Icm, 7.0.4.3 - 3.
If you over expand as a Lumeris a militaristic faction like the cravers or vodyani will walk all over you. Because you spent all of your money on outposts instead of ships, Lumeris production is pretty bad compared to Vodyani and cravers and they have to use a bit of dust here and there to keep up until their economy takes off.
Also, using these three buttons, you must dodge hundreds of death traps in the form of spikes, missiles, toothed saws, and lasers.The control system of the game is very well executed.
In the early game as Lumeris if your spending all of your money on outposts then you can't use your dust on other things like bribing minor factions or building key improvements or ships. Mass expanding is a gamble. They payoff is huge though if you manage to pull it off, but it leaves you weak and open to aggression until those colonies are in full working order.
If your Vodyani you want a Lumeris to mass expand because its practically free essence and if your cravers you just don't have to waste time on colony ships to expand. Just finished a Lumeris game and yes, they have a powerful start.
However, I don't think they are OPed with their planet dust purchases because throughout most of the game, the expansion penalty kept my approval at very average levels (around 50-60%). That means even if I have lots of dust to purchase planets, I can't afford to do so without check as the penalty escalates very fast.
Even after I researched the tech to reduce the penalty, approvals still remained average. Not to mention that repairing and upgrading ships is very costly and captured planets do not necessarily have pacifists, meaning you don't always get dust bonuses everywhere.
I also seldom had enough money left for buyouts, which forced me to invest a lot in manufacturing buildings. The politics system is also always hanging over your head like a wild card and I hope it's more clearly explained.Edit: And yes, the colonization cost does scale up. Not to mention the colonization tech that should not have been split into so many techs over different eras, greatly limiting colonization even by the Lumeris. I don't think they're broken for players, but I do think something is wrong with the AI when playing the Lumeris. While I've only sunk my teeth into about 4 or 5 games so far, In every single game they have been ahead of all other AI factions by 100 within the first 3 turns,and a minimum of 400 points by Turn 30. Even when playing expansion focused and militaristic Nations, I can't seem to keep up with them even when i rush colonies from early game as quick as I can. It's as if they have zero expansion penalty, whereas I'm juggling approval as soon as I get over 6 or 7 Colonies due to the (very flawed and VERY limiting) overcolonization penalty system in this game.
While all AI seem to have zero penalty from overcolonization, the Lumeris in my current game has over 25 systems compared to the others having maybe 9, and myself having 12.Something is very wrong with the Lumeris AI right now, whether it's their colonization by Dust, or something different entirely. There is no reason one faction should consistently have that high of an advantage over all other factions. And to be clear I'm not new to the franchise or the genre, I'm an avid Endless Legend player and played Endless Space before as well. Never had this kind of faction anomaly with the other games, or if it did, it was balanced and fixed (like the Broken Lords).
Hopefully this is balanced in the same way. In my current game, on Endless difficulty, 9 players, large map, speed on normal, i'm playing as the Cravers, and I'm abs stomping the Lumeris, because the AI spent so much money on colonization.i played on random galaxy type, and got twin galaxy. I spawn on the upper galaxy with the Lumeris, the Vodyani, the Horatio and the UE.
At around only turn 60, the Lumeris had already colonized around 50% of the upper galaxy, but they barely have a fleet. Me on the other hand, had only 5 systems, but my fleet was already equip with titanium missiles.the Lumeris didn't stand a chance against my fleet, their systems fell one after another, all the way until i took their capital. Only then, the AI mustered a fleet that matches my fire power. But i'm disengaging, because i have unlocked new weapon tech that will make my ship even stronger, then i will come back and wreck them with my new fleet load out.i do think that the Lumeris needs some re-coding, because the current AI is too focused on expansion, which leaves their treasury empty, and do not have enough money to buy ships when it is required.
Also, expanding so quickly in the early game, they take a big penalty on approval. Mind you, even on Endless difficulty, the AIs still get the same over colonization penalties as the player.therefore, not only they do not have a fleet to defend all those systems, they also hurt themselves by lower their own approval rating with so many systems, which in returns decreases their gold, industry and influence generation.