loosely inspired by this thread

Intelligence is a stat that is used for a lot of stuff in CE, but at this point in time, it is maxed out early in the game and never looked back at. I think int cap increases could be used creatively to spice up the game a bit.

For this sake, I have a few potential ideas on how an increase could be done without making it too OP.

University courses and prestige:

My first idea is inspired by another part of the game, and that is the prestige levels seen in jobs. For this idea I imagine you being able to prestige to increase your int cap by 50 for each prestige level. Each prestige level would be locked behind a university course in a new degree, and you would need to have both finished the course and reached the current int cap before being able to prestige your int. My idea would be that you keep your starting int and int gained from courses, (just so it doesn't become the meta to leave a bunch of courses undone because you need the int later, and this would suck for older players who have already done all the int gaining courses otherwise), but otherwise start from scratch.

Giving rep a better rep

My 2nd idea would be to hide int cap increases behind either rep targets or level targets, could work in the same way as production where your int cap increases at different rep targets, either with something like +50 int cap for each million rep, or spread out like +1 int cap per 20k rep until you meet a new max at some point. It could also instead work more exponentially, for instance, hidden behind a level requirement, in this way, it could be +50 int cap per every 20 levels (to my knowledge, this would get you the first 100 after just about 500k rep, but you would need close to 4m for the next +50). For the hidden behind level idea, I think it should be the shown level instead of just having hit the level requirement, since I've heard a bunch of people don't want to level up because you only get more hp.

I personally really like the idea of giving rep more use in the late game, since it seems like people often just leave it be to grow passively through jobs once they've got a decent income.

Mix and Match

The former 2 ideas could be mixed in several ways, you could use the 1st idea but also have a level or rep requirement either before you can prestige or as a course requirement. Or you could remove the course idea, and just have prestiges with a level or rep requirement. Or you could just use the courses to unlock +50 int caps with a level or rep requirement to start the courses.

The thread I linked to at the start has received more dislikes than likes, but that doesn't necessarily mean all parts are bad. They had some ideas of stuff to unlock when your int reached certain levels, and some of those ideas might be interesting to add somewhat coupled to int, since it makes sense to gain new abilities as you get smarter. This could be done with my ideas either by adding them to courses, or by putting them behind level or rep requirements.

Another thread which could be relevant is this one, which introduces a new estate past the PE. This allows you an increased int cap through upgrades as well. The reason I think this could be relevant is mainly because I like round numbers, and by the use of my idea and a new estate, it would make sense to set the new max cap with all upgrades at 1.5k.

Since this suggestions thread technically holds multiple ideas, I'd like to hear both what the community thinks of my ideas, which version is your favourite, and what tweaks or changes you would prefer to make an even better suggestion.

Overall not a bad idea, and personally I really like the reputation part,but I'm quite worried that those newbies will be harder to catch up if we increase the int cap that fast tho, and +50 int cap each course is a bit too high for the current 1.2k maximum int cap.

About the first post you linked, half of the reason he got that much dislike is just because of he is a notorious, feral-fox type mugger, as well as having a really high ego :p

Anyway, R+

I like the idea 👍