I am with
@Lovec Krys on this.
Many people think that there are two squad size models right now - for the tournaments and for the Spire. But there are actually 3 distinct ones:
- City Advancement Level (CAL) - this is a model that ties in relic boosts, AW levels, expansions and research
- Spire SS/catering model - this model ties in CAL and encounter place to calculate own SSS, enemy SSS and catering costs (Spire progression model)
- Tournament SS/catering model - this model ties in CAL and province/star number to calculate own TSS, enemy TSS and catering costs (tournament progression model)
Right now,
CAL model is shared between the Spire and the tournament, and it is very unlikely to be an accident. Any changes here will change the balance of the Spire as well, and I just don't expect this happening at all.
Now, tournament model itself is more self-contained. Progression in own tournament SS is fairly straightforward (the same as before in fact) and is unlikely to change. A few things that I think we may get some movements (as changes are fairly localized) on are those:
-
Base tournament SS based on CAL: this can be adjusted, and it will proportionately scale all subsequent encounters (own/enemy SS and catering costs) by the same ratio. This would be rather straightforward to implement, but is also fairly blunt instrument as it simply pushes down the max possible province without changing anything else, really. All relative difficulties stay the same.
-
Enemy SS ramp up: this is the most interesting one IMO. You can see a chart of enemy SS factor ramp up on my site, but basically by province 30 it is ~2.0x. This is very high, and by Inno's own expectations is supposed to be basically impossible. This ramp up profile is also entirely new and looks to be fairly arbitrary (I am sure it was calibrated to
something). I see no reason why it cannot be adjusted at this moment, those changes would be fairly localized and can be fine grained as there is a whole profile to work with.
-
Catering to SS ratio: ratios between different goods are the same as with the Spire, so I don't expect those to change. But baseline factor to convert SS into goods can be scaled, and that can make overall catering cheaper (or more expensive) with respect to a particular squad size. Also a fairly blunt instrument (a single number), but it can tip the balance between fighting and catering.