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[Killer of Fate]

I feel like Alpha Cores are the only cores that really matter for colonies. Cause the benefit of reduced cost or reduced need for items can be a bit negligible. There are very few fringe cases where that actually matters. Like Gamma Core to be used for the Fusion Lamp. Or maybe wanting to reach that refining threshold. Or whatever... But it doesn't feel like a universal tool that makes managing a colony easier.

So, I was thinking we could up the things a bit. A tier...

Like Gamma Core would give -1 amount of commodities needed and -25% costs.
Beta Core would give the current Alpha Core benefit.
And Alpha Core would give all the below benefits. And the s-mod effect repeat.

Like Alpha Core on military base would additionally spawn an additional patrol.

The issue is that there are some industries that have the repeat of the effect on the s-mod effect.
Like Spaceport with an s-mod just gives even more accessibility.
Would that be an issue?
Eh, probably not. Maybe?


this is kinda extra... I would probably not put this in vanilla. Well, more than the previous suggestion

Spoiler

I also wouldn't mind if Gamma Cores and Beta Cores would have their level increased by 1 when on a ship. Like a swarm of Derelicts with Gamma Cores would have a swarm of level 5 officers with all elite skills instead of level 4...

But then this might be the result of me just experimenting with automate ships balance. And after nerfing Radiant to have 0.8 shields. I wanted it to have more kick from elite skills (I did also nerf Elite skills though back to their 0.96 state, so that could be it too).
Dumb idea, I know. But I find it more fitting.

[close]

Tbh...
This is probably too powerful for vanilla. So... Never mind...

[Bungee_man]

Most players will not have 100 alpha cores, especially not before endgame. Before then, beta cores are a perfectly fine source of cost savings and extra efficiency.

Also, in combat, they are very useful. If you want a swarm of automated ships, you can't overuse alpha cores.

[Killer of Fate]

Most players will not have 100 alpha cores, especially not before endgame. Before then, beta cores are a perfectly fine source of cost savings and extra efficiency.

Also, in combat, they are very useful. If you want a swarm of automated ships, you can't overuse alpha cores.

I see... But what about Gamma Cores?
What's their job?

[Doctorhealsgood]

Most players will not have 100 alpha cores, especially not before endgame. Before then, beta cores are a perfectly fine source of cost savings and extra efficiency.

Also, in combat, they are very useful. If you want a swarm of automated ships, you can't overuse alpha cores.

I see... But what about Gamma Cores?
What's their job?

Same as beta cores on automated ships. Managing costs.

[Phenir]

Putting gamma cores on select buildings (the ones creating the highest demand for a given commodity) can reduce the upkeep of your colony via reducing ratio of imported commodity to domestically produced commodity. It can also increase upkeep if you put it on a building whose demands you are meeting in faction though so you do have to be careful there.

[Killer of Fate]

Putting gamma cores on select buildings (the ones creating the highest demand for a given commodity) can reduce the upkeep of your colony via reducing ratio of imported commodity to domestically produced commodity. It can also increase upkeep if you put it on a building whose demands you are meeting in faction though so you do have to be careful there.

unfortunately from my colony building experience it's not really worth micro managing that just to save a few pennies.
There would be a benefit if Gamma Cores could lessen the chance of shortages. Maybe via consuming less stockpiles. But stockpiles are very binary in nature. You have a ton of them. And they're barely worth anything. So they're super cheap to use.
Or you don't have them. And then it simply doesn't matter.

And colonies are usually built in chains. The game's lore implies that colonies are super specialised and thus find it difficult to deal with shortages. But Refining is super cheap. Mining is something you will just get around by scanning enough planets and picking the right one with the right hazard rating. Farming doesn't really suffer that much from shortages. Cause soil is also usually peak quality. And if it isn't then who cares? You live of infinite food stockpiles.

Light Industry without organics maybe. But you will build Light Industry on a low hazard rating world that is habitable. And those are usually TEEMING with organics.

Gamma Cores would matter significantly more if you just removed the industrialist skill...
Hmmmmmm... Maybe I should do that for my balancing mod? Yes...
That'll make things work.

[Wyvern]

Just for extra fun, there's also an issue where installing a gamma core will instantly reduce the amount imported of a commodity as well as demand. Normally not an issue, but it means that if there's a shortage of something, installing a gamma core won't help (unless the -1 demand reduces demand to zero, of course.)

