Tomasoid wrote on Sun, 20 October 2013 08:54

(...a lot of really good thoughts about JOATs and luck...)

Tomasoid, that was a lot of meaty stuff and I've been letting my brain chew on it for a while.

I think your JOAT argument is based on these two premises:

1) JOAT is usually handicapped by the game rules; let's assume JOAT sacrifices a bit of hab to meet the handicap.
2) JOAT, with his higher pop cap, therefore acheives the same economy with slightly fewer planets than non-JOAT race with similar econ settings.

We must recognize that #1 is not a guarantee. Maybe I would rather sacrifice PGR, take more expensive tech, and/or uncheck the g box. But for comparison purposes, I'm fine with a discussion based on premise #1.

I can agree with #2, given #1. A JOAT with somewhat tighter habs gets same economy as non-JOAT with somewhat wider habs.
...