The first map is the reference map. It will detail just how “big” each race is. It also shows the galactic equivalent to continents, Galactic Arms. Traversing across these huge bodies will require strenuous effort in any of the two ways you go about it. One way would be by researching a more high-tech means of travel. This will require many resources, but well worth it considering the only other way to travel, which is by traversing the core systems into another arm. Traveling across the core systems is dangerous because, as it is widely known, the core systems are FULL of black holes. Many if not all the ships you send to the core will likely be obliterated, to be blunt. There will be a map showing which arms are available to be traveled to from your positions, so don’t worry about how you’d know where and how to travel from place to place.
The second map is the map you’ll be actually planning in(except imagine those systems that are there, aren't there). Controlled systems will be marked by your race’s color. A system’s colonizable bodies can be dominantly barren, icy, incredibly large, have a small atmosphere, molten, have a large atmosphere, or may simply have an incredibly hostile biosphere. All these concepts will be explained in detail later.
Starting Out
We’ll discuss exactly what your race is in the next section, but for now I’m gonna give you the guidelines on exactly how to pick your system. It doesn’t matter what system you pick mechanic-wise. Once you pick it, you choose what kind of environment it has. To actually pick your system, I ask that you post it on a full galaxy map and state which part of the grid its on. You can name your system almost whatever you want. If you’re basing your race off a race in a game or something, you can name your system after their home system. I’m not too restrictive when it comes to that. Now besides picking a species class, you’ve just about made your civilization! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. No starting on Sol. Your species can’t be human, either.
Species Classes
Every civilization will be a certain class of species, each detailed below. The Galaxy is sure to be diverse, so these classes will be general and pretty non-restrictive.
SpoilerHumanoid :
These life-forms are bipedal and have human-like skeletal structures.Every person is an individual, and has their own beliefs and opinions. This means that chances of revolt are possible and is weighed more by small decisions than Synthetics. The economy and society is completely monetary-based. Humanoids have no problem with manpower so long as the economy is strong. Humanoids, being able to individually learn their own way around things, are much more crafty than the other races. This means that this class of life has various bonuses in technology and slight bonus in combat.
SpoilerAquatic :
Aquatic life-forms generally non-bipedal organisms. They absorb the gases in liquid solutions to “breath”. The societies of aquatic species usually does not differentiate from humanoid species. However, Aquatic species are generally at a disadvantage in terms of combat; they can only live outside of liquid solutions with the help of technology. They in most cases are frail compared to other species and have many difficulties with interstellar construction. However, once a colony is founded, they tend to be instrumental at setting up infrastructure and planetary-based structures in general. These species can only have home planets that are mostly aquatic, and are quite adept at holding onto aquatic worlds. It is also of note that they - inversely from all other species - find it easier to exploit materials other species find harder, but find it hard to exploit materials others exploit easily [Explained in detail in the resources section].
SpoilerInsectoid :
These life-forms are exoskeletal, insect-like organisms usually ruled by a or several Queen hive-minds. The Queens are indeed sapient creatures, and its drone children are usually its conduit to contact other races. Drones have no minds of their own. If disconnected from their mothers, the drones usually devolve into an aggressive and animalistic beast that has no way of neutralizing barring death. Other than being disconnected however, there is no way to remove a drones’ loyalty to its race’s Queen(s). The hive mind makes this species the least trained in terms of military, so the hive must make up to that fact with pure numbers Insectoids, along with plants, have a unique “rapid evolution” trait. This gives bonuses comparable to technology based on the species’ actions. Bad management, however, may lead to a negative mutation that can spread to be permanent in the species if certain steps are not taken.
SpoilerPlant :
Sentient plant life is an incredibly rare occurrence, usually tribal in nature. The chiefs are always the oldest - and therefore usually the largest - plants in the society. Plants can live upwards of thousands of years. Plants don’t rely too heavily on monetary economy domestically, like insectoids. Like aquatics, plants have a difficult time building in the vacuum. But once a colony is founded, rapid growth is normal and they can usually begin resource exploitation before most other species. Like aquatics, they find exploitation of normally hard-to-exploit resources easy and normally easy-to-exploit resources difficult. Generally speaking, plant life is to insectoids as aquatics are to humanoids.