[Killer of Fate]

Just for extra fun, there's also an issue where installing a gamma core will instantly reduce the amount imported of a commodity as well as demand. Normally not an issue, but it means that if there's a shortage of something, installing a gamma core won't help (unless the -1 demand reduces demand to zero, of course.)

Ah, I saw this recently. I was really freaking confused as to what was happening.
It does however decrease the amount of consumed stockpiles.
Which is quite valuable in my mod where money is sparse.

or at least i hope it does...
Time to find out

>:3
We'll see how this is gonna work with current Gamma Cores

Spoiler

[close]

(funnily enough the code for this was already in the file, I just reactivated it)

this did shrink the economy. And most likely has not affected Gamma Cores being more viable. Though that should be further investigated. Increased stockpile costs. What will come out of this now?

[Sandor057]

Regarding the shortage, I find it really annoying, that no matter what steps you take, you cannot prevent it. Totally agree that Gamma cores are a barely, if at all useful for colonies. They have their use as "friendship tokens" or memey, Glimmer wolfpack fleets, but that's it.

Betas are in a weird place. For colonies, if you want an industry where you can meaningfully put them, you want to do that temporarily at best and then switch them to an Alpha asap. For ships I think there is a good use of a few, but chances are you are going to turn most into reputation or credits.

Alpha cores on the other hand are generally speaking excellent for just about every industry and even for spaceports, stations and such. You won't be able to use many of them for ships and they have a way higher value used for colony stuff than having turned into credits or rep. Unless, of course, when you are at the point of farming them by the dozens. But by then you've practically won.

TL;DR
Gamma and Beta cores are indeed quite underwhelming as colony items. Could possibly use a bit of buffing in that regard.

[Killer of Fate]

I got an idea...

And this is a good one

Make Gamma Cores give current Beta Core benefits

Make Beta Cores give current Alpha Core benefits

you can no longer put Alpha Cores on colony structures. They can only be put as an Admin

Problem solved...

You can use Gamma Cores for low profile operations
You can use Beta Cores for high profile operations
And Alpha Core can only be an admin

[TK3600]

Cores are OP as is. They should all be rarer.

[landryraccoon]

FWIW I agree with TK.

AI cores are busted in vanilla already. They don't need any buffs. If you're in a highly-modded environment where AI cores are somehow not good enough for your colonies, mod in better AI cores.

My argument is that if players pretty much always try to use an item despite the drawbacks, they don't need buffs. I'm willing to guess that in vanilla unless you are RPing as Luddic, you put the best core you have into the best industry you have always. They don't need to be more powerful when it's already a no brainer to always use them.

[Killer of Fate]

FWIW I agree with TK.

AI cores are busted in vanilla already. They don't need any buffs. If you're in a highly-modded environment where AI cores are somehow not good enough for your colonies, mod in better AI cores.

My argument is that if players pretty much always try to use an item despite the drawbacks, they don't need buffs. I'm willing to guess that in vanilla unless you are RPing as Luddic, you put the best core you have into the best industry you have always. They don't need to be more powerful when it's already a no brainer to always use them.

this wouldn't make them more powerful. This would just make Alpha Cores not necessary for industries. The end-game would still be the same. Gamma Cores would just have finally a use along Beta Cores. Instead of the player defaulting to Alpha Cores on industries every time.

Additionally, I wanted Gamma Cores and Beta Cores to be buffed for the sake of Derelicts and lower level Remnants. I wanted the enemy to be stronger.

(But maybe what I actually want is for AI's to have their cores built-in for 1 additional skill and elite skill. But considering they don't do that on their own. Is it immoral to do that to them?)

Or were they built-in?
Like what was the skill limit?
3 or 4 for gamma? Never mind i forgot

[Barba Negra]

I'm in favor of each core having a qualitative distinction rather than a quantitative one, but I believe your proposal (as it stands now) makes the player colonies too strong.

[Embolism]

I got an idea...

And this is a good one

Make Gamma Cores give current Beta Core benefits

Make Beta Cores give current Alpha Core benefits

you can no longer put Alpha Cores on colony structures. They can only be put as an Admin

Problem solved...

You can use Gamma Cores for low profile operations
You can use Beta Cores for high profile operations
And Alpha Core can only be an admin

I agree with this provided AI Cores are significantly rarer. Alpha Cores should be reserved for the most expansive of operations (i.e. colony-spanning), delegating tasks to subservient Betas and Gammas. Colonies being Alphas all the way down and memes of using Alphas as Christmas baubles always bothered me when these are supposed to be potentially civilisation-ending superintelligences.