Back in early GCIII I was totally on the scale speed/research/etc to map size bandwagon.

But I think scaling admin directly to map size from the start of the game would be a huge mistake.

Here's why:

1.  Puts undo emphasis on colony rush.   

2.  would make  tall empires unviable.

3.  Removes the need to balance the opportunity costs of advancement.


Strictly put.     you don't need to colonize every planet or build every starbase now.       Building the ring of a billion starbases to boost every planet is no longer a viable cheese option.



Now, I'm all for having a building or a tech later in game that lets you train additional admins.      Especially if the building on planet does not really do much else, as that forces another lost opportunity cost on the player.


But I think early game, it is important that there is a limit on the number of admin and that the game forces you to decide what is actually best....  that planet/resource over there, or boosting my existing planets???

After going all the way through the beta and now post release, I have yet to build an econ starbase in Crusade.  I do, however, build a lot of mining starbases to grab resources and artifacts.

I  think he means the number of points you get for each admin citizen should scale

I actually like that you have few to begin with, even on larger maps. As Taslios put it, this makes it possible to focus on a tall empire and extends colonization further into the game. I think focusing on administrators should be a strategic decision, and if you have 50 of them, the techs that award administrators become a lot less important. I think modding in an administrator-awarding building as Publius has done is a great option.

I was also thinking about making a capstone tech that does this, too--or a planetary project (like training legions). A starbase module could also be added for this. Extra administrators could also be modded into a ship mission (like the mission that finds citizens).

In other words, there are a lot of possibilities for making the pursuit of administrators akin to other resources--keeping it limited makes these optional rather than pointless, giving players more control over how they play. The key is making sure the other options are equally important to pursue, and so pursuing administrators becomes one of many viable strategies.

You are absolutly correct. Thinking otherwise is in total ignorance of good game design. If administrators are going to be scaled by map size it must be those who comes with Tech.

Should be obvious. Starting with one less on tiny map is OK, but starting with more then 5 on huge is a disaster for gameplay.