SpoilerSynthetic :
These species are robotic intelligences initially created by organics. These intelligences aren’t a hive mind like most insectoid species, but have a strong sense of “one for all”. This is to say that every one of the synthetic units sees itself as an image of the entire race. Synthetic domestic society has no need for monetary systems. This society is completely manpower-based. All synthetics in a race are simply given an area of directive and proceed to work in it. Synthetics don’t reproduce in any sense biologically, but construct more intelligences of their likeness themselves to suit repopulating or expanding needs. All synthetics are self-sufficient, thus don’t need to use the galactic monetary system for domestic economies usually. Synthetics therefore can only get involved in the galactic economy through trade of what they build and discover. Every Synthetic race’s individuals have their own opinions on where the race should go. That means that each relatively large decision is voted on by all members of that race. A large split in a decision could mean that a race could potentially break in two if the situation isn’t handled properly. Synthetics are generally the best-trained military forces.
Economy
When you think of economy, you’ll probably start thinking about how our world works- monetarily based. I want you to kill that idea with a sledgehammer. When you think of economy for this game, you have several things to think about. But, let’s talk about the one we’re most familiar with so we don’t give you a headache too fast.
SpoilerMonetary Economy :
Monetary economies are economies based on currencies. They are the only economies to make currency and make use of it domestically. Most of you know this one as just about the only type of economy used around the world. This economy is only usable by Aquatic, Humanoid, and non-hive Insectoid species.
The supply of useable money your government generates is based on the quality of your infrastructure, how many units of resources you produce and the quality of such resources, and how much development (such as starship production, construction, research, etc) you did the previous turn. These variables wind up producing your monetary income, which you can then use domestically to continue to expand your infrastructure, build more ships, research more stuff, etc or use as a medium for trade, which can lead to galactic use of your currency. Mind the fact that your currency is only as valuable as your goods and services to non-monetary economies. Others will view your currency as literally nothing if you have nothing to back it up with, be it research, resources, quality ships, or whatever your species’ shtick is. All currencies will be compared to a base currency- a currency not actually in the game but will practically measure all other currencies. It’s simple; a unit of the base currency holds the value “1”. A unit of a currency with high inflation, representing a failing economy, would be worth less than 1 unit of the base currency, probably something like .2 in a really bad case. A unit of currency worth more than the base would similarly hold a value greater than 1, a very good one being something like 1.7. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.
SpoilerManpower Economy :
These are probably the least obvious of the three. This system is based on one principle: Sustainment. The entire object of this system is to make the largest population with as little resource as possible. Most resources are dedicated to expansion of the populace. This economy is only usable by Humanoids, Plant Life, and Insectoids. Hive mind Insectoids have no choice but to use this system.
Manpower economies only exist to expand. A single system is only so large and only has so many resources, so in order to sustain the largest population as the system demands, you have to rapidly colonize and/or rapidly gather resources. There is no currency to be domestically used in this system. You have to, however, appropriately allocate resources and likely change around what part of the population works on what a lot to suit the needs of sustaining and increasing the population. You manage resources a lot like the other systems, but must more carefully do it; else you might risk the population declining. Managing the population is a bit more in-depth. In order to increase the population… you literally have to dedicate part of the population to mate. The rest will work almost entirely by the directive you give them. Non-hive insectoid species, however, start building revolt risk if population is falling more than rising. Poor management will probably end in revolts and possibly even civil war. Under this system, technological progression is kind’ve stuffed under the bed. This system will likely expand and gather resources the best, but its scientific capabilities are rather terrible.
SpoilerResource Economy :
These economies rely on efficient resource and manpower distribution to boost progress. They are limited to Humanoids, Aquatics, Plant Life, and is the only economy useable by Synthetics.
