I have to disagree with some of these points, as well as the previous message.
I don't mean this as any sort of personal offense to anyone, but if you need an error checker, then create one. I'm not a programmer, so I couldn't pursue it that way, but I ended up creating a spreadsheet in excel to verify my production resource needs, including PRO and AUT/USK. I also have one to verify adequate CNW and TPT capacity. Sure, it takes a while to enter the data, and for some reason, I haven't been able to get the resource needs exact, but it puts me in the ballpark.
For the other points:
1 - 1 one week turn around would knock me out of the game due to my amount of time commuting.
2 - I had this feeling too. I don't regret my start, but certainly see ways to improve it in hindsight. I'd love another test game.
3 - They do seem to be going up much faster than in the previous playtest game, but I don't know about going exponential.
4 - Challenging enough without adding that in. Interesting idea, but we're not creating a simulation. Also, as FCT TLs go up, groups may get smaller just due to a lack of need to so much output.
5 - Colonizing is already slow enough. Don't want to make it slower.
6 - Heavily disagree here. If anything, hydroponic farms are a form of LFS, as they add oxygen and humidity to the environment. Again, this isn't meant to be a simulator. If I were to suggest anything, it would be the opposite - eliminate FOOD and FRM and the 5-turn cache. But, that would be changing the basic game mechanics, which I disagree with doing, so I don't suggest it. FOOD and CNGD do serve as the driver for malcontents and rebels, police and SAGs, and I haven't thought of a better way to do that.
7 - there is. You could use STR-2 instead of LTS/SLS, and you could pack your ship with FOOD.
8 - fighters can exist, but the combat formulae don't permit them to be effective.
9 - It's a great game, do we need to change it?
I don't mean this as any sort of personal offense to anyone, but if you need an error checker, then create one. I'm not a programmer, so I couldn't pursue it that way, but I ended up creating a spreadsheet in excel to verify my production resource needs, including PRO and AUT/USK. I also have one to verify adequate CNW and TPT capacity. Sure, it takes a while to enter the data, and for some reason, I haven't been able to get the resource needs exact, but it puts me in the ballpark.
For the other points:
1 - 1 one week turn around would knock me out of the game due to my amount of time commuting.
2 - I had this feeling too. I don't regret my start, but certainly see ways to improve it in hindsight. I'd love another test game.
3 - They do seem to be going up much faster than in the previous playtest game, but I don't know about going exponential.
4 - Challenging enough without adding that in. Interesting idea, but we're not creating a simulation. Also, as FCT TLs go up, groups may get smaller just due to a lack of need to so much output.
5 - Colonizing is already slow enough. Don't want to make it slower.
6 - Heavily disagree here. If anything, hydroponic farms are a form of LFS, as they add oxygen and humidity to the environment. Again, this isn't meant to be a simulator. If I were to suggest anything, it would be the opposite - eliminate FOOD and FRM and the 5-turn cache. But, that would be changing the basic game mechanics, which I disagree with doing, so I don't suggest it. FOOD and CNGD do serve as the driver for malcontents and rebels, police and SAGs, and I haven't thought of a better way to do that.
7 - there is. You could use STR-2 instead of LTS/SLS, and you could pack your ship with FOOD.
8 - fighters can exist, but the combat formulae don't permit them to be effective.
9 - It's a great game, do we need to change it?