by Hannibal Rex
Sorry for the title, but I couldn't resist.To recap:
In the Eclipse base game, initiative works very straightforward. Interceptors have 2, Cruisers 1, Dreadnoughts 0 and Starbases 4, but those get no drive. The exceptions are the Planta and Orion ship templates, which receive -2 and +1 respectively.
Increasing initiative can only be done through upgrading drives and computers, but these parts only make sense in limited quantities. While you may use multiple drives to strike deep into enemy territory, when it comes to combat, you only ever want to have one drive on your ships. The increased initiative from better drives is bought by a higher energy cost.
Computers work a little differently. It certainly makes sense to use two Positron Computers, netting you +2 initiative. Gluon Computers give +2 initiative each, but unless you have to counter heavy shields, you already hit the ceiling of the Gluon Computer's die roll bonus with a single one. You can add an Electron Computer with no initiative bonus to have exactly the same benefit as two Positrons.
What I consider pretty important is that there are no discovery ship upgrades that influence initiative in the base game. So while there may be an arms race for better computers or drives, it is all above board and goes by the usual rules for technology research. What is also important is that initiative is pretty much the only combat advantage the smaller ships have over the larger ones. And it is very narrow. It isn't the case that interceptors have 4, cruisers 2 and dreadnoughts 0. There's only a single point difference between the classes. And while the bigger ships can carry more than one computer, a single Gluon Computer should be enough for interceptors to maintain their initiative lead, except for special cases as outlined above.
Rise of the Ancients overthrows this fine balance.
You have Flux Missiles as a rare technology. Only one player can ever research them. That player can put as many of them as he wants on his blueprints. It only takes a single one to provide a dreadnought with the same initiative as an interceptor. And while they don't offer the biggest bang for the space, you can simply add more to counter any initiative advantage your opponent may eke out.
You have the Muon Source, Morph Shield and Ion Disruptor discoveries. It depends entirely on luck if and when and how many of those get drawn, and by whom. Which ever ship is upgraded with them will have a significant combat advantage over smaller enemy ships.
I don't have a problem with the Muon Source. Its bonus is small enough, and it needs another benefit besides the external power.
The Morph Shield is an interesting upgrade. The hull regeneration requires additional hull upgrades to become useful, but I think it's fair to say that it becomes about on par with an Improved Hull easily. There's the integrated Gauss Shield. Those two in combination already make for a worthwhile upgrade, but then it has another +2 initiative on top. It's fair to say that the Morph Shield will mainly get used on dreadnoughts, who both cost the most materials, and can be upgraded with plenty of hull points, getting the most out of the regeneration. And with the initiative on top, they become equivalent to interceptors.
The Ion Disruptor is also fun. An Ion Cannon that doesn't cost power, but provides initiative instead. This is pretty much a pure initiative upgrade. Again, dreadnoughts benefit the most. They have the upgrade slots to afford spending one on a weak gun, in exchange for the power efficiency and beating all other ships on initiative. They become better than interceptors with it, period.
Basically, you can't look at the Ion Disruptor and Flux Missiles seperately. The disruptor needs to have some sort of edge over the missiles, so if the latter's +2 initiative bonus is warranted, so is the former's +3. But I'm questioning if that is the case.
The Morph Shield isn't really tied to the other two upgrades as far as I can tell, but its +2 bonus also seems inflationary and unnecessary.
The gist of it is, I'm a bit sceptical if the implications of adding some many ways to hugely increase initiative outside of the drive/computer axis were fully thought through. And +2 is already huge. I'd have been a lot happier if the initiative bonus for the Morph Shield, Ion Disruptor and Flux Missiles all had been reduced by one, with the Flux Missile tech being cheaper (9/7) in return.
Now, I'm certainly not the most experienced Eclipse player out there, and it's entirely possible I'm wrong. It would be very reassuring if a play tester or designer could comment on this issue. Have different values for these upgrades been tested before the current ones were finalized?