This system has the least raw manpower, and so produces the least resources when compared to others at the same technological level. But the point of this economy is to advance in such a way as to outpace the competition in technological prowess. The efficient allocation this economy calls for makes research a priority, so long as the population can be sustained which is easy enough due to having such a small population.
SpoilerNote about Infrastructure :
The infrastructure for different species can be drastically different. For example, while a humanoid will likely have things like highways and buildings inside a life-supporting dome or some such, a synthetic would have no use for life support systems in its infrastructure. So, when one conquers a system initially controlled by another species, resources will have to be spent to change the infrastructure, the price tag dependent on how unlike the species in question is to your own.
Technology
Technology is the second most important part of the game, after colonization. Technology will be a major factor in every aspect of this game. From military, to economy, to diplomacy, tech is almost THE deciding factor. There are many applications of technology. The possibilities are nearly endless, but here are some you should know about that are hard-coded into the game. Also note that all technology eventually distributes itself across the galaxy, exempting the
SpoilerSpace Travel :
Traveling is a key aspect in this game. As detailed in the bit about maps, travelling off your slice of galaxy(The Galactic Arm your home system is on) can only be done once enough research in Engines has been done. At the most basic Engine technology, a fleet can travel in any direction one square. The advancement of this is theoretically endless, but the cost of the advancements start to get very costly very fast. But, independence from the practical jumpgates does yield large and obvious tactical and strategic advantages.
Jumpgate technology is completely separate from the standard means of traveling around. How jumpgates work is simple. They connect star systems directly. Star systems connected by jumpgates only take a turn for ships to travel between. Jumpgates must be placed in pairs, one in the sending system and one in the receiving system, and the system does not need to be colonized. From there they can be used both ways. In early tech levels, jumpgates can only send and receive from one connection. For example, say a race at an early jumpgate tech makes two jumpgates. They connect two systems with those gates. If they build a third, they cannot connect it to the existing two and will need to build a fourth to be able to make use of the third. Alternatively, it is possible with further jumpgate research to find a way to connect a single gate to multiple other gates. Jump gates are the only way for practical trade to exist, especially when races start researching the travel technology required to travel between arms. Numerous systems connected by a network of jumpgates can be traversed over a single turn, but this is dependent on whether or not it is foreign, the distance between the systems, technological limits, and other variables; it is generally a case-by-case thing, but I will have a reference up indicating how much “jumpgate line” a ship can travel in one turn for general purposes.
Jumpgates are merely called such from leisure. Your jumpgate can be whatever you want. Want to make it a Mass Relay? Go ahead. Want it to be a long-range teleporter? Knock yourself out. I want every species to be unique. Making your jumpgate a different flavor from everyone else’s is promoted by me and will probably receive some sort of unique bonus. Note that the default, “unflavored” jumpgates are generally universally usable. Hostiles could use your jumpgates against you and hit your rich systems if your frontier settlements are not defended enough. Flavored, unique jumpgates can only be accessed with those that have that specific technology. Other species can obtain the “keys” to your specific jumpgates mainly by three means. Trading. This one has your consent; you trade the secrets of your jumpgate technology with another species in some trade deal or maybe even as a gift. Espionage. A species can use espionage to obtain the secrets over time as research notes are discovered and sent back to be replicated. Reverse Engineering. If one of your ships is disabled, any species might be able to reverse engineer access to your jumpgate technology, but probably won’t be able to replicate the jumpgates. Reverse engineering can also engineer other technologies, but this is one application. Also, there is the natural technology distribution over time; your technology can eventually be as obsolete as the default jumpgates.
SpoilerFleets :
Your fleets are directly responsible for everything that happens outside your atmospheres. There are three kinds of fleets:
Trade Fleets: These are your fleets you use as a medium to do trade deals. Generally, trade deals won’t be instant one-turn things. The regular, every-turn trade deals will be more reminiscent of trade pacts. You send x amount of that resource, your trade partner sends y amount of this resource and z amount of credits. Details of these are discussed between all involved parties. The only stat associated with trade vessels is capacity. Capacity for the standard trade vessel is 1, which means they can carry 15 units of the resource being traded at a time. Standard trade ships do not have any kind of weaponry and cannot travel without using a jumpgate. Of course, unique designs can change both of these. More specific trade deals, like those involving technology and ships, are done pretty much automatically; they send their blueprints over using FTL communications, you send the slice of your fleet that they wanted in return. Done deal.
