You bring up a good point. I suppose it is unfair that your Traits don't fully cooperate. However, that doesn't mean they're opposed.You are still paying less for Research, which is something all players do, and you still make money off any Research you do.
It kind of does mean that they fully clash once you take in the fact that gains are rounded down. This means I'll be loosing a lot of money.
The real downside is the number of actions you can take per turn, but this is merely a downside for your style of play. You refuse to make any other action besides researching, which is a fairly reclusive action.
I have in fact, made several other actions. They just don't tend to be noticed much.
Only thing I haven't done is building a massive fleet.
You'd play your Trait better if you made Research a secondary priority, since you make a profit on your Research after 20 turns for every Research you make. It would be better if you got a free Research order per Turn or perhaps something to adjust that, but that isn't my decision. It was a strong Trait that paid off a lot in a short manner.
I wouldn't play my Trait better, but I would play the game better.
But at that point, there's no point in lugging the trait around. Might as well dump it and pick something else, which is what I might end up doing.
The thing is, you're not limited from colonizing planets or making ships. These are things you can do right now. Oddly enough, I bet you we'd even save some planets for you if you asked. I may play a character that is a bit of a douchebag, but that's just for fun. You can explore too. You are right, I make more income than you, but I chose a Trait that does exactly that. I have more income now for less income later. Tiruin did the same thing, but on a bigger scale. Just start building stuff now.
Yup, I could ignore the trait. But what is then the point of taking it in the first place.
I think your Trait is brokenly strong, even at what it is now, but not for the same reasons as you. The real issue is that later on, tech costs will be ridiculous, so our 30 income now? You could get that in a couple tech. The issue is you took the Trait too early to be as useful. Your Trait scales, and it will always scale. You could just invest in tech and production now and prepare, and it might work, but it seems like you're starting several turns behind by doing that. But once 100 credit techs or so start showing up, one research grants you 5 credits per turn.
The basic Return on Investment mechanics don't change however. Likely, by the time we start seeing 200 credit techs, you probably have manned colonies which probably produce 30 to 40 credits or more per turn. (Besides, that's an issue with 5 minutes into the future, not with )
So sure, your non-scaling trait doesn't scale, but the basic colonizing game mechanic does. And when I need to get 2 traits to ineffectively replicate the functioning of an already existent tech, what is the point in doing it?
Over scaling traits spoken, the first rate Industry is likely going to be OP quite soon anyway, being , amongst others , a 50% cost reduction of colonization vehicles (colonizing ships have no weaponry, so how much weaponry they have doesn't matter. They either never enter battle, or are destroyed. Besides, the enemy has tons of insta-kill missiles.).
You should be using your cheap research and scaling income to start slightly behind and build a steady lead. And you should avoid comparing incomes, because your income is only 21 credits off of mine. And that gap will shrink each turn, especially if you actually build ships. Your income will increase. It might not be completely cash positive, but your Trait is literally spending money to make money.
21 credits is more than 25% however.
Every game mechanic is spending money to make money. But still, all you are saying now is that I could ignore the trait, and then I wouldn't be worse of if I hadn't chosen it. That's not really a point, is it?
When do you feel that should be cash positive? To me, that feels like a long-term investment. 20 turns to cash positive? Yeah, that does kinda suck. But you are performing an action everyone else does too. You are choosing to focus incredibly on it. Maybe 5% is too small? But it doesn't feel like that's justified in your evidence.
You act like you can't do anything. But you haven't tried to do anything. Oddly enough, exploring and colonizing aren't actions. Building ships is an action. Researching is an action. Those are limited. Exploring and colonizing are movements of ships. If you build ships, these actions are limited only by that number. We Research and build ships. Why are you only limited to Research? Is your character a scientist? Then do scientist things! Send your ships to investigate the Alien gunship! Investigate alien planets! There's one with a weird decaying thing I just found out. My guys aren't scientists, maybe this is your area of expertise?
Exploring and colonizing are both limited actions however. Exploring limited by money, Colonizing by access to ships, and money.
Once again however, your point is still the same. Ignore the trait, do something else. I mean, that is a solution, but then I should not have chosen it.
Assuming your suggestion, Ie, barely any research, I can calculate further results. Assume one player picks friends in low places, while the other picks patents, both spend 50 credits on research, increasing by 5 credits per turn.
At that point my trait will only be a better choice after 17 turns.
Now, if we add the effects of 5 minutes into the future to that, the pay-off only happens after 30 turns.
Honestly, your short term trait should not last that long.
A comparison with the Authoritarian trait is even more damning.