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Personally, I like the Design Workshop despite its various faults and quirks, and Firaxis' failure to carry it into Civ3 was a big negative for me (and coupled with the ample supply of ho-hum to bad reviews that I've seen has so far kept me away from it). Liking the DW does not mean that I do not find many aspects dangerous or frustrating, but I have mostly adjusted to it and seldom have any significant trouble with it.
Basically, I like the ability to mix and match and create interesting units and the fact that the build costs are reasonably well tuned to the utility of the resulting units (note that I said 'reasonably' well tuned, not 'perfectly').
Mostly, I make a point of always keeping a few -empty- slots at all times, and especially when a reactor upgrade is imminent, when I would want to have a sufficiently large number of empties to accomodate the upgrades that the production chief proposes. I don't know for sure that maxing out the 64 slots is always a problem, but I think possibly the game has some bugs related to that particular boundary condition. To get rid of obsolete designs which have no remaining units and convert them to -empty- cells, just 'upgrade' that design (some things you might get stuck with, like if you abandon foil-based designs in favor of cruisers, but it is possible to at least minimize what you have left over). 'Retiring' designs also works, but it is said to have nasty side effects, particularly regarding other players in the game, who may lose their units along with you. Sometimes keeping down the number of different designs crimps my style a little bit, but I could use the discipline anyway.
The upgrade costs are not always rational, and you are essentially buying the entire unit over again, no matter how minor the improvement; it is even willing to make you pay throught the nose for things that are essentially downgrades.
While I would not want to obsolete the DW, I would be interested in seeing a 'standardized' improved version of the game, such as seemingly could be made by judiciously tweaking the various parameter files and including the addition of such units that would assist the AI in playing better. Googlie has created a set of guidelines and numerous scenarios where the AI puts up a good fight (at least for a pretty long time) and Darsnan and Rubin have recently put together a fine document explaining much of the Alpha(x).txt file's contents. Many others have done similar things as well.
The main problem is getting a concensus on any particular set of changes.
Basically, I like the ability to mix and match and create interesting units and the fact that the build costs are reasonably well tuned to the utility of the resulting units (note that I said 'reasonably' well tuned, not 'perfectly').
Mostly, I make a point of always keeping a few -empty- slots at all times, and especially when a reactor upgrade is imminent, when I would want to have a sufficiently large number of empties to accomodate the upgrades that the production chief proposes. I don't know for sure that maxing out the 64 slots is always a problem, but I think possibly the game has some bugs related to that particular boundary condition. To get rid of obsolete designs which have no remaining units and convert them to -empty- cells, just 'upgrade' that design (some things you might get stuck with, like if you abandon foil-based designs in favor of cruisers, but it is possible to at least minimize what you have left over). 'Retiring' designs also works, but it is said to have nasty side effects, particularly regarding other players in the game, who may lose their units along with you. Sometimes keeping down the number of different designs crimps my style a little bit, but I could use the discipline anyway.
The upgrade costs are not always rational, and you are essentially buying the entire unit over again, no matter how minor the improvement; it is even willing to make you pay throught the nose for things that are essentially downgrades.
While I would not want to obsolete the DW, I would be interested in seeing a 'standardized' improved version of the game, such as seemingly could be made by judiciously tweaking the various parameter files and including the addition of such units that would assist the AI in playing better. Googlie has created a set of guidelines and numerous scenarios where the AI puts up a good fight (at least for a pretty long time) and Darsnan and Rubin have recently put together a fine document explaining much of the Alpha(x).txt file's contents. Many others have done similar things as well.
The main problem is getting a concensus on any particular set of changes.
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