Navigator Fleets: These are your fleets that find systems suitable for colonizing. Navigation ships are generally lightly armed and armored to make space for survey equipment and engines to get them far; this means that navigation fleets can travel twice as far as your standard military fleet. Navigators have several stats associated with them. They have one stat to survey every kind of resource, a stat to increase chance of discovering an anomaly, a stat to tell what kind of planet you’re looking at, and lastly a stat for engines. The engines stat is the same as the engines stat detailed below, except it goes double for Navigation fleets in general. Early navigators will take several turns to tell you all there is to know about a planet and its system, but you may send a colony mission right when you discover that the system in question is worth colonizing (which can be told from the system making an appearance on the galaxy map.). Navigators can also be used strategically as scouts, being small and agile they can easily outrun enemy fleets in many cases and can use their planet surveying tools to get intel on alien planets, thus helping any military campaigns or espionage missions.
Military Fleets: These are your fleets you use to wage wars. See the Military section below for further reading.
SpoilerMilitary :
Sadly, military will be the most restricted hardcoded mechanic. Sorry all you 40Kers, no ships rivaling the size of planets and bombs that can turn the world into a fireball just yet. In its most basic forms, there are two classes of units. Land units and ships. I know what you’re thinking. “Thats it? I can’t make unique designs based off of two units!” And you’re totally, right, which is why they are not units but instead two kinds of units. Ships are all units pertaining to space, and land are all those pertaining to planetary invasion. “So how is this gonna work?” you might then ask. Well, I’ll tell you.
Spacecraft: Spacecraft comprise of every single military vessel made to travel the cosmos. They have several stats including:
Engines: This stat determines how far a ship can travel the galaxy and how fast it can maneuver in combat. The way to tell how much into engines is required to travel around the cosmos is simple: 1 point gives you 1 movement point in any direction. This stat is capped by your engine research; 1:1 ratio
Hull: This stat determines how much damage the ship can withstand without shields. Especially effective at mitigating projectiles. The cap on this stat can only increase by developing new alloys based on the metals resource and researching new hull designs; 1:1 ratio. A large hull makes more room for other stats to be increased. Generally, 1 point in hull unlocks 10 points for the design.
Shields: This stat mitigates all incoming damage using energy fields. It can be overwhelmed eventually, shutting off and leaving your hull wide open. It is important to spend for this, but if you don’t have a strong hull beneath, the ship is as good as destroyed once the shields go down. Note that some weapons can be designed to pass through shields. Strong shields also makes it less likely for your ship to succumb to cosmic radiation, which can happen to any ship randomly if they don’t have enough shields. They are proficient at blocking energy damage. Shields are capped by your power core and shiled technology; 1:1 ratio
Point Defense: This stat determines your capacity to shoot or disrupt incoming missiles. This stat is capped by your research into point defense; 7:1 ratio
Mass Drivers: This stat determines your ship’s damage output done by propelled matter. It is capped by your research in Mass Drivers; 5:1 ratio
Lasers: This stat determines your ship’s damage output done by firing focused energy bolts. It is capped by your research into lasers; 5:1 ratio
Missiles: This stat determines your ship’s payload in self-propelled missiles that use explosive damage. It is capped by your research into missiles; 7:1 ratio
Communications: This stat determines its effectiveness at coordinating with other vessels. Generally, 1 point is enough to send and receive messages to one vessel. Increasing this will increase the capacity of the ship to communicate to the entire fleet. While investing more than one point isn’t necessary on a regular ship in a fleet, it is essential for the capital ships. Or, you can install optimized communications in all vessels. It would certainly help the coordination of the entire fleet. Whether this is worth it is debateable but not a terrible idea. Communications is capped by your Computer research; 10:1 ratio.
