have fun in clicking "bid x+1 for Ambas" for three days then, great, go for it; I don't, and won't.

This means I won't cross a lot of other players who, instead, play exclusively with auctions; and that, in my view, is a shame.

@FlyingDadBomb not to insist, but Lantids are very strong at federated structures, and literally invincible at sectors :)

@cneessen yup. Just pick Lantids, open with PI +2 parasite mines (qic needed for the red/orange cluster) and go for the eco track 2x :)

@Molfo said in Improvement to the auction ?:

Tbh this is one of the (many) reasons why I deeply dislike auctions. People tend to throw in terrible factions planning on somebody else to pick them, turning the whole process into a desperate competition to the last point for the three remaining factions. This basically adds another meta-layer to the game, which has nothing to do with Gaia Project and much to do with... poker, I guess? Which is perfectly ok but I mean, if somebody likes bidding games they should stick to them and probably avoid gaia-like games.

This, a million time this. I'm done with auctions, also because of many other reasons I can't properly explain here, swearing being forbidden.

Maybe this helps; BGA uses a tier system, which groups players in tiers based on their Elo. Something like:

0-100: new player
100-200: beginner
200-300: good player
300-500: strong player
500-800: master
800+: I AM the game

no, seriously, I don't remember tiers and titles beyond 500; anyway, one can open their games to players their level, or 1 tier above/below, up to 2 tiers above/below, or to anyone. Maybe this would solve these issues?

@AntoineBR you're welcome!

Was it a "Custom location" fed?
Were you able to finalise it?

Because no, it's not legal :)

+1 for Barrage :)

Ahah, don't worry, I replied becaused I overlooked it as well during the first games here!

@Babbuc49 erhm... the balancing algorithm issue is addressed by James in the very thread I linked :P

I agree on your conclusion about the two factions you mention, though: Taklons can easily perform a mad economy, and Itars have the two (inexplicable) advantages I mentioned ON TOP OF the already super strong faction+PI abilities they already have. Actually, Itars are so strong that you can (and often will) win without bothering to open their OP AC1 :)

Still, it looks like there is just no reason for which Ambas produce 6 extra ores across the course of the game, and that makes me mad :D.

In general, I concur with the opinions already expressed here about the mentioned factions.

Let me be clear, though: given the complexity of the game mechanism, I LOVE Gaia Project, and think that the authors, developers and playtesters have carried out a miraculous work of balancing it all. It just looks like there could be a few small tweaks which would make the game even... more perfect :).

A few final words about a "weak" faction: Lantids.
Ah, my beloved Lantids... they look VERY difficult to balance. They have an incredibly strong and unique ability, which absolutely needed to be tuned down a bit in order not to make them uncontrollable. Still, I wonder why -2 starting c and no t income were chosen as their "nerfs"... I'm dolphinly curious about why these decisions were made. Ideas?

@lucasrrr the button is among the "free actions", once you build the Nevlas PI 🙂