Balance is really hard to get right.
Agreed, and it depends what you want for your game. If you want people to be able to play just as well as a trader, a colonist or an aggressor then you need to balance things out for that (I have some ideas, but I'd need to properly sit down and work through them for all the effects they might have). If you'd prefer there to be more wars, then keep things as they are as it encourages people to fight each other (however do something about new player protection). If you'd prefer less wars and more colonisation, then increase the price of ships and number of people per arcs.
I think you might also need to do something about player retention. I've seen loads of planets sitting at level 52 and then get conquered by someone big. Without figures, I'm only going off what I see which may or may not be close to the truth.
I want to allow purchasing of resources on the local market if you have the quatloos (i.e. you'd be able to build as many ships as you have quatloos to pay for the stuff to build them), but I haven't done this yet.
That sounds very nice and I look forward to it. It'll definitely encourage more people to trade (however probably a low impact).
It's what I get for vanity googling.
Have we massaged your ego enough yet?