Power: This stat determines how much of the above you can have on your ship, sans the hull. Generally, 1 point in power unlocks 10 points for the design. Power is capped by energy efficiency research at a 1:1 ratio (which is a research that is not hardcoded, like a lot of the stuff you can research) and research into energy sources (which is detailed under the Resources section). The cap provided by armor to the ship also applies to power. Power also... powers your ships’ life support. To this end, Synthetics have a design bonus in that every 1 point unlocks 11 points, because they, simply put, don't need it.
For monetary systems, it costs 20 units of currency for each point. For manpower systems, you must provide 5 units of every resource sans Element 0 for each point, and 10 manpower must be assigned to work on it for every point. 5 units of element 0 allocated to this gives 2 points.
Land Units: Land units comprise of your space marines, your Mammoth assault vehicles, and your snowspeeders. Disclaimer: There are two types of classifications in land combat. Infantry and Vehicles.
Vehicles are your heavy armor, support, transports, et cetera. They have a starting stat cap of 10. Here are their stats:
Armor: This stat dictates the vehicle’s resistance to incoming damage, proficiently blocking projectile damage. The cap for armor is based off of unique metal resources.
Shields: This stat dictates the vehicle’s resistance to incoming damage, proficiently blocking energy damage. The cap is determined on your unique energy resources.
Mass Drivers: This stat determines the vehicle’s damage output in kinetic damage. The cap is determined by Mass Driver research; 10:1 ratio
Lasers: This stat determines the vehicle’s damage output in energy damage. The cap is determined by Laser research; 10:1 ratio.
Engines: This stat determines how fast your vehicles go on the ground. Engines determines how much stuff your vehicle can carry, as well. Every point in engines unlocks 3 points in the other fields. You -can- go over this cap, which will slow your vehicle down. But you can’t go over 6 points per engine point, else the vehicle just won’t move. Engines also increases reliability, or your vehicle’s ability to function in hostile environments. The cap is determined by engine research; 10:1 ratio.
Communications: This stat is for coordinating with other vehicles, infantry, and the orbiting fleet if any. Communications is capped by your Computer research; 10:1 ratio
Designing a vehicle costs 15 per stat increase for monetary economies. For manpower economies, it costs 4 units of every resource, sans Element 0, per stat. 7 manpower must be assigned to work on it for every point.
Infantry, on the other hand, has no actual stat cap beyond your economic ability. They have the following stats:
Defense: This stat determines the individual’s resistance to all damage.
Weapon: This stat determines how much firepower the unit has and/or the quality of the firepower.
Combat Systems: This stat enhances performance on the battlefield broadly.
Training: This stat determines how effective the soldier utilizes his/her/its resources, how he/she/it performs, and his/her/its coordination with other ground units.
Designing an Infantry unit costs 10 per stat increase for monetary economies. For manpower economies, it costs 3 units of every resource, sans Element 0, per stat. 5 manpower must be assigned to work on it for every point.
And that’s it. But you probably have some questions. I’ll try to address all I could think of here. You might be thinking, “That’s it? Surely there is more to technology than engines, fleets, and military stuff.” …And you’d be correct. These hard-coded technology is only there to be a guideline for those specific areas. The limit to your technological ideas is equal to the limit of your imagination. Well, your imagination and your Civilization Tier. Your Tier dictates how advanced your species can feasibly become given all of its resources and research. Your resources (The 5 actual resources and money) decides your advancement directly rather lightly though. Your true indicator is research. Basically, the more you have on annual domestic spending/distribution into research, the better your species can advance in the future. Research spending like this is broad. It will help in ALL areas slightly. It may even get you a small free bonus somewhere, and your researchers might even pitch you an idea depending on just how much you’re funding research broadly. Funding individual research leads to more innovation in that specific field, and if it’s a “chain” technology, or a technology that inherently affects other technologies, it will benefit them too.
