Thank you for your understanding. I've really enjoyed the mod. While I'm unsure of if I agree or disagree, can I ask which maps you're basing this comment off of? I've been playing exclusively on the smaller maps against a single AI opponent to try to reduce the odds of crashing. Only happens about every 30 minutes or 1 hour or so. Phase lanes take so long to travel I can often set ships to jump and then go microwave a burrito or use the bathroom and still have time to kill before they arrive at the next planet. Perhaps a compromise could be increasing jump speed or adding in research that does it in increments? Please understand this is purely my suggestion and I don't expect you to take it with any gravitas. Originally, research was much cheaper, and was raised due to complaints that it was extremely inexpensive. Though, thinking of it now and looking at what was done with costs, I agree with your sentiment, and when I get the time, will redo research costs again across the board. As for ship costs, the costs are high due to the amount of high income/resource planets around; get a High Terran and you will be swimming in cash, or get a few Crystal planets and you will have a nice ton of crystal to sell off. However, I believe there is room for a compromise. By screwing around with Gameplay.constant's incomeSpeedData settings, income should be much faster. I'd love for you to do a small test of this theory, if you're up for it. I've increased the "Faster" income option to heavily increase income flow; this should do the trick. I think there can be a good middle ground between cheap and expensive. Do you have any particular income speed in mind or just want me to tweak it until it seems more reasonable? I'm more than happy to help you find a good pace. This actually depends a lot on the map. Some maps, namely the entire "Enlarged" series of Random maps have made it so that there are higher odds for you to encounter planets with only ice colonization, and lower militias, as requirements. I've been avoiding the larger maps mainly due to the time they require to play, though I'll have to check these out when I get some time. I think it would be really interesting to see a divide between competitive MP maps and maps intended for single player. It's certainly a reasonable workaround. On the one hand, it's a sacrifice type decision, modules for the economy/research/culture, or ships for expansion. If you're playing Random maps, might I suggest looking at the "Extra Planets" maps? These have you start with 2 extra planets, which give you a little more income and give you more logistic slots. That being said, once again in reference to competitive and quick play, another thing I'll look into is having people start with better planets, either in new Random maps or in the Extra Planets ones, to allow for faster early game expansion, without the long-term massive boost of the Faster income speed option. I think this would be very gracious of you. Personally, I hate having to tweak mods by messing with the speed settings because it often has its own setbacks and distorts the original vision of the mod, also other humans may not want to use that setting and then I'm in a poor situation in MP if I'm used to "cheating" like that. I did end up turning off bloom, but as my partner in crime says, he may be able to help with that issue if you'd like. As for the planets, some of them look very good, I'm only suggesting finding an alternative for the ones where the seam is very blatant. I can't remember which one, but there was a seam on the side of the planet that was very obvious and it really broke the immersion. Some pinching at the poles isn't all that bad, but seams are the thing I was mainly pointing out. I feel like there may be some misunderstanding here, so I want to clarify my statement. I'm suggesting you return to the default skyboxes that are in Rebellion, as they have been dramatically improved since SoaSE: Trinity. I understand if that's not something you're willing to do, but I really think the skybox detracts from the parts of your mod that are visually impressive. I completely understand here about not having them be cruisers, as we have had to make some concessions in our own mod that we can't do much about. I humbly suggest that you at least add some minor abilities that those upgrade points can be spent on, even if they only do minor stat buffs, it would be much less harsh on my OCD to see so many ships with upgrade points just sitting around. I understand if this isn't something you're willing to consider, but my twitching eye begged me to suggest it. I'm sure that you know that these can be a drain on limited system memory. Might I suggest you at least consider using a less intensive effect? I'm going to mention in more detail below, but I can probably help with that new effect, if you come up with an idea for it. Awesome! I'm sure if you have more stuff causing trouble that Zombie can help with it. We brought him on personally for a few things and he's helped us out dramatically with SotP. I'm more than happy to help wherever you'll let me and have the expertise to do so. I spoke to our effects guy, Dhoulmegus, and he's onboard for doing some minor stuff when you come up with what you need. Very cool guy, he is. We've got plenty of bodies, especially for entity coding and the like, so I'm sure we can get you the help, but keep in mind we are working on our mod as well, so the time may come when we're pretty busy again. Might be best to strike when the iron is hot, so to speak. Again, thank you for hearing us out and I hope to keep in contact with you about this. Is there any particular IM service you use, because I'm sure we could discuss some of this in real time much easier. Also, sorry for the novel of a response.