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[Wyvern]

https://twitter.com/amosolov/status/1156284571106910209

This is simultaneously neat - and feels like something that maybe shouldn't have just a story point cost; it's a little too... pat and done?  Especially since it seems ominously similar to the sort of experiment that locked off the tutorial system...

Maybe if you have to have a Patrol HQ in system first (to get the necessary sensor readings), or if it costs a gamma AI core that's assigned the task of keeping the cascade stabilized, or... something.  I dunno, maybe I'm inventing problems that don't really exist.

[Megas]

At least systems with great planets but no relay points will be useful.  I guess they are effectively permanent as far as gameplay is concerned.  I doubt they will be used more than a few times per game at most, unless player wants to colonize the whole sector with alpha cores.

Although, it does not say if you can keep adding more points if there are already some.  It could be handy for creating redundant points (more than three) so player can have redundant relays, like two or three comm relays per system plus the other two relays.

[Alex]

I'm actually going to tweak this a bit - on further thought, it feels like it should require some resources (say, a lot of fuel - consumed, and machinery - not consumed), and probably should not require story points, since being able to do this is not particularly overpowered, to the extend that it should be so limited.

(And, this can only be used when there are no stable points. Adding an extra stable point could in fact be a use that requires a story point; not necessarily because it's overpowered, but because it'd let you break that rule. In any case, though, I don't see letting a system go above 3.)

[Alex]

Adjusted to use normal resources...

https://twitter.com/amosolov/status/1156634054118260739

[Wyvern]

Nice!  Yes, this does feel much better.  Especially with the 'can only be used when there are no stable points' bit - a comm relay is kindof a must-have; it's possible to work around the stability penalty, but not getting updates on bounties and commodity prices is just annoying.

[Alex]

Having no stable locations is a bit of a newbie trap in otherwise-appealing systems, too.

You can add a second one using story points, btw, if the system already had one (and only one) to begin with; can only do it once though, so can't go from 0 to 2. Not 100% sure on keeping that, to be honest, might take away from the number of stable locations being a distinguishing consideration. Still, it costs 5 story points to do, so that should hopefully be pretty far from an auto-pick.

[Wyvern]

Even at 1 story point, I probably wouldn't bother with adding a stable point to a system that already has one... unless its existing stable point(s?) are already occupied by irreplaceable domain sensor arrays or nav relays.

Well, okay, maybe to go from one to two stable points if it's a big system and having a nav relay is going to be a notable time-saver for just transit between colony and hyperspace.

At five story points I probably wouldn't bother even then, but I guess that does depend on how the story point supply ends up feeling in play.

[Thaago]

I've scrapped Domain tech in order to install a comm array in single point systems. It feels bad but a makeshift comm array is just better than even Domain version of the other two.

[Wyvern]

Yep.  I've even run into systems with domain versions of both of the others... and had to pick one to scrap to get a comm relay.  Feels bad.  Would spend story point(s) to avoid.

[Megas]

I've scrapped Domain tech in order to install a comm array in single point systems. It feels bad but a makeshift comm array is just better than even Domain version of the other two.

I do that without thinking twice and without remorse.  Comm relay of any kind is too important.  The others are nice to have but nowhere near as important.