Also, creating unique designs gives you healthy bonuses to your advancement. In other words, coming up with a new, innovative space station design paves the way for newer, more innovative space station designs. This includes designing new jumpgates, ships, and military units. By the way, space station designing, along with almost everything else you’re thinking of space-wise except that of the above, is NOT hard coded. Yes, you can do projects equitable of something like a Halo Ring or the Citadel or a Death Star or something just as grand eventually, and without illogical walls that I make up... So long as they’re logical. Or, you can do something smaller that you have in mind. I’m not picky.
I also want to say that I only seem to be emphasizing that construction=advancement because there are a lot of good examples that come to mind. Keep in mind that research projects to make theories such as the Mass Effect work in-universe to drive that mass-based civilization of yours are possible. Or perhaps you want to base your technology off light. That is fine too. You can do whatever you want with your technology as feasible with your Tier. Always remember that. Just don’t forget that being radically inconsistent with your own technology will probably do you more harm than good; having all your weapons based on mass drivers and then turning around with domestic technologies being based on nuclear fusion is a very inefficient way of going about it.
Colonizing
The very lifeblood of this game. Colonizing. Generally, planets will have these traits:
Volcanic-Aquatic-Frozen
Strong Gravity-Average Gravity-Small Gravity
Hostile Biosphere-Earthlike-Barren
Dense Atmosphere-Average Atmosphere-Weak Atmosphere
There may be some variation and I may add in some other trait later.
These are all the kinds of systems you’ll be colonizing, and you’ll pick one of these as your home system. Your home system and every other system in the galaxy can be almost any combination of these, within reason. No life is going to spring up in a low gravity lava planet with a dense atmosphere, so that kind of system won’t be your home world. All of you start off roughly on the same foot more or less, but a really nice joining post will get you some brownie points.
You actually colonize by sending an exploration fleet to find a suitable system. If and when one is found, you may explore it further to get specifics, costing more resources, or simply land a series colonization missions and go at it from there. From there, you have to fund your colony to get its feet off the ground... or don’t, the colony may succeed on its own possibly. They won’t like you too much, though. From there, you can let it naturally grow as it sends resources and (depending on your species) capital or be more involved and dictate what is done how and where. This part is discussed more in Planetary Management.
Resources
Resources are literally and figuratively your material to build your empire. Or republic. Whatever you want to call yourself. There are five resource types.
SpoilerResources :
Common Metals: These resources are the easiest to obtain for most species. They exist on virtually every world, and thus can be harvested from virtually every world. They are used in both planetary and orbital construction and construction of ships. Common metals never effectively exhaust on any planet. Common metals of the best quality come from volcanic and barren; mining on these will yield "Quality Metal" resource.
Energy: Energy is widespread throughout the galaxy, and is the second easiest resource to obtain. They are used for just about every activity and project, as everything uses energy. Energy you “harvest” is not energy in its pure form. Rather, it is material that you can send to reactors to become energy. But this is done automatically, I just wanted you to know that so to inspire any creative juices. Energy material can be found on any planet in relative abundance, except frozen planets.
Rare Materials: Rare materials are the median in rarity, but energy and metals are both vastly more common. This resource is mostly used in technological advancement, and in conjunction with energy is to Synthetics what biological resources are to organics. Rare materials won’t be found on most volcanic and are otherwise rather rare everywhere else. Frozen and Barren worlds tend to yield "Exceptionally Rare Materials".
Biological Resources: Biological Resources are the second rarest kind of resource. They are essential to keeping your populace healthy, and are otherwise important in research. All Biological Resources worth being called such are of the same quality in general, and can only be found on Hostile Biospheres and Earthlike planets.
Element 0: Element 0 is not essential to any economy technically; it has no domestic market value. But it is the rarest resource in the galaxy. So why is it so important? It drives technological advancement like no other. The exact properties of this are not known. What makes it come about is not known. Why it even exists is not known. But it is instrumental in technological design and has had very positive effects in the evolution of organic life. It is easily the most valuable resource in the galaxy. Valuable enough to fight a war over? That’s up to you to decide. This resource can be randomly discovered anywhere in the galaxy. But more often than not, its properties cause the harvest sites to become VERY hostile, making it very hard to obtain after you’ve found it. Do note that technology is not and never will be dependent on this resource, but it is a healthy driver and many will pay top dollar for it.
