Some years ago the Horatio (Gene Hunter) bonus for splicing Cravers was changed from a +5% stacking FIDS bonus per pop to being a flat non-scaling +5% FIDS bonus. i.e., a planet with 10 Horatio pops used to get a +50% total FIDS bonus, but would now get a +5% total FIDS bonus. I've finally dug around in the files to find the responsible code, and it seems to be the following lines in SimulationDescriptors[PopulationModifierTraits].xml:


<SimulationDescriptor Name="ClassPopulationAssimilatedPlanetDepletionFIDS" Type="ClassPopulationAssimilated">
<Modifier TargetProperty="BonusPopulationFIDSPercent" Operation="Addition" Value="0.05" Path="ClassPopulation"/>
<!--<Modifier TargetProperty="BonusPopulationFIDSPercent" Operation="Multiplication" Value="$(PopulationCount)" TooltipHidden="true"/>-->
</SimulationDescriptor>


... where the multiplicative part of the bonus was commented out. This change has been bugging me ever since it was made, because I just can't understand the logic behind it. I can understand an argument that it was too overpowered, but surely in its current form it's far too underpowered, being far worse than any other splicing bonus in the game. If it was never intended to be multiplicative, then 5% is just too low. Was this intended to be a bigger change that was left only half-implemented? Was it a mistake that was just never reverted? Why was it changed in the first place?