Suggesting minor Balance Changes
Stardock Forums
Claims
https://puu.sh/zIcJA/89d4e554b5.png
An extra Claim can potentially be really good if you look at the image above. If that set extra Claim is making an average of 120/s throughout the game then after 4,5 Sols the claims already made over 100k, which is basically 4 stocks/1 offworld/1 patent lab with a few patents etc.
If you know the potential of an extra claim then you would always lean to found last or third in a 4FFA, because of what the extra claim can give you. Furthermore, if there are Claims on the blackmarket then you almost always want to found last (or third). Because you will get an extra claim from founding third or fourth and you will get first acces to the blackmarket, which means you can buy a claim from the Blackmarket resulting in having 2 extra claims. the potential profit of 2 extra claims over your opponent(s) is huge. It basically gives you the ability to go into another market early on.
Besides almost every player even the top level ones don't count who got the extra claims. What most players will think is that the player which is an upgrade ahead is the biggest threat meaning that that player will most likely be attacked by an blackmarket item, slowing that player down a lot. And even if the player with the extra claims gets attacked, depending on what the blackmarket item is, he would most likely have 2-3 tiles disabled for a small period of time, meaning that the Player that got attacked still has even (or -1) amount of buildings working as the Player who attacked that player, which doesn't really slow down the player that got the extra claims.
What might be an idea to tackle this "problem", is to change the blackmarket cooldown for getting a bribe a claim from 60s to 90s. What this does is 1. that one player doesn't get the majority of the bribe the claims, 2. aggressive blackmarket items are worth more early on and 3. in some way it makes auction a tile more desirable(60s cooldown).
Also I would suggest of changing the founding bonusses from.
https://puu.sh/zIdG3/7cbd0eece3.png
to
https://puu.sh/zIfd5/a1cfbde0ee.png
Why? Cause nowdays everyone with the highest chances of winning are the ones that found third or last. (because of the potential of the extra claim and slowrolling strategy). The RNG maps of today makes it so that 90% of the time there are enough founding spots for every player that is playing. So by equaling the amount of claims everyone will get there should be less of a incentive to found last. Players will start "bidding" for certain founds again with higher debt costs. There is still a benefit in founding last cause you get the extra claim on HQ2 and not on HQ4 or 5, which basically mean you have an extra claim for 2-3 Sols over your opponent(s).
Pirates
Please buff it from 200 units to 400 units. The Return from what you are getting from pirates is really low which is why no one uses it except when every other blackmarket item is 50k+. Mules are twice as better than pirates, Claims gives you a permanent resource and while aggressive blackmarket items gives you a much bigger return.