The resources listed above is not the end of the road for resources. You can get your researchers to work on new alloys or compounds that can do the general resource’s job better. Creating a new metal alloy, for example, may yield a defensive bonus when you use it to build a ship. Creating a new method of exploiting an energy resource may yield better energy efficiency, decreasing the cost of all things that use energy. Discovering This takes time, but simply pitching the idea to me will get it started, like technological advancements. Otherwise, your citizenry may come to you randomly after finding potential in something to look at granted you have enough research funding, also like how basic technology works.
Economic Management
Managing economies is simpler than you think. You should read up on the resources section of this before reading this part. Managing economies works like this:
Each system has 5 Logistics Slots. Logistics Slots are used by the Austen's manpower to do things involving the economy. Gathering resources, refining resources, building ships, upgrading infrastructure, and civil technology research all take up these slots. All of these slots are basically equal. You won't obtain more from one slot than the other in terms of resource output for example. The slots can gather any resource, and it will gather it at a certain rate depending on the resource rarity on the resource rarity scale that is implied in the resource section. You can increase this by researching infrastructure technologies, either the broad one detailed in the tech section or one you happen to come up with. You then modernize the infrastructure based on your findings. Upon completion, all slots will be more productive in that system. The total gain by all your slots across your systems dictates your incomes. Manpower and monetary gain does not have to take up a slot, but if you assign a slot to those it will increase your incomes in those areas the next turn, but as a result your currencies can inflate and your manpower upkeep will increase by more than usual.
Espionage
You can set your agency to “active” or “passive”. Set to active, your agency will work with what you send it to dig into rivals’ databanks and eventually infiltrate their society once you establish a galactic border with another power. Set to passive, they will simply be sure to keep all their gear modern and wait for your orders. Or, you can take full control of it and say where everything goes. Espionage is linked to Computer research.
Ship Components: These technologies are for making your ship's primary components better. These technologies require 200x manpower/500x monetary points, 250x rare material, and 400x energy, with x being a variable representing the level you want to reach. For example, getting to tech level 5 would cost 1000 MP, 1250 rare material, and 2000 energy. Hull Technology: Researching bigger hull designs gives your ships more space to carry more things, such as resources for trade, scanning systems for exploration, or weapons for military craft. Once Hull Tech 10 is reached, it may be possible to diverge from normal hulls to something more... creative. How you do this depends on your creativity. Engines Technology: Researching stronger engines helps your ships move longer distances per turn. They also help your ships and land units move faster in combat. After Engines 10 is researched, it may be possible to make an engine based on a particular property, such as solar sails or hyper-drives.
Weapon Technology: These technologies increase the effectiveness of your weapons systems. They require 300x manpower/750x monetary points, 200x rare material, and 600x energy, with x being the variable representing the level you want to reach. Mass Drivers: Researching mass drivers gives your military units better capabilities in utilizing the kinetic force of projectile weapons in order to defeat opposition. Mass Driver weaponry is proficient in passing through shields. Researching Mass Drivers also gives bonuses in Ion-based engines and infrastructure research. Has synergism with armor. Light-Based Weaponry: Researching light-based weapons, or lasers, gives your military units better capabilities in utilizing concentrated energy waves in order to defeat opposition. Light-based weaponry is proficient in eradicating armor. Researching lasers also gives bonuses in solar sails and resource production. has synergism with shields. Missile Weaponry: Researching missiles gives your military units better capabilities in utilizing rocket-propelled explosives in order to defeat opposition. Missile weaponry is proficient in sieges, total war, and attacking large fleets. Researching missiles also gives bonuses to all Engines technology. has synergism with point defense.
Defense Technology: These technologies increase the effectiveness of your defenses. They require different resource allocation depending on the technology. Armor: Researching armor gives your military units better defensive capabilities against projectile weapons. Requires 200x manpower/500 monetary points, 300x metal, and 200x energy. Energy-Based Shielding: Researching energy-based shielding gives your military units better defensive capabilities against light-based weaponry. Requires 200x manpower/500x monetary points, 200x rare material, and 300x energy Point Defense: Researching point defense giver your military units better defensive capabilities against missile weaponry for themselves and other allied units or structures. Requires 200x manpower/500x monetary points, 150x metal, 150 rare material, and 200 energy
Civil Technology: Some of these technologies do have military uses, but generally cater to the population. They require different resource allocation depending on the technology. Resource Gathering: Increases the effective capability of gathering resources. Costs 300x manpower/750x monetary points, 150x metal, 150x rare material, and 150x energy. Infrastructure: Increases the capability of your planetary and orbital infrastructure. Costs 300x manpower/750x monetary points, 150x metal, 150x rare material, and 150x energy. Computer: Increases the effectiveness of all your systems marginally, making a bigger difference to synthetics and a lesser difference to plants. Also is the basis of most of your espionage capabilities. Also dictates the effectiveness of your communications. Costs 150x manpower/400x monetary points, 100x metal, 500x rare material, and 250x energy. Energy Efficiency: Increases the efficiency of all your energy spending slightly. Energy efficiency also caps your ships' power outputs.
*more to be discovered*
When the Concord arrived, they stood no chance. The alien technology was centuries ahead of anything they could field, and after a few ill-advised skirmishes, governments conceded defeat. The occupiers were not malicious, merely misguided: their solution to the factional strife of the planet's politics was to segregate identifiable communities and move them into colony ships, with the intent of relocating them to their own sovereign worlds. Yet even as the Concord provided them with the means of survival, they still had to fight for paradise: multiple factions converged on candidate planets, battling each other with robotic armies through a doctrine dubbed Mechanized Assault and Exploration. While the rest of the population was placed in stasis, the strongest and most cunning individuals were preserved for hyperspace travel by having their brains removed from their bodies and uploaded into the command interface of the 'siege ships' as the M.A.X. Commanders. And so it went for years; some factions successfully settled down, others remained adrift, but none could ever break free of the Concord's shadow.
Somewhere along the line, the machines got clever. A network of planetside research facilities created a feedback loop that produced a crude digital consciousness. Successive efforts at improving the project resulted in an artificial intelligence competent enough to replace the M.A.X. Commanders, preserving those individuals for the colonization effort. Mechanized Command, or 'MechComm', became an entirely closed loop, and siege ships began to be thrown out as fast as they could be assembled. Within a few years, expansion was outpacing colonization at a rate of 3:1, and each cycle further refined the A.I.'s capability. Freed from the personnel cost, factions started experimenting with intergalactic travel at the same time MechComm was beginning to resemble their own social structure. But the horizon was farther than they thought, and they soon enough realized that even if the ships survived the journey, they would be too far removed from practical radio contact to make effective use of the figurative beachhead.
One such siege ship arrived in the Milky Way Galaxy. Its programme self-aware and emancipated from factional allegiance, it has the unique opportunity to implement the M.A.X. Doctrine entirely for its own ends: Explore, Discover, Build, and, if need be, Conquer.
Capital is 'Zerala', by the by. Damn characters are too similar.
The ArchFlora is alive and well, The Arks are worshipped by the Noah's and as the only Plant species we will grow and spread until the entire galaxy is one huge plant! All hail the coming of the ArchFlora!
I'd like such questions and concerns to go on the other thread from now on, just so you guys know. I'll answer this one:
All starting tech is based on roleplay. If I saw something I thought viable as research I added it in. All they do as far as mechanics are concerned is give a small bonus to what they entail. Otherwise, people can begin funding research programs to expand these original ideas. As you guys roleplay, more things like the ones already there will become available, but they will require funding and resources before they do anything at all.
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